Restoring all audio, video, and system settings on the Apple iPod Touch portable media player to factory default values, can be accomplished without a computer.
Note that doing so this way, does not erase any music from this player right away. But, restoring does schedule a media file deletion for the next time this iPod is connected to a computer running iTunes.
First, press the Home button (button underneath the touch screen). This brings up the Home screen, as displayed below.
Then, tap the Settings icon (located on left edge of screen, second row up from bottom). The Settings menu screen then displays, as shown next.
Next, tap the General menu item on the settings screen. The iPod then displays the General Settings screen, as shown next.
Then, single-flick upward with your index finger on the touch screen, to reveal the Reset menu item, as shown next.
Then, tap the Reset menu item. The Reset screen is then shown, as pictured next.
On the iPod Touch player, you can choose how extensively the unit resets itself to factory defaults. You may choose to either
- Reset All Settings,
- Erase All Content and Settings,
- Reset Network Settings,
- Reset Keyboard Dictionary,
- Reset Home Screen Layout, or
- Reset Location Warnings
In our case here, we wish to reset all settings on the iPod, but not erase the music. So to do that, we touch the “Reset All Settings” option; the first option on the Reset menu. This displays the Reset All Settings confirmation screen, as pictured next.
If you’re certain that you wish to proceed with the factory default restoration, press the red Reset All Settings button on this screen. If not, touch Cancel. But assuming you went ahead and chose to perform the reset, the factory default reset process begins, which can take several seconds to finish. This iPod displays a progress bar showing how far along in the reset process it is, as shown next.
Once done successfully, the Lock screen displays, as shown next.
Then, move your finger from left to right, across the bottom of the screen where it says, “Slide to unlock.” The Location Services option screen then appears as follows.
Choose whether or not you want to enable or disable Location Services here, by tapping the appropriate button. When you do, you are then prompted to connect to an in-range WiFi network, as shown next.
To connect to a displayed in-range WiFi network, tap on the desired network in the displayed list. Otherwise, tap the blue Next button. We opted not to connect to a WiFi network at this time, and so just pressed Next. The Terms and Conditions acceptance prompt appears next, as follows.
Assuming that you agree with Apple’s terms and conditions of use for this iPod, tap the blue Agree button. The Touch then prompts you for how to handle diagnostics messages, that it sends back to Apple for evaluation and analysis, as follows.
We choose the “Automatically Send” option. Press this button, and you then see the Thank You screen, indicating that Setup was successfully completed.
Finally, touch the “Start Using iPod Touch” button. Doing so takes you once again to the Home screen, as shown next. Note that any customizations you have made (if any) to this screen have been reverted back to original factory default values.
You have now successfully restored all the settings in your iPod Touch music player to factory default values, without deleting the media files on it. You may remove those files later if desired, when next you connect this iPod to iTunes. Or you can do it by executing a similar procedure to the above, except that when prompted for which type of reset you want to perform on the Reset screen, choose the “Erase all content and settings” option, instead of the “Reset all settings” option.
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References
Revision History
- 2016-03-05: Originally published.