What exactly is soft/hard reset?

[jiayit]

Hello, I've been browsing the forums frequently, and it seems that everybody seems to have a mixed concept of soft and hard reset.

Is soft reset 1) pressing down + lock to reboot, or 2) settings > about > reset phone

And hard reset, is it 1) using hardware buttons to soft reset (vol down + lock) or 2)a key combination to reset the whole phone to stock mode, thus erasing all data?

Thanks!

 

[HeyCori]

Soft reset: Turning the phone off and then back on. Done by holding the power button and then swiping down. Phones without removable batteries come with an additional method to soft reset the device.

Hard reset: Resets the phone to stock. All data is completely erased. This can be done using a key combination or settings>about>reset.

Key combinations for soft/hard resets are not standard and will vary between WPs.

 

[jiayit]

Then what about the vol down + power combi?

And what's the exact combination for hard reset for the Lumia 820? Forgot my password once, couldn't hard reset it, had to remote erase using windowsphone.com after I got home. Had an important event that day and was un-contactable.

 

[Coreldan]

I believe vol down and power combo is just the same as holding the power button and sliding down, but it's a backup measure for the times when the phone is just jammed up that you can't normally turn off the power.

 

[jiayit]

I believe vol down and power combo is just the same as holding the power button and sliding down, but it's a backup measure for the times when the phone is just jammed up that you can't normally turn off the power.

so is there a name for the *alternative*? People just usually refer to the latter as soft reset lol, and the the former as a power off.

 

[Coreldan]

I havnt really heard of any specific name for it, cos it really just does the same thing than normally restarting the phone, it's just that it can be done even if the device doesnt respond to normal commands. The effect is still the same though, power is cut off, that's all. With devices with removable batteries this function often doesnt even exist cos you can just achieve the same by taking the battery out.