How To Factory Reset the Kindle Fire [December 2020]

The Kindle Fire is an affordable and surprisingly capable little tablet extremely well-suited for home and travel use. Despite its very low price point, the Kindle Fire tends to have solid performance and, in terms of features, is competitive with tablets in higher price ranges.

However, as with any computing device, as time goes on, your device may start to have problems. If you’re trying to troubleshoot the issue with your device, or you have decided to sell your Kindle Fire and restore it to its factory settings, doing a factory reset may be the solution

In this article, I will show you how to factory reset your Kindle Fire device.

How to Backup Your Kindle Fire

Factory resetting your device means it will be completely wiped clean, so before performing the reset, you’re going to want to backup your data in order to ensure you don’t lose anything important.

To enable auto backup of your Kindle Fire device, follow these simple steps:

1. On the home screen of your Kindle device, swipe down from the top of the Kindle Fire. Tap the Settings icon.
2. Tap Device Options. Scroll to and select Backup & Restore.
3. Toggle the Backup & Restore button to the on position. It will appear orange when enabled.

Backup for your Kindle Fire occurs when your device is in standby (or sleep mode if it’s connected to your Wi-Fi).

You’ll also notice the option to save your Wi-Fi passwords to Amazon as well. Toggle that on as well if you’d like them to be stored in the cloud.

By following these simple steps, you can proceed to factory resetting your device without permanently losing all of your data.

How To Factory Reset Your Kindle Fire

Now that you’ve backed up your device, it’s time to factory reset your Kindle Fire. Before following through with this, though, we recommend performing a soft reset (simply restarting your device) to see if that solves your problems. A soft reset can fix many basic issues without restoring factory settings.

Once you’re sure you’re ready to factory reset your Kindle, follow these steps to do so:

1. On the home screen of your Kindle device, swipe down from the top of the Kindle Fire. Tap the Settings icon.
   
2. Go to Device, then tap on Device Options.
3. Select Reset to Factory Defaults.
4. An alert message gets displayed telling you that you’re about to reset your Fire to factory defaults. Click Reset to confirm.

If you’d also like to erase your SD card, the alert box that pops up instructs you on how to do that as well. Otherwise, you’re ready to go.

Unless you’re selling your Kindle Fire or giving it to someone else once the factory reset completes, you’ll need to re-enter all your Amazon account information.

If you’ve got the auto back feature enabled before you reset your Kindle Fire, it’ll ask you if you want to restore your device from the backup once you turn it on again.

Perform a Reset with Forgotten Screen Lock Code

If you’ve forgotten your screen lock the above-listed options may not be available for your Kindle. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to fix your locked Kindle Fire. Performing these steps will delete all information from the device but once complete, you will have access once again.

1. Swipe sideways from the right-hand side of the screen
2. Input an incorrect password more than 5 times
3. Select the option to reset your device
4. Tap on the option to reset your Kindle Fire

Unfortunately, if you’ve been locked out of your device you won’t get the chance to back up any of the information. Unless it was already backing up be prepared to lose some of your information.

Frequently Asked Questions

My Kindle Fire keeps freezing. Do I need to do a factory reset?

If your Kindle is freezing or it’s stuck on one screen, there are some things you can do before performing a factory reset. First, a soft reset should be the first step to getting your Kindle right again. All you need to do is hold the power+volume down button until the screen turns off. Then, wait about 10 seconds and power it back up again.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eIf you’re having a consistent freezing problem you should make sure that your Kindle’s software is up-to-date and the memory isn’t full. Lastly, try u003ca href=u0022https://www.techjunkie.com/clear-cache-kindle-fire/u0022u003eclearing the cache on your Kindleu003c/au003e before performing the factory reset.

What is the ‘111222777’ passcode for?

Some Kindle devices let users type this code into their passcode field for a quick reset. The 6th Gen Kindle Fire for example uses this code to reset all parental controls while some other models allow you to input this code and perform a full factory reset. Just beware, you could lose everything on your device if you input this code.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes, the only way to restore your Kindle Fire to its working order is to perform a full factory reset. If you need additional help troubleshooting your Kindle Fire, or the factory reset doesn’t correct the issue you can visit the Kindle support website. If the issues you’re having are related to hardware rather than software, it’s unlikely that the reset will work. Your tablet may have a warranty so contact Amazon for additional help.

Have any other helpful Kindle Fire troubleshooting tips? Share them with us in the comments!