At some point, you’re probably going to have to reset your Samsung Galaxy S8+ smartphone. When it’s frozen and not responding, you will want to soft reset it. If you are having major issues with the device that normal troubleshooting doesn’t fix, you may want to hard reset it to factory defaults. Here’s how you can do both.
Soft Reset
Whenever the device is frozen or doesn’t respond to commands, simply press and hold the “Power” and “Volume Down” buttons on the device for about 10 to 20 seconds. Eventually, the screen should turn off. You will then be able to turn the device back on and resume normal operation.
Hard Reset
There are two ways you can perform a hard reset on the Galaxy S8. One procedure can be done from startup, the other from within the Android OS. These steps will wipe all data from the device, so be sure to have a backup in place if you wish to keep your data. Also, if you have encrypted the data on your SD card, be sure to disable encryption before these steps. Otherwise, you will never be able to view your encrypted files again.
From Android OS
- Tap “Settings” > “Backup and reset” > “Factory data reset” > “Reset” > “Delete All“.
From Startup
- With the device powered off, press and hold “Volume Down“, “Bixby” and “Power“.
- Continue to hold both buttons until you see the Recovery screen.
- From the recovery screen, use the “Volume Down” button to toggle the selection to “Wipe data / factory reset“.
- Press the “Power” button to select the highlighted option.
FAQ
How do I disable Factory Reset Protection?
Factory Reset Protection prevents access to your device without your permission. It locks the device to your Google account. If you’re changing ownership of the phone, you will want to turn this feature off.
You can disable Factory Reset Protection by removing your Google account from the device before the factory reset. This can be done under “Settings” > “Accounts and cloud” > “Accounts” > “Google” > select the account > 
> “Remove account“.
This tutorial applies to the Samsung Galaxy S8+ models SM-G955 and SM-G950.
Frank says
I actually held bixby, vol down and power now phone keeps rebooting. Can you help me please?
Caroline wheelhouse says
Yes very helpful tho annoyed my brand new S8 keeps freezing
Laurie E says
My galaxy S8 required the lower left (Bixby) button to be pushed to reset, not the power button. Other wise, spot on!
leena says
It’s telling me to wait for 24 hours,it’s really frustrating can I please get help on this.
Reynaldo says
It works!, thank you very much.
JAELA says
PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!