We asked, you told us: Factory resets remain the exception, not the norm

There are plenty of reasons you may need to factory reset your smartphone, whether it’s squashing an annoying bug, a misbehaving app, or the desire to start off totally fresh. But how many of our readers have factory reset their current device?

We posed this question in a recent poll, and the results are now in.

Have you ever factory reset your current phone?

Results

This poll garnered over 2,800 votes since it went live on January 26. Surprisingly, the results are remarkably close.

Around 46% of respondents claim to have factory reset their current smartphone at some point during their ownership. However, 53% suggest that they’ve done no such thing.

Notably, the slant towards “no” could be explained by users only resetting their devices when passing them on or when jumping between custom ROMs — two relatively infrequent circumstances. However, some users reset their devices just to get that new phone “fresh feeling.”

Realistically, factory resetting a smartphone is never something users want to do. Even with the various backup and restore possibilities, restoring a device to its previous state still requires some knowledge and free time. Thankfully, the poll results suggest that resetting a smartphone, especially a current device, is an exception rather than a regular occurrence.

Your comments

• Kira: Only when switching to a newer device.
• MicroNik: Besides to send it for a trade-in, I’ve never had to factory reset a phone in the last 8 years or so.
• Skifarterking: Using custom ROMs sometimes it’s required, but with backup/restores apps it’s quite painless.
• Timothy: As the unfortunate owner of a Pixel 6, I have conducted a factory reset a few times now in an attempt to resolve its many issues. At this point, I’m just waiting for the S22 release.
• cherryfreemeleefreesplatoon: Just the other day was forced to factory reset. My phone after recharging it from 0 got put into a boot loop and eventually said my configuration data was corrupted. I had to factory reset it in order to continue using it. Thankfully it works fine now.
• Eoaoos: I’ve done it once 2 years into my Note 9 experience. Just give off that fresh new feeling. But yeah, I don’t do it often.
• SoulFier: I reset my phone once a year and my current phone is less than a year old. That’s why it’s not factory reset.
• Hinesight 20/20: I used to wipe my devices frequently when I was flashing custom ROMs a lot. I’ve had to factory reset my Pixel 6 Pro twice because I messed up rooting it. BTW, I must be fortunate because I’ve had practically zero issues with my Pro and my wife has so far had a good user experience with her Pixel 6.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. If you have any additional thoughts about factory resetting smartphones or the poll results, be sure to drop them below.