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. The time has come 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 listen to me a little”.
Here you have everything you need to know about how to restore factory settings of an Android phone and leave it as 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 or Samsung account configured 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 settings of some apps, stored WiFi passwords and little else.
Before factory resetting your phone or tablet, make sure to always make a good backup of all the important information you want to keep. If you want more info on the subject, take a look at the post “How to backup Android”, Where I explain everything in detail.
Factory reset Android with the easy method
Factory resetting on an Android phone is very easy. From the same settings menu you can do the whole process with little more than 3 screen touches:
- Go to the menu settings from Android.
- Go to "Backup and reset”. Depending on your version of Android you can find this section in the submenu "Personal"Or"general”.
- Click on "Factory data reset”.
- You will get a message indicating that you are going to erase all the data from the phone. Choose "Reset device”. If you get a warning message, read it well and press accept to permanently reset the factory settings.
- Restart the phone.
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 can't 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 button up"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. Choose "And it is”.
- Once the factory settings are 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 program Unlock Tools and the Android ADB Interface in the computer. In this video you have all the steps and links necessary to carry out the process.
