Just like your desktop PC, the performance of your Android handset can degrade
over time. Simon Handby shows you how to reset your phone without losing any data A new Android smartphone is a delightful toy, but over time the various apps and services you install can take the edge off its performance, sapping its battery life and making it slow to respond. After a year or more, you might be looking to upgrade, but we advise you not to rush it. In this walkthrough, we'll show you how to restore it to the pristine state it was in when you first unboxed it. We'll be using an option that overwrites the entire Android system and all of your personal data, so the first step involves a comprehensive backup. 1 Much of the information on an Android phone is synchronised with Google, so it doesn't need backing up. Contacts, Gmails and calendars are safe on Google's servers, but not if you imported them from another source such as Microsoft Outlook. Because phones vary and it's hard to be sure what to backup, we recommend using a backup application and backing up everything you can. We're using MyBackup Pro, which is 3 pounds at Android's Play store. It can back up 100MB of data to the cloud, but we recommend you back up to your phone's SD card. 2 Clear data from the card to make room for the backup, as you may need several gigabytes of space. To save space, you can transfer apps back to the phone's built-in storage from your SD card. To list the apps installed on the SD card, press the Menu key, tap Settings, Applications and Manage applications, then tap the On SD card heading. Tap an app, then tap 'Move to phone. If you don't have enough space on your phone, simply uninstall an app - you can always reinstall any apps you remove from the Play store, which remembers your previous purchases. If you've manually saved or copied data such as a set of MP3s or photos on to the card, connect the phone to a PC and use Windows Explorer to browse the SD card and copy the contents to your computer. If you can't free enough space, buy a new memory card for backup. 3 Once you have enough space on the SD card, connect the phone to its charger. Launch MyBackup Pro, accept its licence agreement, tap Backup, choose Applications & Media and select the local drive option when prompted for a location. You'll see a choice of things to back up - select everything, tap OK, confirm the backup name and tap OK to begin the backup. When finished, check in the confirmation notice that everything has backed up. Begin a second backup, this time selecting Data, and make sure everything is selected. This backup is critical: check it completes successfully. 4 When the phone is backed up, you're ready to reset it. Shut down the phone, remove the SD card and restart. Press the Menu key, tap Settings and Privacy, then tap Factory data reset (some manufacturers put the reset option in a different menu, so you may have to check your phone's manual). If you're certain the backup was successful, tick the Format USB storage box and tap 'Reset phone. You may need to confirm your identity by providing the screen unlock code or a password. Tapping 'Erase everything causes the phone to format its internal storage before restarting as new. 5 Work through the setup questions and let the phone complete its initial synchronisation, which will restore some of your data. Then turn it off, refit the SD card, reboot and reinstall MyBackup Pro from Google Play. Restart once more, then start the MyBackup Pro, tap Restore, then tap Applications & Media, select the local source and choose the backup you created in Step 3. Select what to restore, bearing in mind that you probably don't need all the apps you had before. Apps will be blocked at first; tap Settings and tick the 'Unknown sources option when prompted. After allowing each app you want to reinstall, reboot, restart MyBackup Pro and restore your Data - it should be safe to restore everything. After a final reboot, your phone should be restored almost to the way it was before, but it should be far more responsive. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://accessindia.org.in/pipermail/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in/attachments/20131020/8e4c676b/attachment.html> Search for previous postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mobile.accessindia@accessindia.org.in _______________________________________________ Mobile.accessindia mailing list Mobile.accessindia@accessindia.org.in http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in to post send mail to: mobile.accessindia@accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
