If you want to sell or give away your Samsung Galaxy Note 5, or if you’re having issues with it locking up, then you may want to perform a soft or hard reset on the device. Here are steps for how it’s done.
Soft Reset
If your device is frozen or not responding, try the following to soft reset the device. Data should not be erased when performing a soft reset.
- Press and hold the “Volume Down” and “Power” buttons at the same time for 10 seconds.
The device should restart and get you out of your frozen state.
Hard Reset Using the Operating System
Note: Before performing a hard reset, make sure to backup any files on your device as well as your SD Card that you intend to keep. The hard reset will wipe all files off of the internal memory, as well as the decryption key on the SD Card which may make existing files unreadable.
If you still have access to the device, I would try these steps first since they are a little bit easier than the hardware reset steps.
- Navigate to “Settings” either from the “Apps” menu.
- Scroll down to the Personal group and press on “Back Up and Restore“.
- Press the “Factory data reset” option.
- It will bring up a screen showing all of the accounts synced on the device, press the Reset phone button at the bottom.
- You’ll see the final verification screen, press the “Delete All” button.
- The device will restart and boot into the recovery mode to finish the process. You’ll see the Android logo for a few moments, and it will restart again. When this is complete, you’ll be back to the Welcome screen to setup the device.
Hard Reset Using the Hardware Method
If you can’t get into the Operating System at all, then you can perform a hard reset using only the hardware.
- With the device turned off, hold the “Volume Up” button and press the “Power” button.
- Continue to hold the “Volume Up” button and you’ll see the recovery screen appear after you see the Samsung Logo.
- Use “Volume Up” and “Volume Down” to navigate to “Wipe Data / Factory Reset” and press the “Power” button to select/confirm.
- Use “Volume Up” and down to navigate to “Yes” and press the “Power” button to confirm.
- Use “Volume Up” and “Volume Down” to navigate to “Reboot System Now” and press the “Power” button to select/confirm.
- The device will restart and boot into the recovery mode to finish the process. You’ll see the Android logo for a few moments, and it will restart again. When this is complete, you’ll be back to the Welcome screen to setup the device.
This post applies to the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 model SM-N920.
Sheri L. says
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
My phone has been frozen “off” all day, and the soft restart worked! (I knew it was something like your directions, but I couldn’t remember exactly.)
Thank you!
Parsa says
Thank you so much for a second I thought I have to say goodbye to my phone
Vette says
i have a rooted galaxy note 5 and it just turned off and turned back on but its ‘stuck’ on the tmobile screen. Doesn’t do anything. I tried holding down power and volume up and down it restarts but doesn’t do anything just goes back to the same screen and doesn’t move. I tried the volume down home button, doesn’t work, tried the volume up, home button and power doesn’t work either.
Can it be saved? I’d hate to wipe everything off my phone .
Rudi says
I have a note 5 that will not come out of “sleep”. Was on charge all night. Green full charge LED is continuously on even while disconnected from cord. I have tried the soft and hardware reboot steps but no responce. This has happened once before but was able to reboot via hardware reset. Any other sugestions? It is verizon by the way.
David says
Thanks! I have a Galaxy Tab 2, 7″ tablet. My screen went black but I think the unit was still working, it still made noise. Did a soft reset and it worked.
Joseph Cochran says
I’m having the same exact problem. Did hard start and it worked first time. I went back to do it again to reset my screen and know stuck asking for my google account.
blaze2ngetatme says
@PAUL here is solution you will hopefully find helpful there is a way to bypass the google account after factory meant to make it impossible for someone to take your phone and just perform a factory reset as a way to make it their own.
If anyone performs the factory reset via the recovery, the phone is more or less inoperable until the original owner signs into his or her Google account on reboot. This means that you have basically no extra steps to factory reset your own device for your own reasons, but a common thief can’t do much of anything without knowing your password.
Well, that’s how it would work on Samsung phones if not for a flaw introduced in Samsung’s own software. You can take a look for yourself in the video search google account bypass:
basically, if you insert an OTG drive, the OS allows you to open files on it, even when you should be locked into the screen requiring a Google sign-in after the factory reset. He put an APK on the OTG drive that does nothing but open up the settings. From there, just install the APK—yes, the OS even lets you disable the “unknown sources” security measure in this state—and you will be given free reign over the settings.
To finally bypass the reset protection, you just factory reset from the settings rather than from recovery. After that, the phone will be a clean slate. It will be pretty simple for a moderately tech-proficient thief to take your phone and remove your stuff from it.
We’ll keep our ears to the ground for word on if and when Samsung pushes updates to fix this.
keara says
i got a Samsung galaxy note 5 and i forgot my password and i can’t reset it
can you guys help?
Deku says
Guys , i have samsung galaxy tab A , in this morning told me to restart my tablet for to do something , i was like okay and boom when i restart it actually stay on the logo for 7 hours and i tried to reset it but it doesn’t work at all , i just let it to turn off by itself , actually work but when im turn on the tablet it still showing the logo and doing nothing , can you tell me guys what i suppose to do please , or can you tell how i can to reset it ? And no it’s not work at all to holding volume high and power in sametime , i mean it doesn’t work , please i need your help guys …
Paul says
Will the hard reset remove the sync?
I am stuck with the screen demanding to give an email account.
jee says
I have problem with my Samsung Galaxy tab 2 …
i have tried to open but still can’t open
how to open then .. Plz someone can help or give me advice ?
thanks before ,,