It doesn’t matter if you have the best Android phone on the market. At some point, all devices start to have ailments: they are very slow, they hang constantly or they restart without prior notice. Now is the time to factory reset your device . It’s Android’s way of telling you “ Hey, you’ve been giving me a lot lately and now I need you to pay attention to me a little bit ”.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to restore factory settings to an Android phone and make it look fresh from the store.
Data backup: important, before factory reset on Android
When you do a factory reset all your apps, contacts and data that you have stored in the internal memory of the phone are deleted. The phone is as it came out of its box the first day (except for the operating system, which if you updated it maintains the same version).
If you have a Google account set up on your Android, you can recover a certain part of your data once the restoration is done, but you only recover that, “ some of your data ”. Such as contacts, the configuration of some apps, stored WiFi passwords, SMS and little else.
Before restoring your phone or tablet to the factory , make sure you always make a good backup of all the important information you want to keep, such as photos, videos and other documents that you may have stored in the internal memory. If you want more information on the subject, take a look at the post ” How to make a backup on Android “, where we explain everything in a little more detail. You can also see some of the best backup tools for Android in THIS OTHER POST .
Factory reset Android with the easy method
Factory resetting on an Android phone is a breeze. From the same settings menu you can do the whole process with little more than 3 screen touches:
- Go to the Android Settingsmenu .
- Go to ” System -> Recovery Options“. Depending on the manufacturer or customization layer of your operating system, this option may be in a different place. In Samsung mobiles, for example, the recovery options are in “Settings -> General administration -> Reset”.
- Click on ” Return to factory status (delete all)“.
- You will get a message indicating that you are going to erase all the data from the phone. Select ” Clear all data.” If you get a warning message, read it well and press accept to permanently reset the factory settings.
- From here the phone will reset and restart automatically.
Partial restore options
Performing a total wipe of phone data can be too radical, no doubt. If our problem is not “so serious” sometimes it can be solved simply by performing a partial system restore. If we go back to « Settings -> System -> Recovery options » we will see that Android offers us a couple of additional solutions that are somewhat less aggressive:
- Recover Wi-Fi, mobile network and Bluetooth: From here we will erase all communication settings and leave them in their original factory state. A recommended solution if we have problems with coverage, WiFi or Bluetooth connections. After doing this we will have to reconfigure the SIM and re-enter all the WiFi passwords. As well as pairing our wireless devices like headphones and speakers. Of course, all apps, photos, videos, and more remain intact.
- Recover application settings: With this option , all application preferences are reset , such as disabled apps, app notifications, default applications and permission restrictions, among others. Application data remains intact. A recommended solution if, after clearing the data and cache, we continue to have problems with an application.
How to do a hard reset without entering the settings screen
What we just saw right now is very good, but what if we want to do the factory reset and we cannot even access the Android settings menu ? In this case we must do what is called a “hard reset”, which is to do a reset without entering the operating system at any time. Remember that this process involves erasing all the data stored on the device.
- Turn off the phone.
- Now what we have to do is hold down a combination of buttons at the same time for a few seconds to enter the system recovery menu. From one phone or tablet model to another the buttons may vary, but in most cases it is usually ” Power Button + Volume Up Button ” or ” Power Button + Volume Down Button”.
- Within the recovery menu select ” Wipe Data / Factory reset“. To move through the menu you have to use the volume keys . To select an option, press the power button.
- A message will appear indicating that you are going to delete all the data. Select ” Yes.”
- Once the factory settings have been restored, select “ Reboot now”.
Restore Android to factory settings from PC
As a third and final option, you can also do a factory reset from your PC. You just have to enable USB debugging on the Android device and connect it to your PC or laptop via USB. To carry out the formatting process, it is necessary to install the Unlocking Tool program and the Android ADB Interface on the PC. In this video of the Official Security PC channel you have all the steps and links necessary to carry out the process
