What is the difference between resetting settings and a factory reset?

The two are lumped together as resetting the phone, and the gap between them is enormous. There is also a third, narrower option that solves most of the problems people reach for a factory reset over: resetting network settings only, which clears wi-fi passwords, mobile settings and Bluetooth pairings without touching anything else.

Safety

Step by step

1. Start with the narrowest reset that could work.For wi-fi that will not connect, mobile data that has stopped, Bluetooth that will not pair, or a VPN that has left the phone in a strange state, reset network settings. It clears saved wi-fi passwords and pairings — annoying, not damaging — and fixes a large share of connectivity problems in one step.
2. Use reset all settings for behavioural oddities.Persistent display, keyboard, notification, permission or accessibility weirdness after an update responds well to this. It keeps every app, photo, message and file. You will lose your wallpapers, alarms, home screen arrangement on some phones, keyboard dictionary, and every toggle you have ever changed.
3. Write down what you will have to redo.Before a settings reset, note your wi-fi passwords, any accessibility settings you depend on, notification exceptions you have configured, and per-app permissions that matter. Spending five minutes on this makes the hour afterwards much less irritating.
4. Treat the factory reset as a diagnosis of last resort.Its legitimate uses are: a phone being sold or given away, a phone that is so badly broken that nothing else works, and a final test to distinguish software from hardware. If a fault survives a factory reset and a fresh setup without restoring a backup, it is hardware.
5. Back up properly before a factory reset.A current device backup, a current messaging-app backup, a photo library confirmed as fully uploaded, and authenticator codes transferred or exported. Check the backup date rather than assuming — an automatic backup that has been failing for months is the classic disaster here.
6. Know about activation lock before you reset.Both platforms tie a phone to the account it was set up with, so after the reset it will demand that account's password. If you cannot supply it, the phone is a brick. This is why you must never accept a second-hand phone that has not been properly signed out and erased by the seller.
7. Set up clean when testing, restored when recovering.If the reset is a diagnostic, set the phone up as new and use it for a day without restoring anything — restoring the backup can restore the problem. If the reset is a fix and you know what was wrong, restore normally.
8. For selling, use the proper erase route.Sign out of the account first, remove any eSIM if you are keeping the number, then use the erase-all-content option rather than deleting files. That triggers the cryptographic erase that makes the data genuinely unrecoverable, and clears the activation lock.

Alternatives

• Reset network settings: Clears saved wi-fi networks, mobile network configuration and Bluetooth pairings. Nothing else is touched. First thing to try for any connectivity problem.
• Reset all settings: Every setting back to default, all data kept. Good for post-update strangeness, permission problems and accessibility settings that will not behave.
• Reset keyboard dictionary or home screen layout: Available separately on both platforms. Narrow and occasionally exactly what you need — a keyboard that has learned a wrong word, or a home screen that has become unusable.
• Factory reset keeping nothing: Full erase. For selling, giving away, or a final software-versus-hardware test.

Questions people ask