What is a soft reset and a hard reset?

[Windows Central Question]

I see references to using a soft reset or a hard reset when trying to fix a problem. How are those done?

 

[jeetu4444]

Hard reset means phones goes back to factory setting and everything is deleted from your phone...soft reset is like removing your phone battery and putting it again....for some phones where battery is non removable there are key combination to soft reset. Hope u got it

 

[Killer BIGxyz]

soft reset is holding down the power button and volume down until the phone restarts

 

[RumoredNow]

Some good discussion going on here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/general-windows-phone-discussion-lounge/407716-soft-reset.html

Also, for Hard Reset the key combo is:

Power off the phone > hold Volume Down > press Power > keep holding Volume Down until you see the exclamation (!) screen, then immediately release the Volume Down

Now tap Volume Up / Volume Down / Power / Volume Down

You should see the spinning gears and your phone will reflash the last OS version held in recovery. You do loose data, but get your phone back. Sign into your Microsoft Account and restore your backup during the set up.

Hard Reset is the same as Factory Reset. It flashes the phone with the image stored in the recovery partition of your device and can be used to recover your phone if you have no access to Settings.


Soft Reset is less extreme. It does not flash your phone. It reboots with a cleared out RAM and may solve some glitches.

Hold the Volume Down + Power buttons until the phone vibrates and reboots (about 10 seconds).

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