The Best Way To Factory Reset Your Android Phone
An Android phone that freezes (especially when it holds years of photos) will make anyone panic. Factory resets can fix stubborn software problems and are also necessary if you plan to sell or give away the phone. Use the wrong method and you’ll lock yourself out of your own device permanently.
Far too many users jump into the reset before taking care of a few steps. Skip them and Factory Reset Protection very quickly turns into a real headache. Your data disappears and the phone won’t recognize your correct login. Follow the right sequence to ensure that your files stay safe and that the phone will actually work once the reset is done.
Every one of these problems can be avoided completely if you walk through a few simple prep steps first.
Let’s talk about the safest and most reliable way to factory-reset your device!
Steps to Take Before the Reset
Factory resetting your Android phone seems easy enough. A few preparation steps can make or break the entire process though. Plenty of users want to skip straight to the reset and that’s usually when problems start happening.
Remove your SD card and SIM card first. Leaving these cards installed during the procedure can actually cause problems with the reset process. It’s best to pull them out and keep them somewhere safe.
Android 5.1 brought us a security feature called Factory Reset Protection and while it might sound like a smart idea on paper, it actually creates big problems for regular users. Users have no idea at all that they need to remove their Google account before they start the factory reset process. Once the reset finishes your phone will completely lock you out – which is pretty frustrating. This whole scenario happens pretty regularly and when it does, you’re left holding a device that refuses to let you back in – even though it’s rightfully yours.
You can remove your Google account pretty easily once you find the right menu. Go to the Settings and find the Accounts section. Your Google account should be listed right there and you can tap on it to remove it completely. It’s smart to disable any screen locks you currently have active while you’re already in the Settings. That means passwords, fingerprint scanners, face unlock and patterns – everything needs to be turned off.
These preparation steps look like extra work that you might want to skip. They’re quite important for a smooth reset process though. Skipping any of them could leave you with a completely locked phone that you can’t access even with your own credentials. This preparation process takes maybe five minutes and it’s worth doing it right the first time.
Reset Your Phone Through the Settings Menu
After your phone has been backed up and it’s ready to go, the easiest way to do a factory reset is through the settings menu, as long as your phone still responds to your touch and can open apps without any big freezing problems.
Each manufacturer puts the option in a slightly different place. Look for it under Settings, then System, then Advanced, and finally the Reset options, though Samsung owners might need to look under General Management instead. Older Android versions might have the reset options sitting there in the System menu without that extra Advanced step to navigate.
After you tap “Erase all data,” your phone won’t start wiping everything right away. Android will put you through a handful of confirmation screens first, asking for your PIN, password or fingerprint to make sure that it’s actually you doing this. This security check prevents anyone from easily wiping your phone if somebody else gets hold of it.
Users get nervous at this point and that is completely normal. It usually takes somewhere between five and fifteen minutes, though older phones might need a bit more time to get through everything. Your screen will go black for a while once you hit that final prompt. Everything’s fine – your phone is busy wiping all of your data and going back to its original factory state.
You might worry about the reset hanging halfway through. This rarely happens. Your phone just needs enough battery power and a touchscreen that responds properly to work through the process. If your screen is cracked or unresponsive, the Recovery Mode option is what you need instead.
Recovery Mode When Your Phone Freezes
Your phone might suddenly freeze and won’t respond to anything (maybe it keeps restarting in an endless loop, or the touchscreen has just stopped responding). It can be very frustrating and call for Android’s Recovery Mode. It’s the one tool that can actually get your device back on track and working the way it should again.
Recovery Mode is Android’s built-in emergency repair system. Even if your device looks completely dead, you can still reach this hidden mode through a specific button combination during startup. Most manufacturers use the Power button with Volume Down, though each brand likes to put its own spin on the process.
Once you’re in Recovery Mode, you’ll see an interface that looks quite plain and unwelcoming. White text on a basic black background replaces all the colorful graphics and touch controls that you’re used to. Use the volume buttons to scroll through the available options while the power button confirms your choice.
One of the menu items that you’ll see is “Wipe data/factory reset,” which admittedly sounds pretty scary. It actually just performs the same factory reset feature that you’d normally access through your phone’s settings menu. Everything about this experience feels a bit sneaky.
Factory Reset Protection does create one important limitation worth knowing about. Any Google account that was on your phone will still need that same login information after the reset finishes, even if you start it through Recovery Mode.
How Each Brand Does the Reset
Your Android phone’s reset process can be completely different from what you’ll find in online guides and it’s not your fault if you get confused. Samsung hides its factory reset option under something called General Management instead of putting it in the usual System menu where you’d expect to find it. They also let you wipe your phone remotely through their SmartThings Find feature if you lose it. Google Pixel phones take a different approach and make the whole backup process easier during resets. All your photos and app data sync automatically to your Google account without you having to lift a finger.
Phone manufacturers don’t randomly change Android on a whim – and there’s actually a reason behind the madness. Most of them are trying to add security features that their customers care about or at least make the settings that matter most much easier to find. Samsung knows that their customers use Galaxy phones for work and business users need to have reliable remote wipe capabilities when things go wrong. Google focuses heavily on Pixel phones and their owners never have to worry about losing their personal data during a factory reset. They adjust Android because each one has its own idea of what its customers want and need.
Following along with a guide that shows completely different menu names than what shows up on your screen can turn into a big headache. You could wind up spending a few minutes tapping around through the Settings just to discover that your reset option is buried somewhere completely different from where you expected it to be in the first place. Some phones will also prompt you for extra passwords or PINs during the reset process and can stump you if you weren’t prepared for that extra verification step.
Many manufacturers actually give you extra control over exactly what gets erased during the reset. You might see options to leave your internal storage completely untouched while wiping everything else clean. These options can vary dramatically between different makers and even between models from the same company which makes it hard to predict what you’ll see on your device.
What Happens After the Reset
After your phone finally restarts, you’ll see that same welcome screen you remember from the first unboxing of the device. That setup dance starts again – you pick your language, get connected to your Wi-Fi network and sign back into your Google account.
A lot of users get tripped up at this point, and it can be pretty frustrating if you’re not expecting it. Even though you just completely wiped your phone clean, Android is still going to ask for the exact Google account that was linked to the device during the reset. Factory Reset Protection is the name of this security feature, and it’s working just the way Google designed it. They built this into Android specifically to make stolen phones completely worthless to thieves. If anyone steals your phone and tries to factory reset it, they’re stuck at this screen without your login credentials.
Not remembering your Google password is when it gets tough. In that case you’ll need to visit Google’s website and go through their account recovery process during the phone setup. There’s no way to skip or bypass this security checkpoint, so you should double-check your login info during the factory reset process.
Once you make it past that security screen, your phone will ask if you want to restore all your data from Google Drive. Your earlier backup works well at this point. Your contacts will pop back up pretty quickly, and all your apps will start downloading themselves automatically. Restoring everything can take anywhere from about thirty minutes to a few hours, depending on how big your app and photo stash was.
One detail to watch out for is that your text messages will probably be missing too unless you backed those up separately.
Should You Do a Factory Reset
A factory reset always seems like the perfect fix when your phone starts acting up and it’s very tempting to just wipe everything completely and start over. Lots of users jump straight to this extreme step without stopping to think if they actually need to go that far though. Nine times out of ten a much easier fix will get your phone working normally again without all the headache of rebuilding everything from scratch.
Don’t get me wrong – factory resets definitely have their place. You want to be sure all your personal info is wiped first if you plan to sell your phone or pass it on to a family member. Another solid reason is when stubborn malware just won’t go away. And when your phone has become so painfully slow you can barely open an app, a reset might actually be your last resort.
Common phone problems usually don’t call for these extreme measures. One app keeps crashing every time you open it? Clear the app’s cache to sort it out in about thirty seconds. Low storage space can also surprise you. You don’t need to wipe your device just because of that. You can just delete old photos you never look at anymore then get rid of the apps that you downloaded once and forgot about.
A quick restart can work really well too and most users don’t try it nearly enough. In the tech world we call it a soft reset and it actually does fix far more problems than you’d expect. You can also clean out the cache partition on your device – and that gets rid of temporary files and junk data without touching any of your personal files. Users have lost years of family photos because they thought a factory reset would fix their email app instead of just deleting the app and downloading it again.
Other times though you might just want a completely fresh beginning with your device and that’s totally understandable. Maybe your home screen has turned into a complete mess over the years or you’ve piled up too many random apps you never use anymore. A full reset makes total sense in these situations too.
Trade Your Old Phone for Cash Today
A factory reset can seem like a big job when you’ve never done one before. You have everything you need right here to get through this without any big problems. Maybe you’ll wind up going with the standard Settings menu path or maybe your phone is being stubborn and you’ll need to use Recovery Mode instead. Either way, the basic steps work the same way no matter what Android phone you have in your hands. Samsung devices might use different button combos than a Google Pixel and each of them acts slightly differently. Across all makers though, the process is always going to work the same way.
At some point or another you’ll probably need to do a factory reset. Maybe your phone has become slow and laggy over time or maybe you have weird bugs that just won’t go away no matter what you try. It could be that you’re about ready to sell it or give it to a family member who could use a new phone. Whatever’s going on with your situation, this guide will always be helpful to have around at the right time. It might look scary at first. Once you start working through each step one by one though it’s actually straightforward each time.
If you’re ready to give your phone to another person or thinking about upgrading to something newer and better, there’s no reason to just toss that old device in a drawer somewhere.
At ecoATM, we make it really easy to turn your old Android into cold cash and you’re helping out the environment at the same time. More than 6,000 kiosks are all over the country, so you can get your phone evaluated and walk away with cash or a paperless payment on the very same day. Just find one that’s near you and see what your phone is actually worth – it’s a quick way to help pay for your next phone and stop old electronics from ending up in a landfill somewhere.
