Is there a safe way to factory reset your phone?

[despertador]

Hey guys, I'm curious here. I want to reset my phone into the state it was in when I first received the phone, aka. factory/hard reset (is there a difference between those two?). I've read a lot of stories here about their Lumia Windows Phones (particularly the 920) bricking themselves after they tried to reset theirs. If there's a guaranteed safe way to do so on Windows Phone 8, great! Tell me how if so :grin:

I can't risk bricking my phone as I'm currently 6K miles from the US, can't go back until after 2 months and I can't live with a bricked Lumia... Dx

 

[Kellzea]

Its perfectly safe, just do the master reset under "reset my phone" search my posts ive given detailed walkthroughs on how to save a brick (no pc needed, its just button combos and patience).

Pm me if you need help.

 

[Darren Walsh]

Factory reset and hard reset are the same I think, a hard reset is when you can't boot your phone up to get into settings >about>reset your phone, the end result is the same I'm nearly sure. If your has the spinning cogs for more than 30 mins just do a soft reset,just google how to do it, mine bricked twice during a factory reset and the soft reset worked fine after 5 mins of the spinning cogs, hope this helps!!

 

[despertador]

Thanks guys for your help! I'll try the reset now, hopefully my phone doesn't get bricked Dx... I'll post about the progress here!

 

[despertador]

Late to report, but finished my reset in less than 5 minutes! Since I don't have data here, things got a little funky in the restore process, thankfully I didn't have to re-activate my phone through Verizon! Thanks for all your help guys

 

[rdubmu]

My first 920 was bricked on a reset. The 2nd one didn't. I have thought about resetting mu phone since text messages can be recovered. The big loss will be losing Gmail contacts thou.

 

[Kellzea]

Just sync your hotmail and gmail contacts. Then it don't matter

 

[Haryanh]

Its perfectly safe, just do the master reset under "reset my phone" search my posts ive given detailed walkthroughs on how to save a brick (no pc needed, its just button combos and patience).

Pm me if you need help.

Hi mate, if you dont mind i really need help, i just did a master reset by using a "reset my phone" , but the spinning cog won't stop, its almost 10 hours until now. Is that normal ? If not, can you give me a guide ? Thanks mate

 

[Kellzea]

Hi mate, if you dont mind i really need help, i just did a master reset by using a "reset my phone" , but the spinning cog won't stop, its almost 10 hours until now. Is that normal ? If not, can you give me a guide ? Thanks mate

Ok, most important thing is DONT PANIC! lol, this just takes patience, so keep at it. I'm reciting this from memory.

1) take out sim
2) allow phone battery to die on spinning gears
3) put charging cable in
4) on Nokia screen press and hold the power and volume down buttons until reset
5) on Nokia screen press the following in this order vol up, vol down, power, vol down.
6) press and hold power, vol down and camera key.

That should load it into the startup screen.

If for any reason it doesn't work. Just mess around with the holding vol down and power. vol down, power and camera and the vol up, vol down, power, vol down combos.

It worked for me in the exact way above, some people have said its worked slightly differently. So be patient, don't stress and just keep trying.

Good luck

 

[despertador]

My phone isn't bricked, but since it is a Lumia 822, it isn't possible to take out the SIM without removal of battery. Any workarounds, just in case for me or to help others?

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Perform a battery pull, charge and try again.