[Mike-EEE]

Hello All,

I have this phone, the Nokia Lumia 950 and love it. Well, I don't use it very often, but I have recently been thinking that I want to reset it and assign it to another Microsoft Account that I have but hardly use. Seems appropriate. :P

Anyways, doing some research here and it seems that the only way to set a new account is to do a factory reset. Before doing so... I wanted to do a quick sanity check here to see if there are any problems with doing this. Is it OK to still factory reset this phone even though it's discontinued and no longer supported? I basically do not want to end up with a bricked device.

Hope that makes sense. Any assistance/guidance/information would be greatly appreciated.

[spicypadthai]

A hard reset should be fine and the phone isn't going to stop working, at least for basic things like calls and texts. The main thing to consider is apps. Many are no longer in the Store so you may not be able to reinstall some currently on the phone. Others that are available may have problems b/c of lack of support and/or backend services that have been shut off.

EDIT: Forgot to add I thought you can switch MS accounts. Did you check in Account settings?

[Mike-EEE]

Awesome thank you for your reply @spicypadthai! I sort of envision this as a "grandma" phone/pc setup where it's mail and browser. That's all I really used it for. Oh, I guess there was the music too. All of these were built-in apps so I am thinking (hoping!) that they don't somehow go away and/or get disabled once it tries to phone home.

As for Account Settings, I am not entirely sure but I do not recall this being an option before. You got me curious however so I will give it a gander. I gotta give it some charge first... like I said, barely use it! 😅

[Mike-EEE]

Yes indeed @spicypadthai brushing off the dust here... you can add new users, but the first one (primary) that you add cannot be removed. Gosh this phone is so cool. Sooooooooo bummed it was shelved. :( :( :( I absolutely hate the Droid and everything about its "experience." Windows Phone feels so much more solid and intuitive. THE FEELS!!!

[spicypadthai]

I hear ya, I miss my 950XL, more what W10M could have been than what it was at the end.

[RTGent]

I hear ya, I miss my 950XL, more what W10M could have been than what it was at the end.

For me, what W10M was, and still is, remarkably. No end for mine yet, thankfully and joyfully -thank you, Microsoft; though my app need/appetite was never the same as others'. Essential communications and notifications still work reliably; even Cortana still reads my texts and sends responses in the car. Bing, browser, maps, location, Groove, etc., still run as ever. Among those apps that were working at "the end", only Spotify has become worthless. The Photos, Weather, News, Money, and SoundHound tiles, only, are still live tiles. My two angroids-in-waiting are still learning tools, and no more: I like them both, use them some, for a few apps, and expect they'll satisfy my post-950 phone needs indefinitely as well -though not as ably.

Good luck with your account effort, Mike-eee.

[Archdean]

I use my 950 everyday and love it, does everything I use it for with no exceptions especially the on screen function and for the lack of that on the apple products I won't buy a new anything. You might want to replace your battery with a new one (recommend Beltron 3000mAh BLT-BVT5E)

[Mike-EEE]

Bummer, I did not get notifications on the new posts! Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions. I am heartened to hear that even someone (@Archdean) still uses it on a daily basis. I do not blame you. The whole experience is so great.

Anyways, I was thinking about this post today as I am rocking myself into the prospect of actually resetting my phone. I was playing around a bit with it and it does seem that it supports 2FA with Microsoft Account sign-in. So, that seems to ease my qualms about resetting because I didn't know if this would support 2FA scenarios.

ALSO... what's interesting is that while the Microsoft Store was "shut down" (or however they phrased/marketized that expression), you can still search for and download apps. It looks like the Store is "frozen in time" -- a living relic of sorts preserving apps at a last known time. At least that is my impression. @spicypadthai mentioned that many apps are no longer there, and while I do not doubt that, that does not seem to be the case for the apps I would like to preserve and/or download.

OK. So I'm inching closer to actually doing this. My NEXT big question/hesitation is: OS updates. If I reset my phone, it does a factory reset of one of the earliest versions of Windows Mobile 10. I know there were a few updates that I had to install along the way.

My question is: will those OS updates install again? Do they still exist? Or will my phone be stuck with the factory reset? Obviously, I would rather retain the updates because they have security improvements I am thinking.

Anyways, any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

[Mike-EEE]

Also, thank you for the battery reco, @Archdean. I just got one. :D

[spicypadthai]

OK. So I'm inching closer to actually doing this. My NEXT big question/hesitation is: OS updates. If I reset my phone, it does a factory reset of one of the earliest versions of Windows Mobile 10. I know there were a few updates that I had to install along the way.

My question is: will those OS updates install again? Do they still exist? Or will my phone be stuck with the factory reset? Obviously, I would rather retain the updates because they have security improvements I am thinking.

Anyways, any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

A hard reset will reset using the current version and security updates installed so if you're up to date, then you should be fine. It's when you do a reset via WDRT or Over-the-cable Updater Tool that you'll revert back to an older version. You'll want to verify whether security updates are still available in that scenario.

[Mike-EEE]

then you should be fine.

Indeed @spicypadthai, when I look at the UI/dialog after clicking "Reset your phone" in Settings -> System -> About, it says that it will reset to "factory settings." I guess that was my point of confusion, as it seems to suggest just the settings will be reset and not the OS.

In any case, I realized today that Windows Phone does still actively update, with the latest version being released of January this year. It did an install of this on my phone earlier today with a reboot/UX/messaging and everything. So it seems that all that infrastructure is still intact.

Still trying to rock myself back and forth out of fetal position to actually reset this sucker. xD I will update here with any results if I finally scrounge up enough bravery.

[Mike-EEE]

OK... I took the dive, and I am amazed -- AMAZED! -- at the overall experience. Everything worked exactly like expected and it took about an hour to configure. The latest updates were indeed retained and there was no fuss whatsoever. I was able to sign in with my other account and now everything is exactly how I would like it.

Gotta hand it to the Windows Phone/Mobile team. They really knew their stuff.

Anyways, thanks again to all who assisted here. I am now officially situated, and enlightened at that. xD

[RTGent]

OK... I took the dive, and I am amazed -- AMAZED! -- at the overall experience. Everything worked exactly like expected and it took about an hour to configure. The latest updates were indeed retained and there was no fuss whatsoever. I was able to sign in with my other account and now everything is exactly how I would like it.

Gotta hand it to the Windows Phone/Mobile team. They really knew their stuff.

Anyways, thanks again to all who assisted here. I am now officially situated, and enlightened at that. xD

Fabulous, Mike-EEEEEE! Congratulations and welcome back to your joyful, select club. Thanks for sharing your restoration.