Do You Factory Reset After Firmware Updates?

[kc27]

I had read or someone told me once that a firmware update should be followed with a factory reset. The reason stated was that menus or options could have changed with the new firmware. To ensure the router settings matched what they were prior to the firmware update, it was best to re-enter router settings from scratch. Is this a best practice, or someone going over the top and making more work for themselves?

 

[Tech9]

If you want an official statement:

"Notice: It is recommended to restore to factory default settings by pressing the reset button on the bottom of the wireless router for 5 seconds after doing a firmware update. After the reset is complete, please go to http://www.asusrouter.com and follow the QIS to set up your router again."

[Wireless Router] How to update the firmware of your router to the latest version ? (WebGUI) | Official Support | ASUS Global

This FAQ page was last updated on 2024/08/30. Here you have it - from the manufacturer. Most people don't do it, only if issues are encountered after the update. If you call Asus Support for whatever reason though - reset to factory defaults is the first thing they are going to ask you to do.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I had read or someone told me once that a firmware update should be followed with a factory reset. The reason stated was that menus or options could have changed with the new firmware. To ensure the router settings matched what they were prior to the firmware update, it was best to re-enter router settings from scratch. Is this a best practice, or someone going over the top and making more work for themselves?

It probably depends on which make and model of router you're using as well as which firmware version you're going from and to.

As you've posted this question in the "General Wi-Fi Discussion" section there's no definitive answer other than to read the release notes and see what it recommends.

 

[kc27]

Thanks. I had never done the factory reset after a firmware update, either.

This week the router could not connect to the modem. A factory reset was what fixed it I also saw a firmware update was made available a few weeks ago (surprised because this is an rt-ac88u that was introduced in 2015). I did save a configuration to expedite router setup.

I like the router, but plan on replacing it.

 

[bbunge]

Normally no.

However, I sometimes switch firmware for testing or I make so many changes testing things I want a clean slate then I do a reset with initialize. I often have a basic settings file for each firmware version which allows me to get the router back up in a matter of minutes. I've done a setup so often that I can fully set up the router with mesh in about 20 minutes or less...

 

[kc27]

I often have a basic settings file for each firmware version which allows me to get the router back up in a matter of minutes.

Good to know. Not exactly the same as what you are doing, but I was planning on importing all my saved settings vs entering them from scratch.

 

[Tech9]

If you are talking about your RT-AC88U - this router is on End-of-Life list and you don't have to do the manual configuration many times. The current stock Asuswrt firmware for it is perhaps the last one and RMerlin announced discontinuing of 386 base Asuswrt-Merlin support after the end of 2024. If you are planning to use your RT-AC88U settings on a new router - set the new router manually from scratch. This is the best practice.

 

[kc27]

I saw the RT-AC88U on the Asus End-of-Life page, and was surprised to see a firmware update for it released this month. This router was introduced nearly ten years ago, so time to move on to a new unit. Thanks for the help.

 

[Tech9]

was surprised to see a firmware update for it released this month

Critical security update only. A few other EoL routers got it as well.

 

[sfx2000]

I had read or someone told me once that a firmware update should be followed with a factory reset. The reason stated was that menus or options could have changed with the new firmware. To ensure the router settings matched what they were prior to the firmware update, it was best to re-enter router settings from scratch. Is this a best practice, or someone going over the top and making more work for themselves?

Not a bad idea - as it depends on the history of updates over time...

 

[tgl]

Not a bad idea - as it depends on the history of updates over time...

Reasonably well-written, well-tested firmware should be able to cope with updating settings from a prior version, at least as long as the "prior" isn't too far back. The idea that users should routinely reset and re-enter settings by hand is an absolute indictment of the competence of the gear's engineering team.

Now, if you are forced into doing a firmware downgrade, reset-and-reconfigure might be necessary. You can't entirely blame the authors for not having a crystal ball to see what later versions might have done. (Even so, though, proper attention to rules like "ignore entries you don't understand" should give that case a fighting chance to work.)

tl;dr: this isn't "how the world works". This is "somebody cut too many corners".

 

[sfx2000]

Reasonably well-written, well-tested firmware should be able to cope with updating settings from a prior version, at least as long as the "prior" isn't too far back. The idea that users should routinely reset and re-enter settings by hand is an absolute indictment of the competence of the gear's engineering team.

In a perfect world, I agree... the world is sometimes not so perfect, so one has to make lemonade from the upstream lemons..

I've been in that dark place where we had to make a fairly big (and painful) jump - the CPU arch was the same, but upstream migrated over to Device Tree from Machine Files, along with a major BSP update from the SoC vendor...

Our Userland was ok - there was some migration on the c library (moving from uclibc over to glibc), which was a rebuild on all the binaries, not a problem there... Challenge was that we couldn't make everything fit inside the current MTD partitions, again on JFFS...

So, made the hard decision to do a reset and reformat/partition the device using ubi/ubifs to give us some headroom for our Gen2 product and be able to support both on the same code baseline...

 

[tgl]

In a perfect world, I agree... the world is sometimes not so perfect, so one has to make lemonade from the upstream lemons..

[ war story clipped ]

Sure, I'm not maintaining that nobody ever needs to do hard resets. I'm saying that it's a last resort when your device is bricked or there's otherwise no other way to get there from here. Asus is pretty much the only gear I've dealt with in a lifetime of computing where there was an idea that hard resets are a normal part of the user experience.

 

[sfx2000]

Asus is pretty much the only gear I've dealt with in a lifetime of computing where there was an idea that hard resets are a normal part of the user experience.

IIRC - there was a release on the 68U and peers back in the day that was a bit painful..

Anyways - as a dev, I'm on the side of not making our users/customers having to reset the device...