Hard reset Android the easy way

Hard reset Android, the “inside” job

Hard reset Android

Time will come when may need to hard reset Android on your phone or tablet to factory settings. Performing a hard reset will erase all user data from the device, reverting it to a default status, just as when it came out of the factory. Why would you want to hard reset Android ?  Maybe you plan to sell or give away your Android device.

Perhaps your phone or tablet is behaving erratically and you just considered to hard reset Android to efectively eliminate any mis-configuration and software incompatibilities by wiping it completely clean. Whatever reason you may have,  you can hard reset Android right from it’s settings menu.

Please note that the following hard reset Android instructions depict an easy way to revert your Android device to factory defaults, but to execute them you need your device in working order, so you can navigate through  its configuration menus and access the correct option.

 If your phone or tablet is currently not able to let you follow this easy path, do not despair: you have other means, certainly more forceful to perform a hard reset Android, by pressing certain keys combination or pressing a hidden reset button.  If you cannot reset Android with the following instructions, then you may search our website for your specific brand / model of Android Device. If you cannot find a way to hard reset Android on your device, please leave a comment with all pertinent information (maker, model) and we will post an alternative hard reset procedure ASAP.

How do you Hard reset Android ?

On your Android device, you press the Home button to get into the main Android screen, then tap over the  SETTINGS button. An extensive menu with all configuration options will appear. Please search for a “SECURITY” or “CONFIDENTIALITY” or “PRIVACY” option (we found that such option may vary on it’s sintax, but essentially convey the same concept) and tap over it.

You will be presented with an option labeled “Factroy Restore” and “Erase all data from your phone” as description -again this text may slightly vary from vendor and Android version-. You tap over it, and a final screen will be shown, asking you to confirm the hard reset Android procedure, and usually also giving you the extra option to wipe out the SDCARD you may have inserted on your Android device.  In our tests, the sdcard wipe out option may NOT work, thus aborting the whole procedure. Provided you are presented with such option, you may leave it clicked, but be warned that if an error ocurrs and your Android device is not wiped clean, then you will need to deselect the “wipe SDCARD” option, perform the hard reset and then eject the sdcard and format it elsewhere.

Again, if you need to perform a hard reset Android and these generic instructions do not suit your particulars, please leave a comment stating brand and model of your Android device and we may come back at you with alternative instructions precisely tuned for it.

7 thoughts on “Hard reset Android the easy way”

  1. How do I completely erase my HTC one M8 as if it just came out the box. I don’t want any information at all to be left behind. I was hacked. I did a factory reset as instructed in the settings but I’m still compromised .

    1. Angie, if there is a microsd card, that would probably need to be addressed separately (I.E. Take it off the phone, insert it into a PC and do a low level format or at least a full format). On the phone itself, that is though, if there is a hack / virus / trojan piece of software resilient enough to survive a reset to default settings, then you would probably need to find an alternative or official ROM, and overwrite the whole operative system with that new image you found.

  2. I have been searching in many websites and youtubes to see how to hard reset my Galaxy Grand Prime model: SM-G5308W, and I’ve tried ALL the possible ways to hold the 3 buttons, it still does not work. It either turns on the mobile or it goes to the “costom OS”. The reason I need to hard reset it because it has virus. Appreciate help!!!!

    1. Hi Cecilia, I am sorry to tell you that actually, the virus may be resilient to a hard reset. What’s even worse: The virus itself may have modified your OS in order for it not being able to perform a reset. This may explain the “Custom OS” message you are getting.

  3. I need to hard reset my zte max duo lte. It won’t allow me in or turn it off or on just keeps flashing ZTE over & over. Only had it a cpl mnts & has acted up about the whole time, if I had not lost the receipt I would have retured it so plez help, tyvm

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