[TheKnack]

For both iOS and Macos (and Windows for that matter) it's a good idea to backup everything and reinstall the OS from scratch for each major version. Yes it's a headache but it will prevent 10x more headaches that result from upgrading from a previous major version. Many of the problems people have with Apple OS upgrades are issues that happen during the process of converting configurations from one version to the next. This is especially true if you've done multiple major version upgrades without starting from scratch at some point.

If you upgrade from Catalina -> Big Sur -> Monterey -> Ventura, for example, it becomes like a game of telephone. Small issues that happen with converting configurations accumulate. This makes me wonder if Apple tests new versions installed from scratch rather than upgraded over multiple generations like what happens in the real world.

[BrandonS113]

I have a mac that has only been upgraded between what 20 major versions and migrated between 6 macs since 2003, never an issue small or large. Never reinstalled from scratch. You must have had bad luck.

[kaidon]

This is why I never upgrade my Mac. The lost productivity risk is just not worth it.

[unilynx]

I do a full macOS reinstall approx 1.5 years, depending on external factors, mostly to be able to clean up obsolete apps/packages/etc (after the reinstall I move everything into a "Old machine" folder and only move back what I need. only drawback is winding up with an "Oldmac" folder inside the "Oldmac" folder inside the "Oldmac..." well one day I'll clear those up)

But I've never felt like needing to do that with iOS - the only 'reinstall' occurs when I upgrade devices (and then I restore from iCloud backup). What problems did you run into that were resolved by a clean reinstall of iOS?

[TheKnack]

Battery drain. I managed a big fleet of iOS devices around the iOS 6 to iOS 10 time period when battery drain was a common complaint (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13054056). Completely wiping the phone and setting it back up without restoring the backup fixed those battery drain issues 100% of the time. If you wiped the phone and restored the iCloud backup the battery drain would persist because you restored whatever glitched config file was causing it.

[lwhi]

This used to be the standard advice for MS Windows.

Funny to think that it's now Apple who have this problem.

[CharlesW]

This is still worth doing occasionally on Windows, but iOS users have never had to do this, and there's been no reason for Mac users to do this since the System 7 (pre-Mac OS X) days. Some habits die hard, though.