If you need to sell your LG G5, or maybe you just want to wipe the data clean and start fresh, then let me show you how to perform a factory reset.
The Android OS is very complex and there are a ton of individual components that work together to give you the mobile platform you know today. If one of those parts start to act up for whatever reason, then you could notice some strange bugs while you use your LG G5. This could be bugs that don’t even relate to what actually started the issue.
For example, some corrupt cache data from one app, could cause performance issues with a completely different application.
You also might have plans to sell the LG G5 and you don’t want you account attached to the device while it’s being shipped to the buyer. There are more pieces of personal data that could be left on the device even after you remove your Google account from it. So it’s always good to know how to perform a factory reset on the LG G5. Even if you don’t have plans to sell it, a factory reset can help resolve some random issues like poor performance, poor battery life, overheating, etc. So let me walk you through the process on how to factory reset the LG G5.
LG G5 Factory Reset
- Launch the Settings Application
- Tap on the ‘General’ Tab All the Way to the Right
- Scroll Down and Tap on the ‘Backup & Reset’ Option
- Scroll Down and Tap on the ‘Factory Data Reset’ Option
- Tap the ‘Reset Phone’ Button at the Bottom Right
- Enter Your PIN/Pattern/Password
- Tap the ‘Delete All’ Button
- Then Confirm by Tapping the ‘OK’ option
- And Wait for the Process to be Completed
Explanation
Normally, there are two different ways to do a factory reset on an Android smartphone. As I discussed yesterday though, there doesn’t seem to be a way to get into the stock recovery mode right now so there isn’t a way to do a ‘hard factory reset’. Instead, we have to stick with what is referred to as the ‘soft factory reset’. Thankfully, there isn’t much of a difference between the two but the hard factory reset can help to fix a software issue that’s preventing you from booting the LG G5 to Android.
The only way to get around that now would be to manually flash the LG firmware and that’s something I’ll discuss in a future tutorial. So for now, let me show you how to do a soft factory reset on the LG G5. You’ll need to launch the Settings application and then tap on the General tab at the far right. From here, you’ll want to scroll down and tap on the Backup & Reset option. Then scroll down again and tap on the Factory Data Reset option at the bottom of the screen. This will give you a little summary of what will be erased from doing a factory reset.
From here, look at the bottom right of the screen and tap on the Reset Phone option. The LG G5 will then ask you to confirm your PIN, pattern or password (if you have one), so that it knows the factory reset instructions are coming from the owner of the device and not someone who has just stolen your phone. After that, you’ll be taken to a screen that asks you one more time if this is what you want to do. So just tap on the Delete All button and then tap on the OK button at the bottom right of the dialog box that pops up.
You’ll be told that the LG G5 will reboot two times during the process (which you can see in the video above) and then you’ll be taken back the standard Android activation screen. This will be the same screen that you saw when you first pulled the LG G5 out of the box. There won’t be any of your data left on it and if you had any bugs before, they will most likely be fixed thanks to the data being wiped clean.
