How to Restore My Phone?

Phones have become an essential part of everyone’s life, letting you be in touch with the rest of the world. Having a phone on you is so important these days; it helps you stay in touch with your friends and relatives, take photographs, and store data. Smartphone users must understand how to restore their phones to avoid losing vital data such as contacts, settings, or passwords if they lose their phones. If you have been looking for ways to restore your phone from a backup, this guide is precisely what you need.

There are different methods to restore a phone you own, whether Android or iPhone. But first, you’ll need to learn how to take a backup of your data, which lets you perform the procedures we mention. The fourth method is an independent process that can serve as a failsafe or if you like it, a primary one.

How to backup your Android phone

Technically, you can’t restore your phone without a backup, so you need to make one this way:

1. Open the Settings application on your Android phone.
2. Scroll down and find the “Backup & reset” option, which is generally located at the bottom of the list. If you’re running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher, you’ll find this option in the “Security & location” section.
3. Once you’ve found the “Backup & reset” option, tap it to continue.
4. On the next screen, ensure the “Back up my data” switch is turned on.
5. If it’s not, turn it on by tapping on it.

With this feature enabled, your Android phone will create a Google backup you can later restore.

Using Factory Reset Protection from Google

The second method uses Google’s “Factory Reset Protection” feature, available on most Android devices running Android 5.1 Lollipop or higher.

1. To enable this feature, go to the “Security” section in the Settings application and tap on the “Screen lock” option.
2. Then, on the next screen, select “Pattern,” “PIN,” or “Password” as your screen lock method.
3. Once you’ve selected a screen lock method, scroll down and tap on the “Enable” button under the “Factory Reset Protection” heading.
4. You’ll be prompted to enter your Google account password to verify your identity.
5. Type your password and tap on the “Confirm” button.

Employing Google Account Manager

The third method uses the “Google Account Manager” application, which is pre-installed on most Android devices.

1. To launch this app, go to the “Settings” application and tap on the “Accounts & Sync” option.
2. Then, tap on the “Add account” option on the next screen and select “Google.”
3. Enter your Google account credentials and tap on the “Sign in” button.
4. On the next screen, ensure the “Sync Contacts” and “Sync Calendar” options are turned on.
5. Once you’ve verified that these options are turned on, scroll down and tap on the “Factory Reset Protection” option.
6. You’ll be notified to type your Google account password to verify your identity.

In contrast, iPhones are backed up to iCloud if the option in method 2, step 3 is enabled, as long as the user logs in with Apple ID.

1. Instructions to Restore an Android Phone After a Factory Reset

We already explained how recovery after factory reset on an Android device works. However, to give you a rundown, you can follow these steps:

1. Connect your phone to a Wi-Fi network and open the “Settings” application.
2. Next, scroll down and tap on the “Backup & reset” option.
3. On the next screen, ensure the “Back up my data” switch is turned on.
4. If it’s not, turn it on by tapping on it. With this feature enabled, your phone will create a backup of your data every time you connect it to a power source.
5. Once you’ve verified that the “Back up my data” switch is turned on, scroll down and tap on the “Factory Reset” option.
6. Next, you’ll be asked to type in your Google account password to verify your identity.
7. Next, enter your password and tap on the “Reset Phone” button.
8. Your phone will now reset itself and reboot. Once it’s finished rebooting, you’ll need to set up your device from scratch.
9. When you’re prompted to restore your device from a backup, select the “Restore” option and follow the on-screen instructions. 

2. Using iCloud Backup to Restore Your Phone

If you’ve reset your iPhone, you can restore it from a backup by following the steps below.

1. Connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network and open the “Settings” application.
2. Next, scroll down and tap on the “iCloud” option.
3. On the next screen, ensure the “iCloud Backup” switch is turned on.
4. With that enabled, tap on the “Back Up Now” button.
5. Your phone will now create a backup of your data and store it in iCloud. Once the backup process is finished, you can reset your iPhone by going to the “Settings” application and tapping on the “General” option.
6. On the next screen, scroll down and tap on the “Reset” option.
7. Tap the “Erase All Content and Settings” button and enter your passcode to confirm your action.
8. Your iPhone will now reset itself and reboot. Once it’s done rebooting, you must configure your device again as it was brand new.
9.  Select the “Restore from iCloud Backup” option and follow the on-screen instructions once you are asked to restore iPhone from backup.​

3. Instructions to Restore iPhone using iTunes on a Computer

On a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, open the Finder. Now:

1. Launch iTunes on your PC.
2. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable. Follow the on-screen instructions if you get an alert asking for your passcode or if the computer asks you to “Trust This Computer”. If you forget your passcode, contact Customer Support.
3. When your iOS device appears in the Finder window or iTunes, choose it and select restore the backup.
4. Find out which backups are the most recent, and pick accordingly.
5. After your encrypted backup has been backed up, restore it. Select “Restore” and wait for the restoration process to complete. If prompted, provide the password to decrypt your encrypted backup.
6. Keep your device connected after it restarts and wait for it to sync with your computer. If you face troubles or need more help, check our iTunes backup recovery guide.

4. Using a Third-Party App to Restore Your iOS or Android Phone

You can also use software such as Dr.Fone on your computer to generate backups and later restore your Android and iPhone data. To clarify, we have no affiliations—this one is merely an example. The following are the instructions to do this on Android, but the process is similar for Apple devices. Do the following to create the backup:

1. Download Dr.Fone and install it on your computer. Remember to stop any other similar backup program in the background.
2. Connect your Android phone to the PC using a USB cable. It will automatically detect your phone in this stage.
3. When Dr.Fone scans your phone, you must press the “Backup” button and choose the data category you wish to back up to your computer. Remember that for this method, your phone needs to be rooted.
4. You’ll have to select “Backup” one last time (at the bottom) before the actual process begins after you’ve made your selection.
5. Sit tight as the process may take a long time, depending on the file size. After the backup is complete, you can check the backup files by picking the “View the backup.” option.
6. You can now see the file by simply selecting ‘View.’

Getting Phone Data Back via Dr.Fone App for Android or iOS

Launch the aforementioned application on your PC and connect the device.

1. To restore data from an existing backup file, go to the “File” menu and select “Open Backup.”
2. Select a previous backup file on your computer by pressing the “Restore” button and selecting the older backup file. You might have backed it up on this Android phone or another device.
3. In this stage, you must select which data you wish to restore. The left side has a drop-down menu where you can decide from several options. To begin the procedure, pick the “Restore to Device” button on the right side.

This process may take some time to complete. Once it’s finished, Dr.Fone will notify you.