How to completely wipe and factory reset a Genos? (solved)

[maartenb]

Dear all,

Let's say you need to bring your Genos to a repair shop, or you want to sell it, and you want to remove ALL traces of your ownership from the keyboard. No files you made are still there, your name is gone from the "Owner" field, etc. You want to bring the Genos to a state where it was as if you took it brand new out of the box. (One exception: the firmware can stay on the latest version.)

As a test, and after a full backup, I tried a complete factory reset (ticked all the boxes). As expected, my home screen returned to factory settings: the demo button at the bottom appeared where I had put the Chord Looper menu.
But to my surprise, my files were still on the Genos as well as my Owner name. My Genos was even still connected to my WiFi, so my WiFi password was still in there.

The factory reset as currently implemented seems like a sort of "soft, kind" reset. You can completely mess up your workstation, do a factory reset and your files and some settings would still be there.

To remove everything, I would have to delete all my MIDIs files, audio files, registrations, playlists, song lists, owner name and WiFi password by hand. That's quite a lot of button pressing, with the risk of forgetting something.

Ideally, there would be an option to completely wipe the arranger, reset it to factory settings and all my usage traces would be gone.

Does anyone know how to do this? Maybe there is something in the Service Manual about this?


Maarten

[cyber swine]

I don't have an answer, but I appreciate the question!  I just read a post related primarily to marketing asking why Yamaha can't be like major manufacturers/software developers.  I wish they could be more like Apple and Microsoft et al when it comes to file management.  Being accustomed to hierarchal file systems with specific dependencies coming to the Genos presents certain challenges:  all of which have been discussed and documented in these pages.  Here's hoping all the improvements suggested over the years show up in any future model.

[Lee Batchelor]

It's so hard to believe that a genius company like Yamaha cannot incorporate a Delete button in their OS??!!

[ckobu]

Hi Maarten,

when you go to position 060, you can choose Factory Set (14:25 video). This will erase all data and restore the keyboard to its initial state. Watch this video.
https://youtu.be/HLwhu5jWfY0

[pjd]

Hi Maarten --

One possible way to wipe all of your USER files is to format the USER drive: Utility > Storage > Format

Yikes! This sounds so drastic, it scares me to type it in! But, the capability is right there in the Genos UI.

I will send you a PM -- pj

[Divemaster]

I don't have an answer, but I appreciate the question!  I just read a post related primarily to marketing asking why Yamaha can't be like major manufacturers/software developers.  I wish they could be more like Apple and Microsoft et al when it comes to file management.  Being accustomed to hierarchal file systems with specific dependencies coming to the Genos presents certain challenges:  all of which have been discussed and documented in these pages.  Here's hoping all the improvements suggested over the years show up in any future model.

Microsoft is pretty good on file management, but has a similar issue.
When you use their Delete a programme, invariably it will say it's gone... But if you look through the Registry, loads of the program still remains, so it's pretty poor..Try removing a printer...... eventually there's so much junk and your pc is running so slow that a fresh reinstall of Windows is the only way to save your sanity. Been there several times over the years.


I do agree though it should, say on the sale of the keyboard, be possible to return it to "out of box" state. Why make it difficult?

[EileenL]

The best way is to just format your user section which now acts as your hard drive.
  If your name remains just delete it.

[maartenb]

Thanks for the help! With the tips from Casper (ckobu) and PJ I did some experiments and found a procedure that works.

Types of data
I see two categories of data on the Genos:

• Musical files
  These are your MIDI and audio files, registrations, multipads, song lists, playlist and voice and style packs (stored in Expansion memory)
• Personal or User data
  Things like owner name, WiFi password, fingering mode, split points, time zone, daylight saving and the time itself, master compressor and EQ and all other settings for the keyboard.

Completely resetting the Genos
To bring the Genos to a "fresh out-of-the box" state, a) the musical data should be removed and b) the user data reset to factory values.
Here is the procedure:

• Format the User drive (Menu 2 --> Utility --> Storage --> User drive --> Format)
  This will remove all musical data, including installed voice and style packs in Expansion. It will leave your user settings untouched.
• Do a 060 Factory Set in service mode
  Start the Genos is service mode (see the instructions in Casper's video above) and select 060 Factory Set. After rebooting, the Genos will clear all user data. Owner name, WiFi password are gone, split points and fingering mode reset to the original values, the time will be reset to 01-01-2017 00:00 and the time zone to UK (GMT), master compressor to Natural, master EQ to Flat, etc.

Closing remarks
I was a little surprised it takes two steps to completely reset a Genos. I expected the 060 Factory Set to also clear all musical data, but it did not. I recorded and saved a small MIDI file before the factory set and afterwards it was still there.

It would be nice to have a menu item that does all this in one go. But at least we can bring the Genos back to a clean slate!

Thanks again,

Maarten

[colas musique]

Good morning,

I encountered the same problem as Martin when I sold my Genos.
Via the UTILITY function I deleted my name and to delete the content, I connected the Genos to the PC via the LAN cable. The Genos hard disk being visible, I emptied the global contents of each section (Voices, song, expansion, register...).

Good day
Christian

[greenb]

Did any of this solve the problems you were trying to solve?

I have been trying to do the upgrade from Tyros 4 to Genos and it has not worked for me. file:///C:/Users/green/Desktop/GENOS/genos_easy_upgrade_guide_en%20(1).pdf

starting page 29.

My Genos was a OPEN BOX item and I am beginning to wonder it some one did something to it, Alto Music claimed to have done a factory reset. Any ideas?

Thank you, greenb

[maartenb]

Yes, to completely bring a Genos back to factory settings, follow the instructions in my post above.

Since you don't explain exactly what doesn't work for you, I can't help you.

The best thing to do is start a new thread with a specific question. You'll probably get an answer soon, since there's a LOT of knowledgeable people on this forum!


Maarten