If you begin to experience major problems with your Google Nexus 5X, or if you plan to sell it, you’ll likely want to reset the phone. Follow this guide to get it done.
How to Restart the Device
The first step in any troubleshooting process is simply forcing the device to restart, especially if it’s just simply locked up and won’t respond.
To force the device to restart, just hold down the “Power” and “Volume Down” buttons for around eight to fifteen seconds. This should turn the device off completely, allowing you to turn it back on. This will not erase data from the device.
Hard Reset from the Phone Menu
These steps will erase data from the phone and set it back to factory defaults.
- Select “Apps” and go to “Settings“.
- Tap “Backup & Reset“.
- Tap “Factory Data Reset“.
- Select the “Reset Phone” button.
- Select “Erase Everything” to confirm.
The device will power off and come back on, requiring you to go through the initial setup.
Hard Reset From Recovery Menu
- First make sure that the device is powered off completely.
- Press and hold “Volume Down” button while holding the “Power” button to turn the device on.
- When the phone vibrates, let go of both buttons and you’ll be presented with the bootloader menu.
- Use the volume buttons to toggle to the “Recovery mode” selection.
- Press “Power” and “Volume Up“. Release “Volume Up” after 3 seconds, but continue to hold “Power“.
- Continue to hold “Power” until you see the Android Recovery menu, characterized with an Android lying on its back.
- Press “Volume Down” till you highlight “Wipe Data/Factory Reset“. Press the “Power” to select this option.
- Press “Volume Down” till you highlight “Yes – Delete All User Data“. Press the “Power” to select this option.
- When the device comes back up, you’ll be presented with one more menu with “Reboot System Now” selected, press the “Power” button to confirm
The device will power off and come back on one more time, and you’ll be presented with the initial device setup.
Whichever method you chose to reset your Google Nexus 5X smartphone, let us know how it went in the comments below.
FAQ
My Nexus 5X is stuck in a bootloop. What do I do?
It’s a common problem. I recommend you try the bootloop fix posted at XDA.
Tom H says
Thanks to AK’s comment on here I finally managed to reset my device. Thank you, AK!!
Anonymous says
I recently bought one of these phones from someone but even when I hard reset I need a google account of the previous owner to unlock the new phone. How do I make it to where this doesn’t show up?
Charlie says
Hard reset my nexus 5x and went to the new account screen, but couldn’t login as my google account. Phone permanently says “need to wait 24hrs since you changed your password etc” whenever I put my email and password in. That was 5 days ago. Still says it when I try logging on at the initial setup screen. I’m stuck!!??
AK says
Don’t know if this is too old to answer, but I just went through the same trouble with the “no cmd” screen…. When you get to that point, which also has a red triangle over the android, you hold down the Power button again and quickly also press the Volume up button. That takes you to the screen with the Wipe Data option (step 7).
anonymous says
What do i do if it says no command and the screen won’t change after holding power and volume up..???? I release the volume up after 3 secs and the android symbol shows up lying on its back but no options are presented
Łukasz says
What to do, if 5X is not turning on with the volume down+power buttons pressed?
Mitch Bartlett says
I personally had the same issue where it was stuck in a loop. I had to find instructions on how to re-flash the ROM of the phone. That finally fixed it for me.
Alan Gallagher says
Nexus 5 LG
in step 7 my options were start bootloader or recovery mode. when I selected recovery mode a new screen with the android on his back and “no command” came up. Finally went to “4 colored dots” screen, then “Google” screen. Frozen there after 30 minutes. Can get back to the recovery menu but still stuck in the same loop.
Riccardo says
This tutorial worked perfectly, thank you