What Is Factory Reset and How Does It Work?
Factory reset is a common feature on most touchscreen devices. Whether you own a smartphone or tablet computer, it probably has a factory reset option. Touchscreen manufacturers include it in their devices' settings. What is factory reset exactly, and how does it work?
Overview of Factory Reset
Factory reset is a feature that's designed to restore a touchscreen device - as well as other electronic devices - back to its original factory settings. Touchscreen devices are computers. And like all computers, they have factory settings. The factory settings of a touchscreen device consist of its original operating system without any added apps or other modifications. When you perform a factory reset on a touchscreen device, it will revert your device back to these original factory settings.
How Factory Reset Works
Even if you've heard of factory resets before, you might not know how they work. A factory reset will essentially erase all of the data from your touchscreen device, after which it will reinstall the operating system (OS) that originally came with your device. The process can take anywhere from 10 minutes to over an hour, depending on how much data your touchscreen device has.
During this process, data will be wiped from your touchscreen device. It will leave essentially leave you with a fresh touchscreen device that only contains the OS and other apps that were originally installed on your touchscreen device from the manufacturer.
The steps to performing a factory reset vary. For Android devices, you can typically access this feature by launching the "Settings" app and choosing "Backup and reset." Other types of touchscreen devices, though, require different steps to perform a factory reset.
