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Other Does anyone still do clean installs instead of updating the iOS?

6

6thDAY

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
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Just curious to know how many of you guys still completely restore your phone every time a new iOS version is released or just perform a software update?

I currently have an iPhone XS Max and I don't ever restore any backups from iTunes or iCloud, so I've always DFU restore the iOS because I like that "fresh" start, and painfully re-install all my apps over again.

However, in the current times with all the advancements in hardware from the "newer" iPhones, I don't really see the benefits, as I don't feel like it slows the phones down any more than just doing a software update directly from the iPhone itself.
 
6thDAY said:
Just curious to know how many of you guys still completely restore your phone every time a new iOS version is released or just perform a software update?

I currently have an iPhone XS Max and I don't ever restore any backups from iTunes or iCloud, so I've always DFU restore the iOS because I like that "fresh" start, and painfully re-install all my apps over again.

However, in the current times with all the advancements in hardware from the "newer" iPhones, I don't really see the benefits, as I don't feel like it slows the phones down any more than just doing a software update directly from the iPhone itself.
Click to expand...

Well honestly the software/hardware is not designed in such a way that requires users to clean install a new major/point update of an iOS version.

I would think it is so cumbersome because when you sign to iCloud after clean installing with the iOS update, the phone has to reindex everything all over again from the start.
 
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I do a clean install on a new phone which is about every 2-3 years. The only other time is as a last resort when something is seriously wrong which has only happened twice..
 
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Depends on how happy I am with how my device is running at the time. I used to clean install religiously on a major OS upgrade (iOS 12.something to iOS13 for instance) but I'm doing it a little less. Maybe that's because my iPhone is now a 2nd phone rather than my primary (I'm far less reliant on its reliability) rather than a feeling of better software reliability.
 
In the past I always setup a new iPhone from a backup and it was effortless, fast, and everything worked fine.
This last time I set up a new iPhone from scratch - no backup- and then copied all my stuff back over -- and man! What a time sucking hell job that was. It took me DAYS to get everything set up just right.

Needless to say - ILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN
 
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6thDAY said:
Just curious to know how many of you guys still completely restore your phone every time a new iOS version is released or just perform a software update?

I currently have an iPhone XS Max and I don't ever restore any backups from iTunes or iCloud, so I've always DFU restore the iOS because I like that "fresh" start, and painfully re-install all my apps over again.

However, in the current times with all the advancements in hardware from the "newer" iPhones, I don't really see the benefits, as I don't feel like it slows the phones down any more than just doing a software update directly from the iPhone itself.
Click to expand...
It depends.

As a jailbreaker I tend not to do OTA updates. There was a whole series of jailbreaks between iOS 6 and iOS 9 that if you had updated OTA caused stuff to break. So, if I do update it's usually via iTunes.

There have been a handful of times where I have updated OTA but usually that was on a device I didn't plan to jailbreak.

Typically though, I will backup first, then DFU restore/upgrade/update and then restore from my backup. Then jailbreak if there's a JB for that firmware.

On Saturday I simply updated my iPad to 13.5 and then jailbroke. I don't use my iPad for anything critical so didn't see a problem if a restore was forced on me at any point.

The other thing is that I have old devices (other than my iPad) so I'm either at my limit on some of them (4s, 4 and iPhone 5) or like my my 6s and my 6s+ I am stuck on iOS 9.0.2 because of my jailbreak.
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rui no onna said:
Lol, I'm still on a restore that's originated all the way from the OG iPhone. :p
Click to expand...
Same, except that mine originates from an iPhone 3GS in late 2011. All my other devices have forked from that profile.
 
I have no idea how apple reinstalls their iOS, through DFU or not, so “clean install” is pretty much not a thing for me unless I buy a new iPhone or iPad, which of course loads a clean install of whatever version of iOS it has.

For me, clean install only happens when system is completely down and I have no other choice, if that clean install is actually a one.
 
I usually do a clean install when a new major release comes out, for example iOS 14. I usually install all the betas so I want to have a clean start when it's officially released.
 
My current phone has a direct lineage back to my 5S I think, including multiple public beta builds.

Unless you find yourself experiencing a unique, bothersome and seemingly unfixable bug that seemingly no one else has encountered, I find clean installs needless. I cannot imagine how my phone could be conceivably faster, and the bugs I’ve experienced for the last few years have - fortunately! - been of the common variety that many other have encountered and have later been (usually) fixed (only to be replaced by others, but hey).

The last fresh install I did was my 5S or thereabouts, mainly because I’d had enough of jailbreaking and wanted a phone that was completely clean of any jailbreak crud.

Off topic, but remember when people had their jailbreak history as their signature? Good grief, makes PC specs in sig sound interesting o_O
 
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I don't wipe and do new setup, but I *never* do OTA updates. Always install from iTunes. I have zero interest in being out in the world and potentially having a dead phone.
 
6thDAY said:
Just curious to know how many of you guys still completely restore your phone every time a new iOS version is released or just perform a software update?

I currently have an iPhone XS Max and I don't ever restore any backups from iTunes or iCloud, so I've always DFU restore the iOS because I like that "fresh" start, and painfully re-install all my apps over again.

However, in the current times with all the advancements in hardware from the "newer" iPhones, I don't really see the benefits, as I don't feel like it slows the phones down any more than just doing a software update directly from the iPhone itself.
Click to expand...
I honestly don't. I used to when I was in college and was much less busy. But looking back, even though tech sites recommended clean installs, I've normally actually experience problems with the OS, whether Mac or iOS, or iPad OS and the time it takes to reset and restore where the apps are and music, etc... is not worth my time.
 
For an incremental update? Nah. For a new os? Maybe.. if I was having an underlying issue I would do a clean install and re-enter all of my data.. ugh. But if things are good then no I will just install as normal. Sometimes I will do a clean install after just to see if I was having an issue and if I wasn’t then I will restore so I don’t have to enter my data again lol.
 
No. I've done it before and each time it did nothing at all and was a total waste of time. You might get rid of some "other" data in your storage but it will be back in a few weeks.
 
I don’t do clean installs anymore because I find I end up doing clean installs randomly over the life of my phone, so I don’t need to add an additional one for no reason.
 
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Not really any huge benefit Remember it’s more timely and all the settings go back to default
 
I usually run public betas on my iPhone/iPad, so when the new iOS/iPadOS go public, I backup the iPhone/iPad with iTunes, restore them and then put everything back from their encrypted backups. Takes me around 1,5 hour from start to finish for each device, which is ok once a year.
 
I stopped doing this back in the days of the 6+. Unless I'm having problems or any obvious weird behavior, I've been restoring from iCloud backup and it has worked really well.

Granted, I'm pretty lean and I get rid of stuff I don't need/use.

That said, with iCloud being the way it is, it doesn't take very long to start from fresh anymore.
 
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