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Since hard reset deletes everything, that means it will also revert all your customizations to their default values. However, we would suggest removing them from your phone before you format your phone. Your photos and other data on your SD Card and contacts in SIM are safe. What Happens to Data in Memory and SIM Cardįormatting your phone will not impact your data stored either in your memory or SIM card. Pro Tip: Check our guide to find out how to backup contacts on any Android phone. But if you use Google or iCloud to sync contacts, you can restore them when you add the same accounts to the phones after formatting it. When it comes to contacts, they will be deleted too. You can use the native Backup feature available in Android and iPhone or download third-party backup apps. When you format the phone, you will lose your call history and messages unless you have taken a backup. What Happens to Calls Logs, Contacts, and Messagesįew of the top concerns while contemplating to format or reset your phone is Contacts, Messages, and Call logs. However, the data of those apps will also get deleted and it would be wise if you have taken a backup. On the contrary, the apps that came preinstalled on your phone will appear again automatically when you format the phone. Install it using the same Google account (Android) or Apple ID (iPhone) that was used to download it in the first place. In case you have purchased an app, you don’t need to pay again after formatting the phone. But, if you are logged in with an account in the game, you will be on the same level when you install it again.
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For instance, if you have the Candy Crush game installed on your phone, formatting the phone will delete it. You will have to reinstall them.Īlso, you will lose the data associated with such apps unless they offer a backup feature and you use it.
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However, all that apps that you manually install from Google Play Store (Android) or App Store (iPhone) are removed when you format/reset the phone. To keep things clear, most preinstalled apps stay, and roll back to the factory version of the operating system. What Happens to Apps When You Hard Reset Your Phone If you have installed the latest version, the phone holds on to that part a secured area of your storage and uses it as a backup to restore things to the factory state. By current, we mean the software version that was active on your phone before you reset it.įor instance, if your Android phone came with Android 9.0 Pie and later it was updated to Android 10, formatting will restore the Android 10 version and not Android Pie. Formatting the phone doesn’t remove the current software from your phone. Do you need to install it again? The answer is no. You must be wondering what will happen to your operating system when you format your phone. What Happens to the System Operating System Let’s see what happens when a phone is hard reset.
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