That did it! What I don’t understand is why a factory reset doesn’t just ‘reformat and reinstall’ the device. There are too many flashy light codes, but no “F’it… I’ll just start from scratch” as if I were unwrapping a new device.
enter safe mode, and hold setup for 10 seconds to clear all credentials
put the device in DFU mode
run particle flash --usb tinker
run particle update to install latest system firmware.
A full reset is rarely (never?) necessary - if it’s a problem with application firmware, safe mode will take care of that and reconnect the device to the cloud even when your application firmware would otherwise prevent this.