How to install factory settings on Android. Recovering photos and videos after a hard reset. Necessary measures before performing a hard reset

Often, to solve software problems with the functioning of modern smartphones or tablets, you should perform a Hard Reset (hard reboot) or factory reset of Android. In many cases, this helps to get rid of device freezes due to incorrect operation of some applications, junk system files, viruses, etc.

Is it possible to return the phone to factory settings?

The ability to reset data is supported by any Andriod device, so every owner of this system can do it. Before you return the factory settings to your Android, you should understand that at the same time you will completely lose all data except for those recorded on the memory card. It will no longer be possible to restore their capabilities; a rollback of such actions is impossible. If you decide to reset the device to its factory state, then you will lose:

phone book entries;
applications;
photographs, music, books;
saved logins and passwords for accounts.

How to reset settings on Android

Before carrying out this procedure, it is strongly recommended to copy important files and information (photos, videos, music) to the computer via a cord. It is better to make a full backup (copy) of the system, so that if the reset is unsuccessful, you can restore the functionality of the device. There are 3 main options for how to return Android to factory settings:

through the phone menu;
using a combination of buttons;
service codes.

Reset in phone settings

The easiest way to reset settings on Android to factory settings is through the gadget menu. To do this, the device must work and be able to go to the main section of the system. For all smartphones running Android 4.0 or older, the procedure is as follows:

Go to the main menu.
Click on the "Settings" section.
Find the "Backup and Reset" section.
Scroll down the page and find the “Reset settings” section.
The system will inform you that the data will be deleted from the smartphone. Click on the line “Reset phone settings” and confirm the desire to “Erase everything”. The items may vary slightly between different phone models, but the names are always similar.

Using service combinations

This method also requires that the device be turned on and be able to proceed to dial a number. Each manufacturer programs their devices with special combinations that help return them to the factory state. This applies to both global brands (Samsung, HTC, Sony) and Chinese inexpensive models. Codes may change over time, they need to be clarified on the manufacturer’s website, sometimes they can be found in the manual for the smartphone. Below are examples of such combinations for your reference:

*2767*3855#;
*#*#7378423#*#*;
*#*#7780#*#.

Key reset using Recovery

The most radical method of how to reset settings on Android to factory settings is the Recovery menu. This is the best way to return your smartphone to its original state if it freezes on the screensaver with the company logo and does not turn on. Each device model has a standard button combination that switches it to the Recovery menu. Sometimes you have to use recovery if:

The phone's stuttering has become too severe;
the system does not allow you to delete, move or change anything.

First, you should completely turn off your phone. Wait until the buttons and screen go out. Next, you need to find a suitable combination for your model (the combination for HTC and Samsung will definitely be different). You can use one of the options:

“volume down” + “turn on” button, also known as “Power” (the most common combination);
on some LG phones you need to press the keys described above, wait for the logo, release “power on” and then press it again;
“volume up” + “volume down” + “turn on”
"Power" + "Home".

Hold down one of the combinations until you are transferred to recovery mode to reset the device to its factory state. The menu is controlled using the volume up and down buttons. If the Recovery version is touch-sensitive, then you can reboot in the standard way (by touching the screen). To confirm your choice, press the “Power” or “Context Menu” button. Next, to reset the phone to its initial state, you need.

Smartphones are far from working perfectly; over time, they begin to freeze, become dull, become clogged with garbage, and are subject to virus attacks. They constantly give out some errors, start to work slowly or refuse to start at all. Hard Reset is the only way to correct a worsening situation. In order not to flash the phone yourself, resetting the configuration often helps, today we will tell you how to reset the settings on Android to factory settings. Returning to factory settings will clear the phone of all kinds of garbage and leave only the software that is important for operation.

The best option for those who are faced with complete inactivity of the smartphone: it is locked, the OS does not load, the display is turned off. In any case, Recovery will fix everything. There is no need to use the phone's operating system itself.

Save all the necessary information in advance, make copies of contacts or synchronize them in your Google account, copy music and photos to your computer.

Recovery options on different brands of smartphones

Each model of Android device has its own ways to enter the recovery menu. Let’s look at the most popular devices from well-known brands.

Meizu

This manufacturer has greatly simplified the method of resetting settings. The user will need to click on “ON” and the sound rocker up. The “Clear data” option will be displayed. Click on it and agree to the cleaning.

Xiaomi

As standard, we press the volume up and “ON”. There is a chance of getting on a Chinese menu. In this case, you go down. The very last square on the right will switch to the English layout. Click Recovery and OK.

Now click on “Wipe data” and “Wipe All Data”. We confirm our actions to continue – “Confirm”.

When the return process is complete, go to the menu. Double click on the word “Reboot” and “Reboot to System”.

Hard Reset. Reset to factory settings when the phone is on

If the phone is working, then through its settings we get to “Restore and reset”. Scroll down to “Reset settings”. Next, follow the instructions, entering all the necessary information, if required. For those who have Android 8.0 Oreo, you will need to perform the following sequence of actions: “System” - “Reset”.

Meizu. Again, through the settings, find the “About phone” subcategory. From here we move to “Memory”. The final menu you need will be named accordingly.
Xiaomi. Resetting on Xiaomi is extremely easy. If you visit “Advanced” you can find the category you need. Remember: memory cards are also formatted. Download all files to your PC in advance.

Everything happens through the “Restore and reset” menu item.

Select “Reset settings” and confirm the action.

For Android version 8.0 and higher, follow this path.

System.
Reset.
Reset to factory settings.

Combination of service codes for Hard Reset

All manufacturers come up with a certain combination of signs for their phones that perform a factory reset. There is no one universal code. To find out the code for your Hard Reset, visit your brand’s website or chat on thematic forums. All combinations are entered in two ways: through regular dialing or making emergency calls. In the search, enter the phone model and write “combination for resetting settings and device model.” Or try from the most commonly used codes below.

*2767*3855#
*#*#7780#*#*
*#*#7378423#*#*

Fastboot program

The Fastboot utility will perform a universal job of clearing the phone's memory. You will need a USB cable and a PC. It is through the computer that you enter the device. To restore the original settings from the manufacturer, unlock the bootloader. Each phone has its own unique combination.
Having connected the phone, call the command line. It becomes a tool for issuing the necessary commands. As an administrator, we write these symbols.\adb reboot bootloader. Where.\ is a required element only for Windows 10: other OSes do not need it.
Fastboot erase userdata – a set of characters that activate system cleaning.
Fastboot reboot – consolidates the result obtained by restarting the OS.

Device locator service

Google has made life easier for its users. A service has been created to locate devices in case of their loss. All you need to do is connect your phone to 3G and sign in to your Google account. On the left there will be an option to erase data.
TWRP Recovery
Pull the slider to the right from TWRP Recovery. To do this, visit the “Wipe” subsection on your phone.

Conclusion

We tried to describe the most common ways to reset settings on Android to factory settings using the built-in Recovery menu, using smartphone options or service codes for Hard Reset. If you have any questions, write in the comments to this page or our group in contact. Video instructions on today's topic.

After several months of active use of a mobile computer on the Android platform, various unpleasant phenomena usually begin to occur. Applications are noticeably slow to launch, websites freeze, and the keyboard desperately refuses to print any letters or numbers. Touches and even persistent knocking on the touch display do not find any response.

It gets to the point where you can’t even turn off your favorite Android smartphone or tablet. What would all this mean? Who is to blame and what to do?

Why reset settings? Causes.

There are two most likely reasons why your Android device is not working properly:

Virus infection.
Severe contamination of the system.

Virus infection most often occurs when you forget to install any good antivirus software on your device.

Doctor Web
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Advanced Mobile Care

The risk of virus infection increases if the user thoughtlessly follows links from emails that came from unknown places, when downloading and installing applications from third-party sources, or when frequently visiting suspicious sites.

Dramatic littering of the Android operating system usually occurs among hyperactive users. Who simply love to download all the new programs (fortunately, most are free) and explore them. All these are very useful things that will help you find the applications you really need in the endless list of the Google Play store. But, fact is fact, such scientific activity inevitably leads to deterioration in the performance of a mobile computer on the Android platform.

In the end, it will become absolutely impossible to do anything on your gadget. In such a situation, there is only one remedy left - reset the operating system to factory settings.

Great option. In older versions of Windows, if the computer's performance seriously deteriorated, it was necessary to reinstall the system and reboot from the distribution disk. But on Android you don’t even need any disks or external installers - the distribution is built into the system.

If this is your first time encountering the problem of resetting the system, most likely you do not know about another very useful Android option - backup and restore.

This is the idea. After returning all Android settings to the factory state, absolutely all user data, files, documents, contacts and accounts will be deleted from your device. It’s as if you just brought your tablet from the store - only applications pre-installed by default from a complex of Google services and affiliates.

You will have to re-search, download and install all the applications and games necessary for work and entertainment, communication on social networks. And you won’t even remember the names of all these programs right away. Difficult and long work lies ahead.

So, Android has a useful option to backup your Google Play account. All your favorite and not so favorite applications are registered in Google Play and you can get it all back to your device without manual search and installation.

Provided that you have set the data backup option in the settings.

Go to Settings.
Find the Backup & Reset tab. There will be a Data Backup item.
Place a tick in the checkbox. Now your data will be saved in the Google cloud service.
Please enter your Google account below for your reservation.
Even lower it says auto recovery. Check the box here too.
Now your data will be restored automatically after resetting the system to factory settings.

Note. In order for automatic recovery, downloading and installation of all your applications from Google Play to occur, when registering the device after resetting the settings, you must specify exactly your Google account, which is used to register on Google Play.

How to reset Android settings

If your Android device is slow, but you can still somehow manage applications, go to Settings and open the Recovery and reset tab.

Select Reset settings. There will be a warning that all data from the internal memory will be deleted. This is a reminder that if you have some important files or documents in your internal memory and you don’t want to lose them, you need to copy all this data to an external memory card or cloud storage. To the same Google Drive, for example. Below is the “red button” Reset the mobile computer.

During the system reset process, the device must be connected to a charger and plugged into an electrical outlet. In order for applications to be restored, you need to leave the SIM card in the device so that the Internet can work immediately after restoring Android.

The process has begun, and then everything will happen by itself. After resetting and reinstalling the system, you will be asked to log in to Google services. Take a piece of paper with the email address and password of the same account that you have registered on Google Play and log in.

After checking your login and password, the automatic downloading and installation of all those applications from Google Play that you had on your tablet before resetting Android settings will begin. Depending on your Internet speed, the application installation process will take a long or short time. Via Wi-Fi it’s fast, with a SIM card it takes a long time.

If the system is so sick that it practically does not respond to touch touches and the mobile computer is virtually frozen forever, what then? In such cases, a physical launch of the Android settings reset process is provided.

Depending on the specific device, there may be options; check the instructions or on the computer manufacturer’s website.

Microscopic hole near the power button. You need to press there with a thin pin.
Another option: turn off your smartphone and simultaneously press the power button and one of the volume buttons (usually “Down”). It may be necessary to hold down the power button for a long time, but also press and release the volume button. Next, in the menu that appears, select “wipe data factory reset” and the item “yes - delete all user data”
Well, never forget about resetting your settings through Settings \ Recovery and reset \ Reset settings.

Problems with an Android smartphone or tablet that cannot be resolved using the usual methods—adjusting settings or checking with an antivirus—can often only be resolved using the hard reset or wipe method. Hard reset (wipe) is a reset of the operating system settings to the factory state, deleting applications, settings, user files, Google account, contacts and other data (with some exceptions: with certain types of reset, multimedia user files remain in place). The essence of the manipulation is to make the device pristinely clean, as if it had just come off the assembly line.

You can reset Android to factory settings in the following ways:

Through the system application "Settings".
By pressing the Reset button (not available on all devices).
Through the Recovery menu;
Using a service (engineering) code - a special telephone number that you need to “call”.
Through a computer, using special software: utilities from device manufacturers or ADB - a debugging tool for developers. The last option is used extremely rarely for this purpose, so we will not touch on it - we will leave it to the developers.

Reset via Settings app

A hard reset through the system Settings application is the easiest, but is only available when the tablet or phone boots up and is able to respond to commands.

Before resetting, transfer all valuable data to external media (SD card or computer), and transfer contacts from the phone book to the SIM card.

Next, open “Settings”, go to the “Personal” - “Backup” section (in other versions of Android it is called “Backup and reset”) and tap “Factory reset”.

At the bottom of the next page, tap the Reset Phone/Tablet button. If you want to delete all data from the memory card at once, check the “Erase SD card” checkbox.

Reset by pressing “Reset”

On the back or side of some devices there is a “Reset” button recessed deep into the case. A short press of this button reboots the device, a long press for 15-30 seconds resets the system to its factory state.

To press “Reset” it is convenient to use a straightened paper clip or a toothpick.

Reset via Recovery menu

If your tablet or smartphone does not boot, or if it is blocked by a virus, the most accessible option would be a hard reset through the Recovery menu.

Attention! Before resetting, the device must be charged or connected to a charger. If the battery level is too low, the gadget may turn off during the reset process, which will damage the firmware and lead to even bigger problems.

Also, during the procedure, you should remove the SIM card and memory card from the device.

The method for entering the recovery menu varies slightly across different brands of devices. Find out how to access Recovery on your device from the model description on the manufacturer’s website or the user manual. Hard reset techniques for the most common gadgets are also collected on the website Hardreset.info. The resource is in English, but in addition to the verbal description there are explanatory pictures, so it is easy to use even without translation.

Here are a few examples of resetting devices popular among our compatriots.

Samsung G920F Galaxy S6

Turn off the machine by pressing the Power button.
Press and hold the Home, Power and Volume+ buttons until you see the Samsung logo on the screen. After this, the Recovery menu will open.
Using the volume rocker to navigate, select the “wipe data/factory reset” option. Confirm your selection by pressing Power.

In the next section, select “Delete all user data”.

Returning back, click “reboot system now” - restart the system now.

After the next startup, the system will be reset.

Lenovo S720

Method 1:

Turn off your Lenovo phone by pressing Power.
Press and hold the Power and Volume+ buttons for about 5 seconds - the Android logo should appear on the screen, and after it the standard Recovery menu (as in the photo above).
Using the volume rocker to navigate, select “wipe data/factory reset”. Confirm your selection by pressing Power.
Then click “Reboot system now”.

Method 2:

Turn off your phone.
Press the Camera and Power button. Hold them down until the device boots into Factory Mode.
If Factory Mode does not open, press the volume rocker so that both halves are pressed.
In the menu that appears on the screen after this, select the “Clear EMMC” option. Use the volume buttons to navigate and Home to confirm.
After this, the phone will automatically reboot and reset the data to the factory state.

ZTE Blade C

Method 1(if the ZTE device boots and opens at least the lock screen):

Tap the emergency call icon.
Dial the number *983*987# .
Press the call button.

Method 2(if the phone does not boot), completely repeats the first method of the Lenovo S720.

As you can see, one of the methods for resetting phones and tablets of different brands, through the standard Recovery menu, is the same. In addition to the listed devices, it is suitable for Acer, Ainol, Akai, BenQ, Fly, Doogee, HTC, LG, Meizu and many others. In a word, for almost everyone.

If your device has custom firmware with an advanced recovery menu, then other reset options are available to you. Among them:

Wipe cache - clearing the program cache. Removes only temporary application data, leaving the rest unchanged.
Wipe dalvic cache - buffer clearing by the Dalvik virtual machine. Helps eliminate errors in program operation.
Format partition_name—cleaning the selected partition (boot, system, SD-card, and others).

Wipe cache and Wipe dalvic cache do not affect user data. Use these options if you are afraid that something valuable will be deleted - something that you did not have time to save.

Reset using service code

Service codes— these are telephone numbers that are used to perform various operations, including deleting data from the device. We have given one of these numbers above (for ZTE devices), but besides this there are also universal ones - designed for different Android devices. Here they are:

*#*#7780#*#* . What will happen if you type: everything will be deleted except system applications and data on the memory card.
*2767*3855# . What will happen if you type: full return to factory state.

Both options are suitable for use if the emergency or normal call function is available.

The Android operating system has a lot of features, many of which users are not even aware of. For example, with just a few taps on the screen of their device, the user can return the phone or tablet to its original form, that is, exactly the way it came from the factory or at the time of installing the firmware. This resets the system. It is necessary if, say, the device starts to slow down or simply glitch. Today we will show you what you need to do to restore factory settings (or reset, which is basically the same thing).

Via interface

This method is the simplest and most user-friendly. I would like to immediately note that this function is available on any Android-based device, but this item may be located in a different place in the menu. Don't worry, you won't get confused.

An example will be shown using pure Android.

Let's go to settings.

In our case, “Restore and reset” is a separate item. Click on it.

Here we see several additional subsections. We don't touch them. Now we are only interested in the “Reset settings” item, which we need to click on.

In front of you you will see the accounts added to the device (for example, this can additionally be a VKontakte account). At the bottom of the screen there is a "Reset Settings" button. Before clicking on it, you can check the box next to the item that will help clear the card memory, if any. Whether you need to check the box or not is up to you, but remember that then all data from the card will be deleted. Of course, data will also be deleted during a factory reset, so make a backup copy of the files you need.

Finally, confirm the reset.

Restoring factory settings in the second way

This method, in our opinion, is more relevant for advanced users, since the settings will be reset in an unusual way - through the Recovery menu.

To enter the recovery menu, you need to do the following:

Turn off your gadget.

Hold down the volume up or down button (depending on your device), and then press the power button.

As soon as the device turns on, remove your finger from the power button while continuing to hold the volume key.

Wait for the recovery menu to load.

Control in the recovery menu is carried out using buttons, and not by pressing the screen.

Find the Wipe & Reset section (or something like that - the designation may be different in the menu), then find Wipe All Data, select and wait for the cleaning to occur. Then you reboot your device and, voila, all settings are reset.