How to hard reset on Google Pixel 3 XL

Are you having trouble with your Google Pixel 3 XL and you need to hard reset it? This post will show you the steps on how to do that.

What is hard reset?

Hard reset is another name that people usually use to refer to factory reset or master reset. Basically, hard reset wipes the phone and return all software settings to their defaults. This is usually done if a device has become unresponsive, or if there’s an issue that can’t be fixed by simple troubleshooting.

Hard reset or factory reset will delete user added data and apps. These are some of the commonly deleted items:

Contacts
Email accounts
System and app data
App settings
Downloaded apps
Media (Music, pictures and videos, etc.)

Disable Android Device Protection

Google do not want unauthorized access to your data. They also want to deter thieves from using your phone after doing a factory reset on it. To implement these two security requirements, your Google Pixel 3 XL has Android Device Protection feature which includes both a screen lock feature and Android Device Protection feature. Android Device Protection will lock your device after a factory reset until you can provide the Google account credentials. This means that unless the person knows that Google account username and password associated with the device, the phone will remain locked. To prevent locking yourself out of your device after a hard reset, be sure that

you know your Google account username and password, or
you disable device protection before erasing the phone.

Also, If a pattern, PIN, etc. is or has ever been set up on the device, Google account sign in is required during initial setup.