How to Reset a Samsung Tablet

This article explains how to hard reset a Samsung tablet.

How Do You Hard Reset a Samsung Tablet?

Samsung tablets provide a built-in method for performing a hard reset. To reset your tablet via Recovery Mode, all you'll need is your tablet and a few minutes.

1. Turn off the tablet. Make sure it's completely powered off and not in a sleep state. Once your screen turns off, give it a few seconds, and you'll be ready.

   It's also best practice to make sure your device is either fully-charged or plugged in for this process, just so you don't lose power during an important moment and end up creating problems.

2. Depending on your particular Samsung tablet, either hold the Power and Volume Up buttons or the Power, Volume Up, and Home buttons until your device turns on, entering Recovery Mode.

   This usually takes around 10 to 15 seconds, but once your screen turns on, you can let go of the buttons regardless of how long you've been holding them. You'll know you've entered Recovery Mode if your tablet doesn't start up normally to all your apps.

3. Using the volume buttons, move through the list until you find the wipe option, called Data Wipe/Factory Reset on some devices. Select it with the power button and then follow any other on-screen confirmation prompts.

   All your custom data will be erased if you complete this step. Make sure to back up anything important that you want to keep before resetting it.

4. After the reset is finished, your device should reboot on its own. If not, simply power your tablet on normally, and when it boots up you'll have a freshly wiped device with no personal data on it whatsoever.

Is There a Reset Button on a Samsung Tablet?

There isn't a reset "button" on a Samsung tablet, but you can press a series of buttons to put your device in Recovery Mode from where you can reset your device to factory defaults, wiping all the data on the device in the process.

Why Would You Reset a Samsung Tablet?

There are two primary situations where you might consider a full software reset: Your tablet is slow and you want to freshen it up the easiest way possible, or you're selling the tablet and so you need all your personal data off of it.

Only use a hard reset as a last resort because your data be removed. Hard resetting can be a good way to fix problems with a Samsung tablet you otherwise can't solve, but you should always try to reboot your tablet first.