How to reset an Android phone

When an Android smartphone stops working properly, becomes unstable or too slow resetting to factory data may be the solution.

It’s often said that Android phones “age” much sooner than Apple’s iPhones and, at least in part, it’s true: it often happens to see Android users complaining because their smartphone is slow, doesn’t open properly, freezes suddenly or restarts for no apparent reason.

In reality, however, there is a reason: in most cases that Android user has installed too many apps, has never uninstalled them even if he doesn’t use them, has a full memory and the phone can’t take it anymore. On the iPhone this works much less, for the simple reason that there are far fewer free apps available and most users use apps developed directly by Apple to accomplish most tasks. If resetting an iPhone can sometimes be very useful, then, even more so will resetting an Android phone. Even in this case there is a very precise procedure (more than one actually) that you need to follow and it’s very important that the phone doesn’t turn off during the reset. So charged battery and charger connected to the phone, then you can go.

How to reset Android smartphone

The easiest way to restore the factory settings of a smartphone with Google’s Androi operating system is to go to Settings > System then Advanced and finally Reset Options. Here we’ll have to choose the option “Erase all data (factory data reset).

If your Android phone won’t boot up, however, this procedure can’t be done and you’ll have to resort to plan B: do the reset from Recovery Mode, pressing a key combination that varies from phone to phone. Usually two keys are enough: one is always the power key, the other varies between Vol + and Vol -.

There is a third option that should not be underestimated, which is the simplest of all but requires a computer connected to the Internet. By accessing the Internet with a normal browser you can use Google’s Find My Device (android.com/find), which will show you a list of all the phones you’ve used over time with your Google account.

Just select the phone you want to reset and choose “Reset Device”. It will start, remotely, the same procedure described at the beginning of the paragraph.