How to Factory Reset your Android Smartphone

Are you getting frustrated as your phone is slow and sluggish? Has your level of patience worn out when your phone takes a couple of minutes to start an app? Or you’ve locked out your device and probably contemplating about selling your phone? If you have any of these issues, we have a solution. All you need to do is perform a factory reset on your Android phone.

What is Factory Reset and How to do it?

Factory reset is an option available in smartphones clears all the data on the phone and set the phone to it’s original as when you first bought it.

Here, in this article, we will walk you through the steps to hard reset or factory reset your Android phone.

See Also: How to Track Your Lost Android & iPhone

Note: Before performing these steps, please take the backup of the data that you need, as all the personal data, apps installed, pictures, songs, videos, WhatsApp chat would be deleted once it is done.

There are two options to do a clean sweep on your phone –

• Factory reset with settings app (basic option)
• Reset in Recovery mode (advanced option)

Basic Option: Factory Reset with Settings App –

Step 1: Open your Device Settings

Step 2: Under Personal -> Back and Reset, first take a backup of your data. During the backup, you need to enter your device password or pattern if there is any.

Step 3: Under Personal-> Back and Reset-> Factory data reset. Before erasing the data, it will prompt you to enter your password if there is any.

Step 4: The device will prompt to erase everything, click on it. The device will be wiped clean.

Step 5: After the work is done, the device will prompt to restart, please select restart.

Step 6: The phone will start and the device will be good as new, you can restore the data once you are done customizing the settings.

These a few simple steps to reset your Android through basic option.

Advanced option: Recovery Reset (Hard Reset)

You must reset your Android device with advanced option or recovery reset if you are locked out of your phone or your phone is not turning up or you are selling your device.

Step 1: Before performing any action, Android device must be turned off.

Step 2: Press and hold the Volume Up button along with Power button until you see the Android robot on the screen.

Note: (This case may differ from phone to phone. In some phones, it can be your Volume down + Power button or Home Button + Power Button or Volume Up + Volume Down + Power Button)

Step 3: A black screen will appear and you would be given options to choose from and the instructions to navigate. Volume up and Volume down are used to navigate through options and power button to execute the action.

Step 4: Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset.

Step 5: To start the action, press Power button.

Step 6: The device will prompt to delete all the data, “Wipe off all the user data”.  Press Volume up button to select yes and Power button to execute the operation. All the data will be deleted once the task is finished.

Step 7: The device will prompt to restart.  When the device is turned on, you will see the welcome screen and your device is good as new.

Step 8: Once you are done customizing the settings, you can restore the data.

Almost everyone in the world owns a smartphone. It is necessary for us to maintain the device properly, moreover, it is important to understand the device that we use. These little troubleshooting steps to reset your Android device will help you to know your device more and eliminate minor performance issues.

Still confused, how to do a factory reset, check out this cool video from Techriders. It will certainly help you to reset your Android device.