@greenhawk84 said in How often do you fresh build?:
Hello, just curious about something I have never done until I have to with a new Pi model or mandatory change, which is start over again with a fresh install. How often do you do this?
Like others here, I also don't do it without good reason, e.g. when I switched from my Pi 3b to my new Pi 4 last spring. I also have customised my installation pretty much, so a new installation would require a good amount of re-configuration, even if most configurations can just be copied over from the old system.
I often wonder if so many updates through a package update eventually cause regressions.
RetroPie is built on Linux which in my long lasting experience doesn't "litter" the system over time as much as Windows does. You usually don't have to clean up or re-install a standard Linux system at all. As far as I can tell as a mere (power) user, RetroPie itself is also pretty neatly designed in the same way, so you shouldn't fear any regressions by just updating it via the RetroPie setup.
All that said, one important thing for any system is to back it up on a regular basis. Apart from failed updates or operating errors, every hardware can break any day for a number of reasons. See the Docs about Making a Backup.
