Reset iPhone

Reset iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus

If you want to reset your iPhone 8 (or iPhone 8 Plus) then you can follow our instructions:

At first, It may prove a bit tricky, since Apple changed the way of performing a reset on these phones, compared with older ones.

Without further introduction, here it is:

Quickly press and release the VOLUME UP Button
Quickly press and release the VOLUME DOWN Button
Press (and hold!) the POWER button at the side of your phone until the Apple logo appears on screen.

As an interesting fact, now when you press (and hold) the POWER button while pressing any of the VOLUME buttons, you will end up invoking the EMERGENCY SOS Feature.

Recovering your iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus with DFU

If your iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus seems to be unresponsive, you may try to recover it by activating the DFU or Device Firmware Upgrade function.

This may be useful if your iPhone does not get fixed by performing a simple reset, as seen earlier.

By invoking DFU, your iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus will interface directly with your iTunes, updating (or restoring) its firmware into a factory default version.

Use the following steps:

Power off your iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus
Connect it into your computer.
Load iTunes in your computer.
Press (and hold down) the POWER button for THREE SECONDS.
While holding down the POWER button, press and hold the VOLUME DOWN button
Keep holding down the VOLUME DOWN button for 10 seconds.
After 10 seconds, release de POWER button, while keeping the VOLUME DOWN button pressed for an extra 5 seconds.
If the Apple logo appears on your iPhone, then the process has been aborted and you need to restart from step 1.

If everything went right, a message box will pop up on your computer, stating that your iPhone is in “Recovery Mode” and prompting you to start the restoration process. Just go ahead.

Regarding the Emergency SOS Feature

The Emergency SOS Feature is available on iOS 11, which includes iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. When activated, your iPhone will place an emergency call while disabling the Touch ID, thus preventing that an eventual thief would turn it off.

Reset iPhone 7

You may want to reset your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus because it is behaving erratically, or even worse: it may have stopped responding to your input altogether.

The above scenario may need you to perform a forced restart on your iPhone 7 and the following tutorial has you covered.

On the other hand, you may want to reset your iPhone 7 into it’s factory default mode, leaving it just as when you bought it. Perhaps you want to resell it or give it out as a gift to someone and you do not want to depart from this iPhone 7 without erasing all your private data first. This tutorial will help you in such case, too.

Soft reset your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus

If your iPhone 7 has freezed on you, or it is behaving erratically and you cannot power it off and restart it in the usual way, then you may want to perform a soft reset.

A soft reset will have the same effect on your iPhone 7 as if powering it off and then back on again:

You will need first to press and hold the Lock / Wake button, located on the right side of your iPhone 7
While holding the Lock / Wake Button, press and hold the VOLUME DOWN button, on the other side if your iPhone
Wait until your iPhone’s 7 screen turns off and back on into the Apple logo: Then you can depress those two buttons.

Hard reset your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus

You will be able to reset your iPhone 7 into a fresh copy of its latest IOS operating system by following these steps. This tutorial will hard reset your iPhone 7 into a fresh phone.

First you need to ensure on your computer that you are using the latest iTunes software.
Now connect your iPhone 7 through the lightning USB cable into your computer
If your iPhone 7 is powered ON, then turn it OFF
Press (and hold down) the Lock / Wake button for 3 seconds
While keeping the Lock / Wake button pressed, now press the VOLUME DOWN button for 10 seconds more.
Attention: IF the Apple logo appears on the screen then your timing was bad and you need to retry the last three steps.
Depress the Lock / Wake button, while keeping the VOLUME DOWN button pressed for 5 more seconds.
Depress the VOLUME DOWN button: If you see “Plug into iTunes” written on your iPhone 7 screen then you have taken more than 5 seconds to execute this step and thus you need to restart the procedure from step 3 again.
IF your iPhone 7 screen remains black then you have successfully entered into DFU mode.
YOur iPhone 7 will be recognized by iTunes software on your computer and iTunes will allow you to restore it into factory default mode.

¡Congratulations! You managed to perform a Soft or Hard reset on your iPhone 7, hopefully fixing any kind of problem or trouble you’ve been experiencing.

Hard and Soft reset your iPhone 6

The following tutorial will explain you how to hard reset iPhone 6 into factory default mode, which may be an excellent idea before reselling or gifting away your iPhone 6.

iphone6 reset iphone By performing a hard reset on your iPhone 6, you will erase every personal bit of information from your iPhone 6, including personal messages, contacts, calls history, etc.

We will also teach you how to perform a soft reset on your iPhone 6, which may help you to fix most of not working, slow or misbehaving apps.

This soft reset is accomplished by forcing a shutdown / restart cycling on your iPhone 6 operative system. it may help to regain full speed and control of your iPhone 6 while not loosing and personal data.

Please choose a soft reset if you are noticing any slugging app or general weird behavior on your iPhone 6.

Reset iPhone 6 from IOS menu

The following reset iPhone procedure will be invoked through your settings option, so you need a working iPhone 6 in order to accomplish it. Please follow these steps:

On your iPhone 6 home screen, navigate into SETTINGS, tap GENERAL, then RESET.
When asked, tap into ERASE ALL CONTENT AND SETTINGS
If asked, tap your passcode
Confirm the whole operation by tapping into ERASE IPHONE
This will take several minutes, so be patient please.
After the reset iPhone 6 procedure is complete, you will need to perform an initial activation and / or Setup on your iphone 6, like if brand new.

Reset iPhone 6 from iTunes

You can try to Reset your iPhone 6 from iTunes, even if your iPhone 6 is unresponsive. This may be used as a last resort only.

Connect the iPhone 6 into your computer by using the USB cable that came with it.
Open your iTunes
Select iPhone (it may be found under DEVICES if you have a sidebar on display)
Select RESTORE iPhone
Confirm the reset iPhone procedure by selecting RESTORE again
On the RESTORE IPHONE window, select NEXT (below at your right)
Read and Agree on the software license agreement
Do not disconnect your iPhone 6 from your computer, as the reset procedure takes place

Once your iPhone 6 is reset into factory default settings, you will need to reconfigure it right from the “Welcome to Your New iPhone screen”.

Restarting iPhone 6 when an app is not responding or your phone is misbehaving

You can restart your iPhone 6 by performing a soft reset procedure. This may be your procedure of choice as a first step if you suspect that your iPhone 6 is not working right. In most cases it will fix any spurious problem, clearing the RAM and all running apps. A soft reset procedure will force the power off cycle on your iPhone 6 ensuring a clean restart of the IOS operative system.

You need to hold down the sleep/wake button on your iPhone 6 until a red slider appears onscreen.
You will need to slide it with your finger across the screen: Your iPhone 6 will turn off.
Then you just need to turn on your iPhone 6 again, by pressing the sleep/wake button until the Apple logo appears onscreen

Hard and Soft Reset iPad

This tutorial will explain you how to invoke the soft and hard reset iPad procedure:

By soft reset we mean to force your ipad into powering off, causing all apps running inside it to stop and in turn also freeing the memory and processor slots those apps where clogging up. Once powered off, you may turn your iPad back on: Your iPad will be freshly devoid of those “offending” running apps or games after a soft reset.

Sometimes, a soft reset iPad procedure is just not enough: Your iPad keeps behaving erratically, or denying you normal use of it’s resources. In such case you will need to return your iPad into factory default state. You can do so by invoking the hard reset iPad procedure, which will erase every bit of personalization you may have added into your iPad and leave you with an “as new” tablet, just as if you got it out of the box.

Actually, you don’t need to have a misbehaving iPad in order to invoke a hard reset iPad procedure: You may simply and understandably enough be interested in factory defaulting your iPad before reselling or giving your iPad away, so your personal data and installed apps wont be exposed into eventual third party hands.

Soft reset iPad procedure

From time to time you may need to soft reset iPad due to misbehaving apps that may be clogging or even freezing it, preventing your iPad from normal use. First thing to try, a soft reset on your iPad:

Simultaneously press both the POWER button (usually located on the top edge of the iPad) and the HOME button (located at the middle of the lower front side of it) and keep them both pressed.
A slider may appear prompting you to slide it in order to power off your iPad. You may release both pressed buttons and use the slider to power down your iPad.
Also you may disregard the slider and keep pressing those buttons until your iPad is automatically powered off.

When you power up your iPad again, it will restart in a fresh state (memory and running apps wise). Hopefully this will help any problem you may be experiencing on your iPad. If not, please resort into the hard reset iPad procedure.

Hard reset iPad procedure

In some cases you may need to take even a more drastic measure and do a hard reset on your iPad. By performing a hard reset, your iPad will revert into factory default state, just as if it has been pulled out from it’s retail box.

There are two ways of invoking the hard reset iPad procedure:

First you may use the “Erase all Content and Settings” button, inside the settings menu (scroll down into the bottom, in order to access the RESET options). This will work ok provided that your iPad is still responsive and able to show you the settings app and let you into it.

If you cannot gain access into the RESET menu inside the SETTINGS app on your iPad, then you can try the following alternative hard reset iPad method:

You need a personal computer with iTunes software installed.
Connect your iPad, thru the USB cable into your computer
iTunes * should * recognize your iPad (if it does not, then you may need to force it: Follow this tutorial)
Get into the Summary screen for your iPad on your iTunes software
Click on iTunes into the RESTORE option and follow the on-screen instructions

You should be able to reflash (rewrite) the IOS operative system into your iPad, effectively making it to discard all your personalized settings, apps and games. After successfully finishing the hard reset iPad procedure, it will behave as being pulled out of the retail box.

Recovery Mode

The recovery mode is a special mode that can be invoked not only on the iPhone, but on any Apple IOS based device. This includes also the iPod and iPad. Regardless of how degraded or misconfigured your IOS device may be, the recovery mode can be triggered as a last resort in order to reinstall or upgrade it’s firmware (IOS itself).

Why would I need my iPhone on recovery mode?

Basically you will need to put your iPhone (or any IOS device) into recovery mode if you cannot “fix it” by any other means. Maybe your IOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod) is behaving in a completely erratic way or it is refusing to normally power up.

Whatever your IOS device is evidencing as bad behavior, may have prompted you to plug it into iTunes and reinstall the operative system (a.k.a. “hard reset”). You do so, only to find that your iPhone, iPad or iPod is not recognized by iTunes.

It is at this point that it may be the time to try the recovery mode, as a last resort: When your iPhone is in recovery mode, it * should * be recognized by iTunes software, when connected into your computer. You are forcing it to announce itself into iTunes through USB, regardless of it’s mangled state. From there, you may be able to finally reinstall or upgrade it’s IOS operative system.

Revive your iPhone in recovery mode

Recovery Mode

First you need to place your iPhone into recovery mode. This is also true for any other IOS device.
You need to start with your iPhone powered off. If it is still powered up, an alternative way to power it off is by pressing the POWER and HOME buttons at the same time for some seconds.
Now you plug the iPhone into your computer using it’s USB cable, while pressing (and holding) the HOME BUTTON. This needs to be done in the following order: Start with the USB cable plugged into your computer, but unplugged from your iPhone. Then press the home button and keep it pressed while you plug the USB cable into your iPhone.
Wait until an iconography and or text tells you on your iPhone that it is ready to be discovered by iTunes. If this does not appear after some seconds, repeat these steps.

At this point, iTunes should tell you that it has just discovered an IOS device (an iPhone, for example) in recovery mode. You will be presented with the option to RESTORE the IOS Device, which basically will revive your iPhone, iPad or iPod into factory default state.

NOTE: If you inadvertently placed your IOS Device into recovery mode, know that after about 15 minutes your iPhone, iPad or iPod will revert itself into a powered off state. Alternatively you can just press the POWER button for some seconds until your iPhone powers off, also canceling the recovery mode.

Hard reset iPhone 5

This tutorial will explain the procedure in order to hard reset iPhone 5. A hard reset will reinstall (or even upgrade) the whole IOS (your iPhone 5 operative system), while also completely erasing all your personal data, installed apps and games.

Why would I need to hard reset iPhone 5 ?

In a nutshell this hard reset procedure will surely fix any software related problem or misconfiguration on your iPhone 5. Even if you forgot your passcode! At the end of performing a Hard reset on your iPhone 5 you will get the same welcome and configuration screens as if you just had bought your iPhone… Just as if you took it of from the factory box. Hence, this is also called “Factory defaulting” your iPhone.

Invoking a hard reset on your iPhone 5 may suit you also in the event of selling your phone, even giving it away: If your iPhone 5 is leaving your hands once and for all, you will probably want it devoid of all your personal messages, contacts and data in general.

Executing the hard reset iPhone 5 procedure

You need to invoke the hard reset iPhone 5 procedure from you computer, through the use of iTunes. Please, follow these steps:

Load iTunes in your computer
Connect your iPhone 5 into your computer through it’s USB cable
When iTunes recognizes your iPhone 5, get into iTunes SUMMARY screen for it
Press the RESTORE iPHONE button

Hard reset iPhone 5 itunes confirmation

This will hopefully successfully hard reset your iPhone 5, but we need to be prepared for failure:

If your computer does not aknowledge that your iPhone 5 has been plugged through it’s USB cable to it, then iTunes will not be able to find your iPhone 5 and present you with the Restore button and thus the reset iPhone 5 procedure will not proceed.

In such case you may try to power up your iPhone 5 into recovery mode, which is a last resort option. I explain how to turn on your iPhone 5 in recovery mode in another tutorial.

Soft reset iPhone 4

The following tutorial will explain you how to soft reset iPhone 4. This procedure will cause your iPhone 4 to completely clean it’s memory of running programs. It is like forcing your iPhone 4 to be powered down and up again.

Performing a Soft reset iPhone 4 procedure has the -desirable- effect of liberating it’s memory from running apps and games that may happen to be clogging it down to crawl speed, or even completely freezing it.

Why would I need to Soft reset iPhone 4 ?

Whenever you detect a slugging or erratic behavior on your iPhone 4, it is an excellent idea to try a soft rest in order to restart it with a clean slate. Also please be reasured: the soft reset iPhone 4 procedure will not erase any data or installed apps inside it. It just resets (like turning it OFF and then ON) your iPhone 4 by force.

Steps to soft reset iPhone 4

The following steps will soft reset your iPhone 4. This will most likely solve your freezing / slow iPhone 4 problem. If it doesn’t, then you may seriously consider performing a hard reset on your iPhone 4. You can follow this other tutorial about performing a hard reset on your iPhone 4.

Press and hold the POWER button on your iPhone 4
while pressing the POWER button, now also press and hold the HOME button (on the front, below the screen).
Keep pressing both buttons for about 15 seconds until the silver Apple logo appears on screen.
Release both buttons: The soft reset iPhone 4 procedure has started!
When your iPhone finishes, it will power off by itself.

You may find this soft reset iPhone 4 procedure quite handy, as you will probably discover that it may solve lots of “nuisances” on your beloved iPhone.

Hard Reset your iPhone 4

The following tutorial will teach you how to hard reset your iPhone 4. This procedure will erase all your personal data and installed apps, returning your iPhone 4 into factory default state. Your iPhone 4 will behave as if just purchased, pulled out of the retail box.

Why would you reset your iPhone 4 ?

Let me illustrate why would you need to reset your iPhone 4 by posing the following scenarios:

You are planning to give your iPhone 4 away or resell it, but you do NOT want your personal data, including messages, contacts, Apple account and even installed apps to “go” with it !
Your iPhone 4 may be full of installed apps and games, claiming for your attention, and even actually slowing down your iPhone.
Some apps or games may be behaving erratically enough, throwing some errors at you!

Before performing this hard reset iPhone 4 procedure, please consider if your particular scenario wouldn’t be better suited for a soft reset. A soft reset would just force a power recycling on your iPhone 4, thus liberating your iPhone’s memory of potential garbage and rouge apps or games that went “south” thus slowing the phone down.

In fact, I would wholeheartedly recommend you to first try to perform a soft reset on your iphone 4.

Hard reset iPhone 4 from IOS menu

If you have a normally working iPhone 4 then you can invoke the reset iPhone 4 procedure by performing the following steps:

Find the Settings app on your iPhone 4 and tap it.
When presented with the settings menu, just scroll all the way down into the Reset Menu and tap it.
Locate the “Erase all content and settings” option and tap it.
Your iPhone 4 will warn you about loosing all your information. Just tap over “Erase iPhone” to confirm the hard reset procedure.

Voilá: It will take about a minute for the hard reset iPhone 4 procedure to be completed.

Invoke the hard reset iPhone 4 procedure from iTunes

The following steps will allow you to execute the reset iPhone 4 procedure from your computer by using iTunes. Please be advised that your computer will also need a working connection into the Internet for this tutorial to work. Also please take note that this will eliminate any passcode that may be configured in your iPhone, so it is the desired method to regain control of your phone in case of having forgotten such password:

Plug your iPhone 4 into your computer with the USB cable.
Open iTunes or wait for a couple of seconds for it to automatcally open when your computer detects your iPhone 4 through the USB port.
Select your iPhone 4 from iTunes and get into it’s SUMMARY screen.
Click into RESTORE and follow the on-screen instructions in order to reset iPhone 4 into default settings.

It may take a while to reset iPhone 4 through this method because iTunes may download a completely fresh (and new) firmware (the IOS operative System) from Apple’s servers through Internet.