Nearly all Android smartphones come with the Android operating system and a separate recovery partition. Having two separate partitions is ideal for troubleshooting; it means you can always boot into the separate partition if the first one isn’t working. And sometimes people do indeed need to take a hard reset from that second partition called Recovery Mode. Most people, however, can hard reset directly from the Settings app, which is simple to do.

This tutorial demonstrates how to hard reset the Samsung SM-A515U smartphone.

Caution:

  • Hard resetting Android wipes all data from the smartphone. You need to take a backup before applying the hard reset or you cannot restore the data again later. You can restore from the backup after the hard reset.
  • You may need to sign in to your Google account after the hard reset. You should know your Google account details (username/email and password) before hard resetting. If you need to, you can visit Google.com on any desktop computer and update your password. It’s the same Google account as the one on your smartphone.

How to Hard Reset Samsung SM-A515U

You can hard reset the Samsung SM-A515U smartphone from the Settings app and Recovery Mode. We recommend most people use the Settings app as it is simpler. If choosing Recovery Mode, you can boot into it with the same button combination no matter if you have a stock or custom recovery.

Here is how to hard reset using the Settings app first:

  1. With the Samsung SM-A515U turned on, tap Settings > General management.
  2. Tap Reset > Factory data reset.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Tap Delete all.

The data will be wiped and the factory settings restored. You may need to sign in to your Google account before you can use Android.

As mentioned, there is another method to hard reset via Recovery Mode. You typically use this when you cannot get access to the Settings app because the software is unresponsive. There are two recovery partitions Android users can have: a stock or custom recovery. This is how to use the stock recovery for hard resetting:

  1. With the Samsung SM-A515U turned off, press the Power + Volume Up buttons simultaneously until in Recovery Mode.
  2. From the Android Recovery menu, press Wipe data/factory reset.
  3. Press Factory data reset.
  4. Press Reboot system now.

The Samsung SM-A515U smartphone will leave the recovery partition and restart the Android operating system. You may need to sign in to your Google account before Android becomes available.

If you use custom firmware and have TWRP installed, follow these steps instead:

  1. With the Samsung SM-A515U turned off, boot into Recovery Mode with the Power + Volume Up buttons simultaneously until you see the TWRP interface.
  2. Tap Wipe.
  3. Wipe the cache and data.
  4. You can now install your custom firmware or tap Reboot to restart Android.

In conclusion, that is how to hard reset the Samsung SM-A515U smartphone.