How to Reset Phone Settings

How to Reset Phone Settings

There is nothing catastrophically terrible in the full reset of Android, especially if the synchronization of your personal data is enabled on your phone or tablet. Resetting will delete your contacts, and will also most likely delete all your data in the phone or tablet. In other words, you will return your phone to the factory settings and inside it will be as if you just bought it.

As already mentioned, if you have activated the synchronization of Google or the developer of your device, then all the data you can easily return back to the device and reinstall all the games. If there is no synchronization, and you want to save information before resetting, make backup copies of the data of your mobile device using the developer software (Sumsung Kies, Sony PC Suite, HTC Sync, etc.). You can find it on the official website of the developer of your device.

Hard Reset Android

The whole procedure for a complete reset can be divided into 2 parts: Getting into the menu and selecting the desired item. We must say right away that sometimes it turns out to launch the wrong menu. You will understand this by the absence of some points. First you need to get into the program menu of your phone or tablet.

To get started, remove the memory card and Sim card. Then turn off your phone.

Be sure to turn off the phone before performing a combination of any keys. Different devices have different combinations of calling the system menu, so we will try to do different until the menu appears successfully. In parentheses we gave examples of manufacturers of phones and tablets on which the combination worked. But this does not mean that in case of failure you should not try others.

Below are the combinations. ATTENTION is needed without letting go certain keys hold the on / off key. Thus, you should hold 2-3 keys pressed for 5 seconds until the Android logo appears or any actions on the phone screen.

1. Hold the Volume down Press the power key (Samsung, HTC, Asus, Archos)

2. Hold the Volume up Press the power key (Huawei, ZTE, Prestigio, Archos)

3. Hold both sides of the Volume key. Press the power key.

4. Hold the central clav. Press the power key (Samsung, Sony)

6. Hold the central clav. And Volume up Press the power key (Samsung, LG)

7. Hold the two buttons on the sides under the screen. Press the power key (Sony Ericsoon)

8. Hold the central clav. And both volume buttons Press the power key (Samsung)

After either the Android Icon or some other actions appear, they will begin to be performed on the screen. Clamped keys can be released.

As a result, a menu with several items in English should appear. It should be so. We proceed to the second part of the Reset.

Now in the menu that appears, find one of the items:

Reset factory setting

Wipe data / factory reset

Select the item found. Moving through the items is carried out by the volume up / down key, and the selection. Power key.

Possibly, after the selection, a small submenu appears, where you have to click delete all user data or reboot system now. Select these items with the volume key and execute them, press the power key.

After choosing the phone should reboot. I must say right away that the reboot can take a long time, the phone can be in out of order for 1 to 5 minutes. This is also normal since can be considered this is the first launch of the phone.

Hard reset or resetting the phone to factory settings is one of the most effective troubleshooting methods. This option of “treatment” of your smartphone is resorted to by many, both experienced and inexperienced users. In general, a safe and non-warranty process requires special attention from phone owners. After all, not every one of them knows how to reset the settings on android correctly.

Why you need to make Android Hard Reset

Hard reset means deleting all user information on the phone, except for the pre-installed system programs, ringtones, pictures and startup settings of the Android OS. After a successful “hard reset” on the smartphone there will be no trace of its use.

Resetting Android to factory settings helps solve many of the problems that arise when using the phone. Namely:

  • Remove malware, especially annoying ads (often the user downloads it with the application to his device);
  • Speed ​​up your gadget
  • Delete unnecessary files that take up space in the device’s memory;
  • Eliminate errors in the Android OS that appear as a result of crashes or incorrect updating of applications of Google services and much more.

This troubleshooting method can also be resorted to in cases where the device suddenly turned off and does not turn on. Such situations are not uncommon, and an erroneous update of applications or a malfunction of one of them is a common cause.

What you must do before formatting

Formatting the internal memory on Android does not take much time (5-10 minutes). Much more time is taken away from users by the preservation of personal data, because after a hard reboot, the phone will delete contacts, photos,s, programs (except for predefined ones).

Accounts entered on the smartphone will also be lost. Therefore, it is advisable to remember or write out logins and passwords from them before formatting.

Attention: it is important to remember the registration data from your Google account, because after formatting (the first time you turn on the device), the user will need to be authorized.

You can save information in any of the ways: use the programs for creating backup copies, the cloud storage service or transfer photos, documents ands “manually” to the computer through the explorer.

What are the ways to reset the settings on Android

There are several ways to format the gadget’s memory on Android. The most popular of them:

  1. Formatting using the “Restore and Reset” section on the phone;
  2. Hard reboot through the Recovery Mode menu;
  3. Clear internal memory through a computer using the Android Debug Bridge application;
  4. Delete all information on your phone through your Google account.

When you roll back the device to the factory settings, the user may encounter problems. For example, the physical buttons on the smartphone may be malfunctioning, or the sensor may not respond to pressing. If hardreset didn’t work in one way, you need to choose another.

Resetting a smartphone to factory settings via Settings

The easiest way, which does not require the owner of the gadget to install additional software and connect to a computer, is to format directly on the “problem” smartphone.

To do this, follow these simple steps:

  • Open “Settings” on the device;
  • Go to the “Recovery and reset” section;
  • Click on the item “Reset settings”;
  • Click “Reset Phone Settings”;
  • Confirm the action by clicking “Erase All.”

If a protective lock is installed on the phone, then before resetting it will be offered to pass authorization.

It will be possible to clear the gadget’s memory in this way only if there is access to the settings. If the phone is locked, the screen is damaged, or for some other reason it is impossible to get into the “Settings“, then you can use Recovery.

Hard reset via Recovery menu

To reset to factory settings through recovery, the gadget does not need to be loaded until the desktop appears on the screen. This option will solve the problem even if the phone does not turn on.

The main condition is a charged phone and physical buttons that are operational on it. Using the power and volume buttons, you can enter Recovery and format.

The combination of buttons to be clamped may vary depending on the device manufacturer. On some phones (for example, on HTC) at the same time you need to hold the buttons to decrease and increase the volume, and power.

On Samsung phones, just hold down the volume up and power button.

In order to perform a hard reset on Samsung smartphones through Recovery, you need:

  • On the switched off phone, hold down the combination of buttons: increase volume and turn on. We wait until the phone vibrates, and then we throw the power button, while always holding the volume up button;
  • When the list appears on the gadget screen, we go down to “wipe data / factory reset” and press the power button;
  • Confirm the action by clicking on the appropriate item (in order to go down to the desired section you need to use the volume down button, and to make a choice use the power button);
  • Reboot the device by selecting the appropriate item;

Formatting a smartphone via PC

There is an option to reset Android to factory settings, which involves installing an additional utility on a PC and using the command line.

Such an Android formatting option is more complicated than formatting through recovery, and is mainly intended for experienced users.

Most of the time will take the installation of the ADB utility itself. After downloading the archive with the application to the computer, you will need to unzip it and make sure that the “platform-tools” folder contains an executable file called adb. If there is no file in this folder, you need to run the SDK Manager, which is located in the “Android-sdk-windows” folder and download Android SDK Tools and Android SDK Platform-tools to the computer.

After installing Android Debug Bridge, you can begin to delete all data on the phone. To do this, do the following:

  1. Run the command line with the cmd command.
  2. We connect the phone to the computer (first enable the option “USB debugging” on the gadget in the “For Developers” section). To make sure that the phone is connected to the PC, use the “adb devices” command.
  3. We go to the ADB directory by entering the “cd” command. To do this, put a space after “cd”, and specify the path to the directory.
  4. We enter the command “adb reboot recovery” at the command line (without quotes) and wait until the phone starts in recovery mode.
  5. Using the physical buttons on the phone, first select “wipe data / factory reset”, and then “Reboot system now”.

Using this utility is relevant when the device is locked or malfunctioning (for example, the sensor does not work).

How to clear all data on the phone remotely

There is an Android formatting option that does not require “direct” contact with the phone. Using your Google Account.

In order to make a full reset on Android in this way, you can use absolutely any device with access to the Internet.

In order to be able to delete all information from the phone in the future, you must correctly configure your device. To do this, do the following:

  • Go to the “Security” section, which is located in the device settings;
  • Click on “Device Administrators”;
  • Check the box next to the option “Find device”;
  • Turn on mobile Internet and the option “Location Reporting” on the phone.

In addition to the above conditions, the device on Android should not be turned off.

Note: in addition to formatting the device’s memory through an account, the user can remove the lock from the screen if they forget the password, and, in case of loss, “see” the location of the phone on the map.

To perform a full factory reset of your phone using Google, you need to do the following:

  1. Open a browser on your device and go to google.com.
  2. In the right corner, click “Login.”
  3. Pass authorization and click “Next”.
  4. Click on the “Google Apps” icon, which is located in the upper right corner.
  5. Select “My Account”.
  6. Click on the “Proceed” link, which is located in the “Phone Search” section.
  7. Select the gadget you want to format.
  8. Confirm that the user is the owner of the account.
  9. Click on the link “Delete all data from the device”.
  10. Confirm the deletion by clicking on the “Yes, delete” button.

You can reset to factory settings in another way. Using a secret code.

This method does not always help and is not suitable for all smartphones, so it is less and less used in practice.

In order to reset Android using a secret code, you need to enter the combination ## 7378423 ## or 27673855 # in the dialer menu.

You can format Android in this way if the phone is locked. To do this, select “Emergency call” on the locked screen and enter one of the combinations.