Resetting your Android phone is something that everyone should be able to do. I am going to be showing you exactly how to perform a factory reset on your Android phone but first we need to go over a few things. The first thing is to make sure that a factory reset is what is needed for your Android phone and what safety measures you need to take to make sure you will not lose any important data during the reset process.

What is a factory reset?

Simply put, a factory reset is taking the Android phone and reverting it to its original state directly from the factory. The information that you store in the phone such as contacts, pictures, passwords, texts, ringtones, and documents, as well as any applications installed will be wiped off and gone forever. The only thing that will be left intact is the Operating system.

When is a factory reset recommended?

It is recommended that you factory reset your Android phone before selling it to another party to make sure there is no personal data left stored on the device. If you have been having issues with your Android device, it has showed a decrease in speed because of the many apps installed, or it is having issues from the changes you may have made to your Android phone’s settings, then a factory reset might be what is needed to fix these problems.

Safety measures before resetting your Android phone

• Back up all the pictures and files that you want to keep on your PC or an SD card
• Make sure the phone is synced with an email client like Gmail so you will keep all your contacts. If you do not wish to use Gmail, you could download an app called My Backup Pro. This app allows you to backup all your contacts onto a server or an SD card. It will also let you backup call logs as well as text messages.
• It has been recommended that you do NOT backup the applications on your phone as these might be the reason you are experiencing problems. If you wish, create a simple list on paper of all the apps you have installed so you can re install them after the factory reset. Make sure to do this one by one to spot any possible problems.
• If the Android phone you are going to reset does not have a SIM card you will need to talk to the carrier of your cell service before performing a factory reset. This is because it may need to be reactivated after you have reset your device. Usually this will not be the case but you should take note if you have a Verizon phone or a carrier that uses CDMA networks.
• Make sure to remove the SD card from your phone after you have saved the data that you want to keep. This ensures that you do not accidentally format over the data when doing a factory reset of your Android.

Instructions:

•  From the home screen of your device, press the Menu button.

• Select Settings from the menu options

• Scroll down and select Privacy

• Select Factory data reset from the Privacy settings

• If you do not want to remove all the files from your SD card, make sure the box to “Format SD card/Erase SD card” is not checked. Click on the Reset Phone button.

Sometimes the factory reset process may take a few minutes or happen more quickly. After it has completed the phone will reboot. If you continue to have problems after performing a factory reset, take your phone into your carrier.