Yes, FDR is factory data reset. Doing a FDR before and/or after a major update (such as nougat) is very good practice. Your phone keeps lots & lots of residual data from the old OS and from apps that are set to work with the old OS. Sometimes this old data for the old OS conflicts with operations of the new OS, which can cause battery drain, apps behaving badly, reboots, etc. Doing an FDR makes sure everything works smoothly without any conflicts.
Yeah and no. Think about it..... These updates are tested and retested on FACTORY-fresh phones by att, vz, etc. They work out (hopefully) all the bugs and then release the update. An app you might have at time of install might get the update a hiccough. Flash before every update, then reload your apps. Been preaching this since gingerbread.
You will want to save any data, pictures, documents, downloads that you want to keep for after your FDR. Save it to a USB drive or your PC. Most apps that you have to log into should keep your data for each time you log back in.
1. First save/back up to your PC, a flash drive or SD card everything you want to save (pictures, texts, phone call logs, documents, downloads, data, etc. I use sms backup & restore for texts and MyBackup pro for data, phone logs, app data, etc. Take your time to make sure you have saved everything you want to keep.
Sorry to hear that. What a pita! The installed apps are still installed, correct? I don't use the stock samsung launcher so haven't had a problem with my folders. On my launcher (I use Lucid), when I reinstall apps they return to the folder I had them set up in before my FDR.
