How to Factory Reset and Is it Bad for Your Android Device

By Carrie Tsai,  Last Updated: September 04, 2019

We may know that when our mobile phone has encountered problems, a factory reset can help recover. But concerns also exist: can it cause any damage on the phone? How much impact will it have?

Here, we can give you the answer that the factory reset does have great impact on the phone, one of which is that you can instantly transfer your phone into a brand-new one and improve the operating speed to a large extent.

Well, in fact, this positive side is nothing new. So here we will focus on its negative effects. Is there any damage on the phone on earth?

But first, we should have the knowledge about how does factory reset work on the phone.

The Working Principle of Factory Reset

In fact, when we mention the factory reset, basically it refers to having all your data on the phone cleared, including the program, pictures, videos, text messages, contacts and so on. Of course the trash in the device will also be deleted and your phone will return back into the situation of the very first purchase.

That is why your phone will become super smooth after factory reset. What else can hinder its speed if all the trash and data is gone?

On the other hand, you need to spend a lot of time downloading apps and reloading data after the factory reset, which is troublesome.

How to factory reset Android

Here we will take A900, which run Android 9.0 or Android GO OS, as an example.

Step1, Tap the menu on the home interface and go to settings, you can also enter by tapping the settings icon.

Step2, Scroll down and find “Back up and Reset”. In some cases, it will be hided in the “Private”.

Step3, You will see the option about restore the factory settings and then tick Google to back up some precious data.

Step4, After clicking Restore Factory Settings, go to the next option. There will be an option to format SD card and it is not advisable to choose it since all the data in it will be eliminated.

Step5, Finally, choose “Clear all content”. After that, your phone will power off and restarted, which will cost more time than usual because the data in the phone is being erased.

What Effect will it Have on the Phone

What most people care most about is that whether there is potential damage to the phone. So here we will give you the answer and it can be divided into several aspects.

For Hard Drive: it will has a direct impact but minimal

When a phone stores data, just as a USB flash drive or a mobile hard disk, the phone also has its own storage hard disk and a flash memory hard disk. When restoring the factory settings, we repeatedly erase and re-write data, which is the equivalent to the process of erasing the hard disk.

And the mobile phone hard disk has its own lifespan, which means how many times it can support for repeated erasing and re-writing. The TLC hard disk with a relatively short lifespan can support thousands of erasing times. Even though you reset once a day, it can still work for 3 years, let alone other hard disk of longer life.

Besides, nobody will reset his phone everyday, so there is no worry about the damage to the hard disk.

For Hardware: the impact is also negligible

As we all know, the hardware of mobile phone such as processor will age more or less. You may have heard of that the aging will be accelerated if you always play games, it that really the case?

As the mobile phone replacement circle is becoming increasingly short, the average duration now is 2-3 years. You should know that the life of hardware is much longer than that of the mobile phone itself. No matter how you use it, the aging of hardware is hard to recognized.

As we have mentioned above, the factory reset is more of the updates on software rather than hardware, so the impact on the hardware does not count.

For Battery: small impact

The life of a mobile phone lithium battery is about 500 cycles, which includes a full charge and discharge.

In the process of factory reset, it is necessary to repeatedly power on and off the device so there will be a need to fully charge, which will cost a life cycle of the battery. But how many times can you reset your phone in a year? Even you restore it once a month, there is only 24 times a year, a relatively slight impact.

That is to say, in the 2-3 year use of cell phone, accelerating the aging of battery is often the improper way of charging rather than factory reset.

The factory reset is more of the change in the software in the phone rather than hardware. As long as it is a normal reset process, there is no need to worry at all.

But the point is that you must have all your important data backed up, otherwise you will regret but too late.