My Nexus 9 tablet has been a stalwart companion since replacing my Nexus 10 back in late 2014. It’s still a good Android tablet, though it was never a great tablet, and it’s accompanied me around the world on my trips for both business and leisure. Recently, performance began to suffer with all too regular crashes and I was getting worried.

The Nexus 9 arrived with Android 5 Lollipop and has been successively upgraded through Marshmallow and now Nougat. Sadly, it’s been confirmed by Google that 7.1.1 is that last OS version that the tablet will receive, while continuing to download security patches for now. Still that’s three years of good service but it’s also three years of OS updates and app upgrades filling the tablet with cruft.

After daily, sometimes hourly frustration, I decided it was time for a factory reset and profile restore. Google makes the process straightforward enough but it’s still necessary to check that any unique files are copied off the device. Once the restore is complete, you have to dig out passwords and log back into email, social media and chat apps, often complete with two factor authentication.

It’s even more annoying when you discover the Nexus 9 is still as flaky as ever. Nooooooo…..

I really didn’t want to give up on the faithful friend. Who does when a replacement tablet is going to cost a couple of hundred quid? As a last ditch attempt, I reset the Nexus 9 but this time, didn’t reload my profile and only added apps back in as I needed them. Result….the Nexus 9 has been rock solid since then (touch wood and all those other superstitions!)

You can find the option in Settings > Backup & Reset. Turn off Automatic Restore before doing the Factory Data Reset.

There’s my tip of the day. If your Android tablet keeps freezing or rebooting, do a factory reset but don’t bother restoring your profile. Keep it clean.