Technipages

Tutorials and fixes for smartphone, gadget, and computer problems

How to Soft & Hard Reset Galaxy S6

by 50 Comments

There may come a time when you will need to reset your Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone. Here’s how both a soft and hard reset are done on the device.

Soft Reset

If your Galaxy S6 has become frozen and will not respond to anything, try a soft reset. A soft reset will restart the device and will not erase any data.

  • Press and hold the “Power” and “Volume Down” buttons for about 10 seconds until the device powers off.

Hard Reset

If you’re having continuous technical troubles with your Galaxy S6 where it will not start, freezes constantly, or malfunctions, you may want to try a hard reset. A hard reset will erase all data from the memory of the device and set it back to factory defaults.

Option 1 – From Startup

  1. With the Galaxy S6 powered completely off, press and hold “Volume Up” + “Home” + “Power” buttons simultaneously.
  2. When the Samsung logo appears, release the “Power” button, but continue to hold “Volume Up” and “Home“.
  3. When the “Android system recovery” screen appears, release all buttons.
  4. Use the “Volume Down” button to toggle the selection to “wipe data/factory reset“, then press “Power” to choose that selection.
  5. Use the “Volume Down” button to toggle the selection to “Yes — delete all user data“, then press “Power” to choose that selection.
  6. Wait for the reset to finish. You will eventually be prompted to “Reboot system now“. Press “Power” to choose that selection.

Option 2 – From Settings Menu

  • Select “Apps” > “Settings” > “Backup & reset” > “Reset device” > “Erase everything“.

 

This post applies to models SM-G920A, SM-G920F, SM-G920T, G920P, SM-G920V, SM-G9200, SM-G920FQ, SM-G920W8, SM-G920R4 and SM-920I.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John McKennon says

    Thank you so much!

    Perfect amount of information. Clearly explained.

    Also, good news for me: following your steps worked!

    Have a blessed day!

    Best regards,
    John

  2. Belinda says

    Hi all PLEASE HELP BUSINESS TABLET ISN’T WORKING
    can anyone please please help me,my Samsung galaxy tab A 10.1 said no so card,so I thought it had come loose,so I took the draw out put back in then can’t get back to the home screen I’m stuck on white welcome page and WiFi says authentication problem.Help!! I don’t want all my data deleted ,I’ve tried soft reset but nothing,I also have aeroplane in top right corner please help as soon as possible ,I use this tablet for work.

  4. Ian Reed says

    Hi.I have a Galaxy S6 Curve. I have been trying to access the UK Passenger Locator Form forinternational entry back into UK. I can access the UKGOV site OK, but when I press one of two buttons to proceed, I get a blank screen except for one word: “unauthorised”.
    This government website is accessible through my other devices OK, but I have heard of others with the same problem.
    I have a feeling it has something to do with the internet set up on this phone? But everything else works OK.
    Any suggestions?

  5. Ian Rambarran says

    Hi good morning, I bought a Samsung S6 for my son for Christmas,unfortunately he forgot his Samsung account email address and password, was playing with the phone and it locked up on him. Now this phone is basically a paperweight, is there anything that I can do to get it opened and running freely?

  6. Al says

    Pressing volume up and down and power button brought up by battery charging level on screen. Then pushed the power button again to turn phone on.

  7. Joanna says

    I have a similar situation to Andy. My nephew was using my phone for a while and when I got it back and tried to reset it I wasn’t able to without a PIN, which he can’t remember. I’ve tried every suggestion I’ve come across, but nothing works. I can’t get into the settings without the PIN. I can’t power off without the PIN. I tried putting the wrong PIN in multiple times, but after the 5th it doesn’t give me a ‘forgot PIN’ option, it just makes me wait 30 seconds before trying again. I tried hooking it up to my laptop but it just tells my ‘this folder is empty’. If anyone has any idea what else I can try I’m all ears.

  8. andy says

    mine was locked and i couldn’t do anything without the passcode swipy thing that my son had set but forgotten. Try taking the sim card out and when it asks for the restart, hold vol+ home and power button down. When the samsung logo appears let go of the power button, then you have the system reboot menu. This is were i reset the phone and wiped everything.

  9. yvette van den Brink says

    my sumsung s6 sm-G920F by trying to hard start or soft start it comes start then it says device is locked because of an abnormal factory reset.what should I do,

  10. VINICIUS SANTOS says

    My S6 Edge screen is frozen, and it doesnt wants to turn on. I’ve tried everything, and im sure its not an hardware issue, because the phone is acting weird, when i receive calls he just turns off. He is charging normally, he has sound when I use the Up/Down volume buttons, the LED is normal, and when I touch either the home button or the power button he turns those buttons on the side of the home button on.

  11. Josue says

    Im stuck im mantainance boot mode because my phone home button is not working. What can I do?

  12. Nahuel says

    Same as Alex BUT WITH A TWIST….
    (Alex says

    March 7, 2018 at 2:52 am

    The hard reset does not work on my phone, the phone is stuck on the Samsung Galaxy S6 powered by Android screen. Battery kick does work but it does not help as it turns back to the same screen and it stays there until the battery runs off. Now is fully charge and I am trying Power + Volume Down to kick start the battery and then hard reset but I am not getting the maintenance menu at all, only the annoying screen above. Is there any other method to hard reset the phone? What do you suggest?)

    MY PROBLEM:
    I also tried usind Odin3, but it wont recognize my phone when plugging in. Tried different cables and USB Ports so i could make the firmware download and re-install with this “Downloading” mode (Power+ Volume Down + Home –> Volume Up) for my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge +….

    I cant find a way to do this… Talking to you people in the middle of quarantine in Argentina due to COVID-19 in my first day without phone.. Complicated times.

  13. Eleanor Dowd says

    The hard reset does not work on my phone, the phone is stuck on the Samsung Galaxy S6 powered by Android screen. Battery kick does work but it does not help as it turns back to the same screen and it stays there until the battery runs off. Now is fully charge and I am trying Power + Volume Down to kick start the battery and then hard reset but I am not getting the maintenance menu at all, only the annoying screen above. Is there any other method to hard reset the phone? What do you suggest?

  14. Cy Schrage says

    The microphone of my S6 does not seem to work when using the phone or trying to search, etc. When using the phone, I find that it does work when I have it on “speaker phone”, or maybe that is using the speaker as a mic. I think this must just be a setting, but I have tried reboots and every setting I can think of. Help!!!

  16. Teri Wise says

    Hi my sumsung s6 edge by trying to hard start or soft start it comes start then it says device is locked because of an abnormal factory reset.what should I do,

  18. Graham says

    Same as others here with the hard reset not working at all. Learned my lesson the hard way and now will replace it with the cheapest smartphone I can find. Had the S6 since they came out and told by a phone repairer if it won’t work off a hard reset it’s not worth fixing. Can’t remember exactly what I paid for the phone but it must’ve been around 600-700 dollars. I have an old 3G Nokia (at least 15 years old) that cost from new about $75 and the phone works fine with the micro sim out of the S6 but no internet obviously. What a joke Samsung. Yes things get older, out of date and maybe need a fix but they shouldn’t just be unrepairable and chucked in the bin. Last time you get a dollar out of me.

  21. Bion says

    I didn’t have turn on automatic update for apps. I didn t have last version of updated googl app. When i update all google related apps, google maps start working again.

  23. Za-eema Salie says

    I restored the factory settings on my husbands phone but when we turned it in again it asked for the previous google account that was linked to the phone initially. My husband forgot his email password and it did not work. It still does not want to accept any other google account apart from the one that was on the phone previously. In essence the phone is basically useless to use. How can i fix this problem as doing a factory reset did not work! HELP

  25. Dustin says

    I got a used Galaxy S6 couple days ago and it won’t do a full reset saying that it needs the Gmail password and the person who originally set it up took it to a local cell phone repair place he said there’s no way to do the reset information from original owner and there is no way to get that now

  29. Levi says

    This did not help. HOWEVER, I found something that did.

    I pressed and held Volume Down, Volume Up, and Power. This was successful.

  30. Mitch Bartlett says

    Tap “Forgot password” and follow the steps. Otherwise, you will need to go to a Samsung authorized reseller and provide documentation proving you are the owner of the phone. If you just found the phone or bought it from somebody off the street, good luck!

  31. moses otti says

    my sumsung s6 edge by trying to hard start or soft start it comes start then it says device is locked because of an abnormal factory reset.what should I do,

  33. stacey says

    This isn’t working on my phone it won’t let me power it off without a password & I forgot the password it says you device was restarted & needs to be unlocked using your pin. How can I do a hard reset without powering the phone off? HELP

  34. Martin D Bach says

    No unfortunately it did not help. My S-6 suddenly quit taking a charge and now the battery is so low, reset doesn’t work. The phone turns on, then immediately off, from lack of power.

  35. Alex says

    The hard reset does not work on my phone, the phone is stuck on the Samsung Galaxy S6 powered by Android screen. Battery kick does work but it does not help as it turns back to the same screen and it stays there until the battery runs off. Now is fully charge and I am trying Power + Volume Down to kick start the battery and then hard reset but I am not getting the maintenance menu at all, only the annoying screen above. Is there any other method to hard reset the phone? What do you suggest?

  38. chinna says

    Sir s6 i tried same but last one step wipe data / factory reset press power button but not coming yes all delete option direct restart mobile

  39. helpful says

    Just a small thank you and a please add this to your process.The customer presented a phone that did not complete booting – just the SAMSUNG logo was showing.
    The phone was quirky – not touching the volume buttons and it was changing the selection.
    Maybe it (SGS6 standard) has a tilt mode.
    The other annoying thing was a reset was selected, executed and a log message to that effect ” wiped 3 partitons and … successful ” . however I powered off back on and the SAMSUNG moving logo was still stuck. I gave up and went onto something else and many minutes later “whoa” – the darn thing woke up and bob’s your uncle – started doing the “Welcome to your new phone” thing.

  40. Jon says

    Hi,
    I bought my S6 online, I tried to update thru Smart Switch, now I’ve got the greenish/bluish screen with a triangle and exclamation (!) symbol in the middle – with an error message.
    The Samsung rep told me that I should only use Power button and Volume down button, but unfortunately this combination doesn’t work at – any suggestions please?

  41. Njabulo says

    my S6 camera auto focus dosnt work and it has 32gig on board storage but wen i take more than 12 o so pic or record it say insuffcient spacepls delete something. pls help

  42. Tanya Wells says

    I have had my S6 for a week, Charged it last night and was working absolutely fine, woke up this morning and the screen was Green/White, I cannot turn the phone off and have tried everything advised, re boot etc. I could just see the time through the green screen when the alarm was going off.

    When locked, the screen is black and flashes white at the top. I have not dropped or damaged the phone in any way.

    Any idea how to solve this? Or what the issue may be? thinking it may be a malfunction on the phone.

    Thank you.

  44. Deepak Kumar Chaudhary says

    I didnt turn off the phone before trying to hard reset it. Its stuck on a green screen that says ODIN mode.. and its frozen on a downloading…What do I do? PLEASE HELP :(

  45. kayroonissa sookhoo says

    my S6 camera auto focus dosnt work and it has 32gig on board storage but wen i take more than 12 o so pic or record it say insuffcient spacepls delete something. pls help

  46. Don Charles. says

    my s6 restarts itself, I can’t power it off until I plug in the charger and force it to power off. what do I do. its worrying me.please

  47. vivian says

    I didnt turn off the phone before trying to hard reset it. Its stuck on a green screen that says ODIN mode.. and its frozen on a downloading…What do I do? PLEASE HELP :(

  48. tami says

    Sprint galaxy s6 sm -920p won’t hard reset doesn’t recognize fingerprint no access top back up password

  50. arerifx says

    Can you get back to via my email..I had problem when had reset my samsung galaxy S6..I do not show the samsung logo but instead just an android with error sign on it

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