How To Hard Factory Reset the iPhone 6S

Kale Havervold July 2, 2018

When our phone is working perfect, it is great. iPhone’s are an extremely advanced device that can do a lot for us in our day to day lives. However, when our phone isn’t working for some reason, it is quite annoying and can lead us to be extremely worried. While most of the time there is a simple and quick fix for whatever ailment is affecting our phone, that isn’t always the case. Turning your phone off and back on again or tinkering with some of the settings is sometimes enough to fix small ailments, but those methods don’t always work. Sometimes, you can’t seem to find a suitable fix to make your phone usable again and at that point, the only thing you can do is restore it and see if that works.

However, your phone not working or being “off” in some way is not the only reason why you might want to reset it to its factory settings. Many people elect to restore their phone to its factory settings before selling or donating the phone, to make sure no one has access to their personal information and such. Also, before you reset your iPhone, there is something else that you should know. You should always make sure you have a backup of your information and data on your device, if you don’t, you will lose everything when you reset your device such as apps, numbers, texts, data and more.

Also, you should know that there are two different ways to restore your device to its factory settings. The easiest and most common way to reset your iPhone 6S is to reset it by using iCloud. This can be done directly on your device in only a few taps of the screen and is not difficult to do at all. However, if your phone won’t turn on, is unresponsive or is stuck on a certain screen and won’t turn off, you obviously won’t be able to navigate through the menus to reset your device via iCloud. In that case, you will have to reset your device the old way, by using iTunes. This method still accomplishes the exact same thing, it will just take a little bit longer and take a few more steps. Both of the different methods will be covered within this article to make sure that you are covered, no matter the situation you are in.

Of course, you should take precautions such as having a backup and making sure you really want to restore your device before trying either of these methods, as they are irreversible once you do them. But without any further ado, let’s take a look at the steps involved with performing a factory reset on the iPhone 6S. Remember, you should always try to reset using iCloud first as it is a simpler and much quicker/easier process.

How to Factory Reset the iPhone 6S By Using iCloud

Step 1: Before doing anything, make sure you have all of your information backed up, this should only take a few minutes.
Step 2: Once everything is backed up, click on your Settings app from your home page, and then go to General.
Step 3: Once in General, scroll all the way down to Reset and tap it.
Step 4: Once you are in the Reset menu, tap on Erase all Content and Settings, and follow the prompts.
Step 5: After you complete the prompts, your device should start the process of resetting.
Step 6: The process will take a few minutes and once it’s done you can either start from scratch or load a backup and use that to get all of your information back on your device.

How to Factory Reset the iPhone 6S By Using iTunes

Step 1: Make sure you have the most updated version of iTunes and make sure you have backed up your device.
Step 2: Once that is done, go to the Summary tab, which shows you a lot of different information about your device.
Step 3: On the Summary tab, you will see a gray Restore iPhone button. Click on it.
Step 4: Once you click on it, you will have a few prompt windows up to confirm your choice to restore your device.
Step 5: After a few minutes, make sure that your device has been restored. If it has been successful, you will be greeted by the iOS setup assistant.
There you have it, you should now be able to reset your iPhone 6S to its factory settings with ease. If for some reason these methods didn’t work for you, contact Apple and speak with them about your problem as you might have a deeper issue within your device.