Necessary to reset phone after every update?

[devlin525]

I know it is necessary to reset after an update. But is it necessary to do it every after an update?

I'm not really sure how to put it properly but I hope you guys get it :/

 

[saurabh7890]

Not necessary. I have never reset my phone. My phone came with Windows 8.1 and now iam on Windows 10 with the build .420 , its working fine.

Lumia 532

 

[RumoredNow]

Moved to appropriate area...

Windows 10 Mobile How-To Guides is for write ups of prepackaged solutions... Not for leading questions on issues not yet resolved.


My take on it... Reset after upgrade, but not required after update.

 

[wgrs]

Only one hard reset recommended when going WM8 to WM10.

Otherwise, hard resets are forum voodoo. Don't believe everything you read here.

 

[greedo_greedy]

It is only recommended to do a hard reset once, this was done when upgrading from Windows Phone 8 to Windows 10 Mobile.
This is to purge the OS of any remaining system files from Windows 8 that may be interfering with Windows 10.

With minor updates though, I've not performed a hard reset since build 10586.36 and have not had any show stopping issues since.

 

[Giddora]

Hard resets are usually good if you run into problems or if you want to start from scratch. There is no requirements to do any hard resets if something is not obviously wrong.

There were times in the very early insider days where hard resets were good, but now the update process seems to be streamlined enough as to not giving people problems.

 

[libra89]

Otherwise, hard resets are forum voodoo. Don't believe everything you read here.

I really believed this was the way. If it is one way, it is really exhausting as all get out.

However, I do wonder if you should restore a backup or just start fresh every time. I have been doing the start fresh thing and it's annoying.

 

[Davide Carozza]

I'll say this: I was originally very skeptical that hard resets did anything. I went through many Insider builds without doing one, figuring that any problems I ran into would be solved by future builds, not by resetting. The one problem I had recurrently was greatly reduced battery life. I finally bit the bullet and did a hard reset, and the same battery app that had been predicting 13 hours of use now said 28. But that was only one data point, so I didn't think too much of it. Subsequent builds, however, reduced battery life again, and again resetting resolved the problem. So now I'm no longer so skeptical, and think it is possible that resets fix issues. And that's exactly how I think of it now: do it only if you are having issues. I certainly don't do it as part of my normal update procedure, and the last several builds have come without changing my battery life.

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Has there been any "official" (email, tweet, FB update or interview) statement from Microsoft staff about the need of hard reset?
Does MS have any other testing than current users? It looks like the upgrade process works (pretty) well for "happy cases" and not so much for others.

I mean, recommending hard reset - even if/when it will fix issues - to a common user (think of one of your relative or friend or yourself ) might be the step when that user goes to store and gets a new phone with another OS. Losing everything from internal memory, whatsapp discussions, health data, game statuses, passwords not written down... Hard reset process does not ask if everything is backed up.

 

[PGrey]

I've done one hard reset in about 8 builds of W10m, and that was only because I did an elective firmware update.
My (and all three of the W10m phones in our family that I keep track of) phone spins right along, and has gotten progressively better battery life, functionality as per release spec, etc.

While I don't debate the validity of a fresh install (I used to do OS development, and we were always doing this, mostly for testing, but also for dog-fooding), I don't really think it's necessary every build, or really even on a release, unless you're having indications.
It can definitely "reset" everything, and often increases performance a small amount, but it comes at a cost, and sometimes OS tweaks bring the same performance, from a later build(s).
Right now, the cost is high, as Restore isn't working really well, so a lot of settings and the like must be manually fixed after a reset.
If the cost were low, I'd consider a reset, after RS1, maybe.

I think telling everyone they should just "hard reset to fix it" is a bit harsh though. I get that it can often fix the issue, but so can digging in a little and doing some diagnostics; I've probably fixed 95% of my OS problems this way. Is it easier to tell them to just reset, yep, but the "right" way to do it, well, that's probably philosophical... ;-]