How can I factory reset my phone without booting the phone?

Asked: Apr 05 2015 | 7:42 pm EDT 4646 Views 12 Answers View Best Answer

I have a Z10 that is stuck at "Finalizing device setup". The funny (or not) thing is, I wasn't setting the device up. It was working just fine and I think it installed an update last week. It worked fine after that until yesterday when it started to reboot itself and refused to boot up. Now I see the blue ring with the BB logo in the middle and the words "Finalizing device setup" at the bottom. So I'm stuck with this:

- the device won't boot
- the BB software on my Mac won't see the device
- pulling the battery doesn't work
- a different battery doesn't work

Is there a way to reset to factory settings without booting the phone?

By stodge

Best Answer

42,173

Apr 06 2015 | 12:38 am EDT FF22

You might have to try reloading the OS. BBLink can do it although I don't know much about the Mac version. Try seeing if you can power OFF the phone. Press/Hold the power button. If not remove the battery and keep it out while you hook up the usb cable. Then see if Link can find/see it. Reload the OS is generally presented as an option in this case.

If that does not work you probably need to investigate an autoloader but you need a Win pc for that.

Good luck

More Answers

63,706

Apr 05 2015 | 7:55 pm EDT conite

Did you interfere with it when it was "finalising setup"? It may have applied an update and can stay here for upwards of half an hour sometimes. If you interfered with it, it may have corrupted the device.

You may have to run an autoloader on a PC.

Z30STA100-5/10.3.2.281

Apr 05 2015 | 8:09 pm EDT stodge

No I didn't interfere. I remember it rebooting after it was done. I've ben using it for several days since the update. Actually it died this morning. I tried to run a sudoku app but it wouldn't start. So I rebooted and it started this loop. I installed the sudoku app several days ago and my daughter has been playing it for days since it was installed. The phone has been working perfectly for several days since the update.

Apr 06 2015 | 8:49 am EDT stodge

Thanks. I removed the battery and connected it to BBLink on my OSX laptop. BBLink says it is connected to the phone, but when I click Restore, it tries to establish a connection but the phone reboots again before anything happens. So I can't use BBLink. I guess I'll have to try an autoloader, otherwise it's a useless brick. Is there no secret little button that I can push with a paperclip to factory reset the phone??

42,173

Apr 06 2015 | 9:53 am EDT FF22

These are the methods to reboot/restart. But you can try using the power button as it reboots to turn it off??

Try a restart:

Press and HOLD both Vol Up/Down buttons. Keep holding while the screen goes fully black (ignore the screenshot), keep holding through the Black/White logo and when the Colored Logo shows up, release those buttons.

If you have a Z10: If you have the STL100-1 variant the volume button reset method doesn't work. In that case, Press and HOLD the Power On Button until you see the LOGO as above

There's also a method that uses MS' Internet Explorer to try reloading the OS. I don't have a link at hand....

KB29847-How to reload a BlackBerry smartphone without using the BlackBerry Desktop Software

How to reload the OS on a BlackBerry Z10 or BlackBerry Q10 | CrackBerry.com

Apr 06 2015 | 2:45 pm EDT stodge

Thanks. I thought the update would work with Internet Explorer, as it seems to detect the device and it starts to download the update. But the phone keeps rebooting every few seconds so the updater may or may not work. But the download fails everytime and never completes. I hate technology. *sigh*

Apr 06 2015 | 3:26 pm EDT stodge

I tried BBLink but it has the same problem. It starts downloading the update but then the phone randomly reboots itself, which disconnects the device and causes the download to fail. I'll try the autoloader (downloading now) but if that fails, then it's a useless brick.

63,706

Apr 06 2015 | 3:52 pm EDT conite

Originally Posted by stodge

The autoloader is the best way to do it anyway.

Z30STA100-5/10.3.2.281

Apr 06 2015 | 3:55 pm EDT stodge

I tried an autoloader but it doesn't work because the phone randomly reboots itself during the update.

Apr 06 2015 | 4:32 pm EDT stodge

Well that was odd. The autoloader failed and rebooted the phone. Turns out I used the wrong autoloader file, so I got an error about an incorrect radio device. But this error stopped the device from randomly rebooting, which meant it was easy enough to use the correct autoloader. So the autoloader seems to have worked this time and the phone boots and goes through the setup. I'll have to download the update, so hopefully that will work.

63,706

Apr 06 2015 | 4:52 pm EDT conite

Originally Posted by stodge

What update do you have to download? You used the latest (10.3.1.2708) autoloader, no? There should be no further need to update the OS.

Z30STA100-5/10.3.2.281

42,173

Apr 06 2015 | 5:51 pm EDT FF22

I would not be in any rush to update the OS. I'd give it a day to settle before throwing it into another update.

Glad to hear you got it going.