Our phones are getting more advanced by the day. While this does mean we have more options at our disposal, it also has one potential downside. Namely, the more features our device has, the more things there are that can go wrong. When you have a hundred apps running in the background, updating and overwriting, it’s not really a surprise that sometimes things go wrong.
And occasionally, things can go very wrong. So much so that the usual troubleshooting methods produce no results. In situations like these, a last-ditch effort to fix things is to perform a factory reset.
Also known as a hard reset, a factory reset is, bar none, the most drastic thing you can do to your phone as far as software is concerned. If you are using it in an attempt to fix a problem, a fitting analogy might be to compare it to defibrillation. It can help but you really don’t want it to come to this.
Doing a factory reset on a Google Pixel 2/2 XL is surprisingly easy, actually. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the required process, but we’ll also go over certain things you need to be aware of if you’re contemplating this.
Doing a Factory Reset
From the home screen, go to your Settings by pressing the corresponding button.
You will then see this menu.
We are looking for the “System” submenu. It’ll be all the way at the bottom. Find and press it. Once you’re in the System options, tap on “Reset”. Now, you have three options, depending on how severe you want to be.
- “Network settings reset” will delete all data related to Wi-Fi and network connectivity in general. This can help if you’re having trouble going online and is not as extreme as the final option. Still, it should only be used as a last resort.
- “Reset app preferences” can be useful when an app is freezing or crashing. Again, you need to be very careful with it even though it doesn’t get rid of everything.
- “Factory data reset” is the eponymous option. This will delete all your data and return the phone’s software to factory settings.
If you still want to go through with it, select “Factory data reset”. The next screen will show you everything that will be deleted. Scroll all the way down and press “Reset phone”. You will now need to enter your device pattern, for security reasons.
Finally, you need to give one last confirmation. Press “Erase everything” to complete the factory reset, but know there is no going back after you do that. The phone will reboot and return to how it was when you took it out of the box.
Conclusion
We really can’t overemphasize how careful you need to be when doing a factory reset. It can help with a major problem, but make sure you’ve exhausted all your other options first. Although, not all of its uses are so grim. If you plan to sell your Pixel 2/2 XL or give it away, a factory reset is almost certainly the right thing to do. Whatever your reasons, you now know how to do it. Just remember to back up everything you might need.
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