TheLyppardMan
Very Senior Member
The good time-saving thing about Merlin firmware is it's possible to backup the list of network devices, including any user-specified icons, which makes setting up from scratch much easier. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do that with the official firmware, although I suppose that if one had a backup for a particular firmware version, that could be used, but if the version had changed since the backup were made, that wouldn't be recommended (presumably).Switching to/back from any major firmware versions a full reset is most likely required for stable and reliable router/network operation.
As is switching between stock Asus and RMerlin builds (even if they're on the same nominal 3.0.0.X builds).
Nothing changes this fact.
Will some be able to switch without a full reset? Of course.
How lucky do you feel?
How important is a stable/reliable network to you?
It is far more straightforward to do a full and proper reset than to try bungling through an unstable router trying to diagnose and fix what is wrong. When that avenue fails, a full reset is required/recommended here in the end anyways.
Save yourself a few days or weeks of that and just get the router/network to a good/known place immediately and if any troubleshooting is required, it won't be a wild goose chase of unknown interactions between internal variables of different firmware and the defaults they are expecting to see/work with (not to mention the almost unlimited additional variables of how one may have their router/network set up for their environment too).
I don't understand why some think a full reset is such a chore. 15 minutes buys you sanity.
And if you have a network that requires hours of setting up to work as you want? Maybe your expectations, workflows and choice of hardware need to be questioned and brought in line with the capabilities of the Asus hardware we have (today).