One trick tech pros use on their smartphones

One trick tech pros use on their smartphones

Does your smartphone sometimes act wonky? Maybe it locks up and freezes at the worst possible moment. Or apps are not functioning the way they’re supposed to. Glitches like these don’t always take a tech expert to fix.

There’s one simple trick that could fix the occasional hiccups and glitches and in some cases, even make your smartphone work like new again.

You’re familiar with the word – it’s called reset. It’s important to know that there are two kinds of resets and I’ll walk you through both of them.

Soft resetting an iPhone

Whenever your iPhone acts out, this is the first essential troubleshooting trick you should do. Maybe an app is not responding or the screen is frozen – it could be anything out of the ordinary, a soft reset usually works like a charm.

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Press and hold both your iPhone’s Home button and the Sleep button at the same time
  2. Wait until it restarts, then let go of the buttons when the Apple logo is displayed.
  3. Let your iPhone boot up normally and you can log back into your home screen

A soft reset will not erase your settings nor will it wipe out all your data. Instead, it stops all programs and apps completely and it clears out whatever memory they may still be hogging up in the background. Think of it as a “restart,” similar to rebooting a PC.

Hard resetting an iPhone

Now, there may be times when a soft reset is not enough. Maybe you’re selling your old iPhone (or you just bought one) and you want to wipe out all its data.

Or maybe there’s a software issue that a soft reset just can’t fix. It’s a drastic option, but a hard reset (or factory reset) may be necessary.

Warning before I show you how to reset your gadget to factory settings:

  • Make sure you have the most current version of iTunes installed.
  • Restoring your gadget WILL erase all the data from your device, so please make a backup of your device. Click here to learn how.
  • Disable Activation Lock turning off Find my iPhone if you’ve enabled it. Launch the Settings app and navigate to iCloud. Tap the Find My iPhone On/Off toggle to disable it.
  • Please know that restoring your device from the backup can be a time-consuming process so only start this when you have enough time to complete it. Also, to be on the safe side, make sure you keep your iPhone plugged into power.

To hard reset an iPhone directly on the device itself, follow these steps:

  1. Open Settings >> General
  2. Now tap Reset
  3. Select “Erase All Content and Settings”
  4. Tap “Erase iPhone” on the prompt
  5. Enter your Apple ID password then tap “Erase” to begin the factory reset process

To hard reset an iPhone using a computer:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB
  2. Open iTunes
  3. Select your iPhone or iPad when it appears in iTunes (next to iTunes Store button in the top right corner).
  4. Click on the Restore button in the Summary tab to restore it to its factory settings

There! That’s all there is to resetting your gadget exactly the way it was when you bought it brand new.

Soft resetting Android phones

As with the iPhone soft reset trick, it is also one of the essential troubleshooting options for Android. A soft reset will clear up your phone’s used resources, RAM and any apps running in the background.

To soft reset an Android phone with removable battery, simply pull out the battery, put it back in, then turn on the phone as usual.

To soft reset Android phones with non-removable batteries, hold the power and volume down buttons simultaneously and continue holding them until the phone restarts and the boot animation is displayed.

Hard resetting an Android phone

To perform a factory reset on an Android phone, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your phone’s Settings
  2. Tap Backup & Reset
  3. Select Factory data reset

Warning! Performing a factory reset on your Android gadget will erase all of its data and settings. If you want to restore your phone after the reset, make sure you have a full backup of your phone first.

For another troubleshooting trick, try putting your Android phone in Safe Mode. Click here to learn how!

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Tags: Android, Apple, Apple iPhone, battery