Does a Factory Reset Remove Viruses From Your Phone?
If your phone has fallen prey to a virus, you might consider performing a factory reset to remove it. While a factory reset can be an effective solution, it’s never an easy choice. You lose all your data as you revert your phone to its original state.
Theoretically, a factory reset should erase all viruses from your phone, but it’s not always the case. Not all viruses go away during a factory reset. It’s better to understand the odds of success before initiating the process. So what does a factory reset really do? How can viruses survive such a Scorched Earth approach?
What Does a Factory Reset Do?
A factory reset allows you to revert your smartphone to its original state—the state in which it first came from the company. It erases all the information, including photos, movies, system files, and apps on your device. Factory resets only leave the most basic set of software that came pre-installed from the manufacturer.
Since factory resets basically clear everything stored on a phone, viruses and other malware can also be removed with it. But does it removeallviruses from the phone?
Does Factory Reset Remove Viruses from Your Phone?
The short answer is “yes”! By returning the phone settings to factory model, the reset option automatically deletes viruses and any infected file or program on your device. It’s an extreme option and works pretty much every time—except in some very rare cases.
Viruses are constantly evolving and cybercriminals are exploring new ways to infiltrate the phones of unsuspecting individuals and evade detection. One such virus is xHelper: this emerged in March 2019 and targeted Android devices. It infiltrated phones by hiding in the code of unverified Android apps that were available outside the Play Store.
Once installed, xHelper would serve spam notifications and annoying pop-ups on users’ phones. But the worst part was its distinctive ability to evade factory resets. XHelper would disappear momentarily after resetting, but it would reactivate itself after a few hours.
How Do Viruses Survive Factory Reset?
A factory reset will generally remove viruses, but a few can still survive it. Here are some ways this can happen:
Things to Consider Before Resetting Your Phone
A factory reset is a complete software restore of your phone. It wipes all data and brings your device back to its original state. But before you initiate this process, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
Now that you understand the different reset options and what each entail, you need to know how to perform a factory reset.
How to Factory Reset an Android Phone
Doing a hard reset is quite similar on most Android devices. Here are the steps you need to take to start the process.
If the above method doesn’t work for you, there are otherways you can factory reset your android phone.
How to Factory Reset an iPhone
Just like Android devices, there are afew ways to reset your iPhone. To perform a hard reset from the device itself, follow these steps:
A Factory Reset Should be Your Last Option
A factory reset is never an ideal option to get rid of a virus. You risk losing all your data and there’s no guarantee that it will work. While the type of malware that can survive a hard reset is rare, it’s best that you take precautionary measures to protect your phone.
Using a good antivirus software can be handy, but we also recommend performing regular security checks to ensure that your phone is fully protected.
Do these quick checks on your Android phone to make sure your privacy and security are never compromised.
You’ve been quoting these famous films wrong all along!
Don’t let someone else take over your phone number.
I found my TV was always listening—so I shut it down.
You can’t call this offline, Notion.
Obsidian finally feels complete.
