iPhone XS How bad or good is a factory reset for the phone?

[hewastl286]

How bad or good is a factory reset for the phone? (when all data and documents are removed and the iphone is setting up as a "new" iphone)
Are there any negative aspects?

What are the positive aspects? --> More speed? maybe a better battery life because the phone has not so much things to load?


do you often reste your phone?

 

[Lekro]

I feel the need but I resist as much as I can. This is a thing we carry since the old Windows days (Windows rot) as a bad habit now.

There are cases when it helps, sure, but most of the time it is a placebo and serves nothing more than a peace of mind. But again, sometimes that is all that’s needed…

There are people carrying their original backup year after year and never see an issue.

 

[firedept]

I only factory reset when I am selling a phone. Otherwise I have only ever backed up from phone to phone over the years. On occasion removing what I no longer need or use.

As for resetting a phone I see no issues with it. Yes it might help speed and battery life. But if you are not seeing significant issues now, then you most likely would not see the difference.

 

[Shirasaki]

I’d say factory reset your iPhone often May have impacts on NAND flash lifecycle. SSD would need some write options etc and garbage recycling. Also as soon as stuff is loaded (few if any people never install a single app on their iPhone right? Lol), we might as well be back to square 1. With local machine learning apple has touted in the past few years, factory resetting may have impact on those stuff as well, although I Don’t know the details, just guessing.

I only reset when my device has serious problems. Otherwise just carry over.

 

[C DM]

It's neither bad or good, just a tool to use if/when needed basically. If there are issues that can't be resolved through other means or if you are no longer using the device and might be passing it on to someone then it can be useful to use it.

 

[now i see it]

When a persistent odd behavior manifests on an iPhone and a hardware fault can not be identified, Apple repair technicians have been known to recommend nuking the iPhone- reset as new.
A reset as new is the last resort to try to fix a problem, and occasionally it does.

 

[ericwn]

When a persistent odd behavior manifests on an iPhone and a hardware fault can not be identified, Apple repair technicians have been known to recommend nuking the iPhone- reset as new.
A reset as new is the last resort to try to fix a problem, and occasionally it does.

Good point in my opinion, thanks for bringing that up. I think the underlying logic with resetting to factory settings is: if I only install the latest OS, don’t add any data (no Apple ID, no apps, no backup restored, just an empty new phone) and I run into a reproduce-able error, it’s probably a hardware issue.

 

[hewastl286]

I’d say factory reset your iPhone often May have impacts on NAND flash lifecycle. SSD would need some write options etc and garbage recycling. Also as soon as stuff is loaded (few if any people never install a single app on their iPhone right? Lol), we might as well be back to square 1. With local machine learning apple has touted in the past few years, factory resetting may have impact on those stuff as well, although I Don’t know the details, just guessing.

I only reset when my device has serious problems. Otherwise just carry over.

just for my understanding: so it can have an bad impact of the flash memory?

 

[robbieduncan]

just for my understanding: so it can have an bad impact of the flash memory?

If you did it every day you might wear out the NAND flash after a few years. Doing it once or twice/infrequently will cause no issues

 

[hewastl286]

so the most think, there is not really a positive aspect of setting the iphone up as new.
there are more negativ things, like installing every app, every setting as new.
only there is a serious problem, like its the last way out.

 

[Shirasaki]

just for my understanding: so it can have an bad impact of the flash memory?

Frequent massive writing activities can wear off NAND flash memory faster than necessary. I have no idea how exactly Apple‘s reinstalling iOS works, but I‘d guess it will still bring some impacts to NAND flash nonetheless.
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so the most think, there is not really a positive aspect of setting the iphone up as new.
there are more negativ things, like installing every app, every setting as new.
only there is a serious problem, like its the last way out.

Yep, pretty much the last resort.

 

[Lekro]

You would have to write terabytes of data every day to wear it out in years.

 

[rui no onna]

You would have to write terabytes of data every day to wear it out in years.

If you actually write terabytes of data a day, you could wear out an SSD in one year depending on capacity.

The Samsung 970 Evo/Evo Plus have write endurance ratings of 150TB/300TB/600TB for 250GB/500GB/1TB respectively. Granted, those are for warranty purposes and I think Samsung's assuming 10x write amplification.

That said, I don't think a factory reset every now and then matters much to NAND flash in the grand scheme of things. If one doesn't mind the hassle of setting up the device as new, that's better than backup/restore since you avoid restoring crud and junk apps from the old backup.

I'm lazy though, so I've just been using the same backup carried over from the OG iPhone.

 

[ian87w]

How bad or good is a factory reset for the phone? (when all data and documents are removed and the iphone is setting up as a "new" iphone)
Are there any negative aspects?

What are the positive aspects? --> More speed? maybe a better battery life because the phone has not so much things to load?


do you often reste your phone?

I don't usually factory reset my existing phone, unless I'm planning to sell it or use it for another purpose with a completely different account.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I try not to factory reset unless I'm setting up a new phone. I generally start a new phone from scratch, but more as a housekeeping thing rather than a desire to improve speed or functionality. I like that it forces me to go through all the settings again and dumping apps I no longer use.