Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for enthusiasts and power users of the Android operating system. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I'm an Android developer and I have a non-technical question regarding major Android version upgrades (e.g. from Android 4.x to 5 or from 5.x to 6).
Do any of the big Android device vendors offer these kinds of upgrades without wiping the data on the device?
I'm asking this question because I need to know if this kind of scenario should be supported by the app.
I must admit that I'm a bit confused by this post. Granted, I haven't been an Androider from the word go (my first device was a Nexus 7 running Jellybean), but every major update I have done has not required a factory reset (unless of course it has got stuck). This is true for all three of my devices: my Nexus 5, my Nexus 7 and my Nexus 9.
The biggest update I have done was on my Nexus 5 and Nexus 7, going from KitKat to Lollipop and that kept all my data. And of any update, KitKat to Lollipop would be the most likely to require a reset - they're very different.
Mind you, they are pure Android devices. So I'd say that if you have an official Google device (be it LG, HTC, etc.) with vanilla Android, you're pretty safe.
(Also, it would not be in the best interests of the vendor to require a factory reset before an update because then there would be less of an incentive to update.)
We have had several devices from Samsung, ASUS, Sony, Motorola, Huawei etc. get major upgrades from Android I to J, J to K, K to L and now from L to M but we never had any of the data affected. Of course, all of these were non-rooted devices with manufacturer or Google provided OSes and the updates where issued/pushed by the manufacturer. This would make sense, as there may be important data stored by individual apps.
The case may be different for custom ROMs, though good custom ROMs would try to retain app data during upgrades. Having said that, it is always wise to backup your important data before performing any OS upgrades, minor or major.
As a general rule, mobile OS updates do not wipe user data when transitioning from 1 version to the next. Such wipes would be devastating for the large amount of users that have very little tech knowledge and don't take basic precautions like backups and storing their files in multiple locations.
However, quite a few apps run into issues when upgrading the OS version. Even system apps can have this issue. For example, when I upgraded my S4 from 4.4.2 to 5.0.1, the "recommended apps" app that recommends apps to use when connecting a headphone kept crashing when doing so. That was solved after a factory reset. That's why it is recommended to do a factory reset after a OS update. A not insignificant part of the userbase does factory resets in this manner.
As an app developer, you should least prepare for the user doing a factory reset at any time. With Marshmallow, that should be easier considering google now backs up certain app data.
