There are many reasons why you have to do a ‘hard reset’ to a smartphone, although the most frequent is that the reason is a critical failure that forces you to do so, although there are other less catastrophic reasons. A ‘hard reset’ is basically a total erasure of everything in the phone except, of course, the operating system.
If you are relatively new to Android and something forces you to do this ‘hard reset’, as serious failures after an update , for example, and do not know what to do, we will explain in the next lines how you should perform the process and what you can do immediately afterwards, before being able to enjoy your mobile again.
In what cases would I want to do a ‘hard reset’?
It is clear that one is not going to do a ‘hard reset’ on a whim (well, the same someone is), and start erasing all the data on your mobile is not something you like to do, mostly because of the hassle of having to wait for the process itself to be carried out and then configure everything again , wait for the apps to be updated, etc.
So, in which cases would someone want to do a ‘hard reset’? There are the most common cases such as cleaning and recovering at least part of the fluidity that was before, but there are other reasons, for example, that you are going to give or sell the terminal to someone else and want to leave it as good as new.
The ‘hard reset’ can be a requirement if you are going to install a ROM coming from a different one , it would be what is known as a clean installation, and the objective is to avoid conflicts between the files of the previous ROM and those that are install next.
The cause can be a bad installation of a ROM or a critical failure in an update, and it could even be for stranger causes such as malware or touching system files without knowing how to do it properly.
Doing a ‘hard reset’
Before starting the process, we recommend, as always, that you make a backup of all your data . You can do it from the settings menu looking for the Backup section, that data will be saved in your Google account. If you are root, you could complete with Titanium Backup to save the data of the applications you want.
Once you are sure that you have saved all the desired data, it is time to do the massive deletion. For this you will have to look for the option to restore factory data in the settings (normally it will be in the same section as the backup) and accept that you will erase the data, photos, videos and other files.
If you are root and you have a modified recovery installed, you can do it from it . For example, in TWRP you would have to do a data ‘wipe’ (data) and cache (also Dalvik if the device has it). Never mark the system (System), because you would erase the operating system, which would force you to install another ROM (or the same one again).
Some manufacturers (such as LG or Samsung) have a computer software that has the option of doing a restoration to factory data simply by connecting the mobile by USB to the PC, looking for the option and selecting it.
For extreme cases
There are cases in which you can not do a ‘hard reset’ of the forms that we have explained above, so you will have to resort to other methods that have the same function but are a bit more complicated . However, these methods, in case your terminal is quite annoyed, can save you the phone.
If you are not root, you can still enter the recovery stock , for which you only have to turn off the phone and then press the power button and the volume down button at the same time . We warn that in some brands (such as Huawei, for example) the combination is power button and volume up .
Once inside you only have to go to the ‘wipe data and cache’ option (normally the menu is in English) and then the ‘Reset system setting’ option (or equivalent), after which you will have your ‘hard reset’ done and you can continue with the next step.
What to do after a ‘hard reset’?
Once carried out the process of ‘hard reset’ and having made the first configurations, you will only have to wait for the data stored in your Google account to be restored and update the apps that you have installed in Google Play. That is, you basically have to do the same as if you turned it on for the first time. In the following link you have everything on how to set up an Android mobile from scratch:
In case you had your phone rooted and want to continue like this, surely the ‘hard reset’ has removed it, so you will have to go through the process again and, once you have achieved it, if you had saved application data with Titanium Backup, you can recover them with the same application and execute them as before.
As a last recommendation, if you are waiting for an update via OTA, do not do the ‘hard reset’ until you have installed it , because if you do it before you will probably have to wait a few more days until it’s your turn again. We hope that this small tutorial will serve those who are still new or have never followed this process.