Picture of the iPod Touch portable media player, displaying its home screen.

How to Hard Reset iPod Touch

A hard reset of the iPod Touch restores all settings to default values.  Plus, you can reset the Touch without a computer. Here’s how.

How to Hard Reset iPod Touch, Step by Step

Note that doing so this way, does not erase any music from this player right away.

Warning!

But, restoring does schedule a media file deletion. These files will go away the next time you connect this iPod to a computer running iTunes. So to keep these files, do not plug the iPod into an iTunes computer. Only do so once you’re ready to lose them.

1. Get to the Home Screen

First, press the Home button (button underneath the touch screen).  This brings up the Home screen, as displayed below.

Picture of the iPod Touch portable media player, displaying its home screen.
iPod Touch portable media player, displaying its home screen.

2. Bring Up the Settings Screen

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.

Picture of the Touch, displaying the Settings menu.
Apple iPod Touch portable media player, displaying the Settings menu.




3. Next, Tap the General Item to Continue with How to Hard Reset iPod Touch

The iPod Touch then displays the General Settings screen, as shown next.

Picture of the Apple iPod Touch portable media player, displaying the General Settings screen.
Apple iPod Touch portable media player, displaying the General Settings screen.

4. Find the Reset Item

Then, single-flick upward with your index finger on the touch screen, to reveal the Reset menu item, as shown next.

Picture of the player, displaying the Reset menu item on its General Settings menu.
Apple iPod Touch Portable Media Player, displaying the Reset menu item on its General Settings menu.

5. Then, Tap the Reset Menu Item

The Reset screen then appears, as we see next.

Picture of the Apple iPod Touch Portable Media Player, displaying the Reset menu.
Apple iPod Touch Portable Media Player, displaying the Reset menu.

6. Pick the Type of Reset You Want, and Tap That Option to Continue with How to Hard Reset iPod Touch

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,
  • Clear the Keyboard Dictionary,
  • Reset Home Screen Layout, or
  • Clear 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. This is the first option on the Reset menu.





This brings up the Reset All Settings screen, as shown next.

Picture of the iPod, displaying the Reset All Settings confirmation screen.
Apple iPod Touch Player, displaying the Reset All Settings confirmation screen.

If you really wish to proceed, then press the red Reset All Settings button on this screen.  If not, touch Cancel.

7. iPod Touch Hard Reset Begins

The factory hard reset process begins. Note that this can take a few  seconds to finish. Also during reset, this iPod shows a progress bar. This tells how far along in the reset process it is,  See this in the next picture.

Picture of the Apple iPod Touch Player, displaying the Reset All Settings progress bar screen.
Apple iPod Touch Player, displaying the Reset All Settings progress bar screen.

Once the iPod Touch hard reset completes, the Lock screen displays, as shown next.

Picture of the player, displaying the Lock screen.
iPod Touch portable player, displaying the Lock screen.

8. Unlock the iPod Touch

Then, move your finger from left to right, across the bottom of the screen where it says, Slide to unlock.

Next, the Location Services option screen then appears as follows.

Picture of the iPod, displaying the Location Services option screen.
Apple iPod Touch Player, displaying the Location Services option screen.

9. Turn On Location Services after Hard Reset of the iPod Touch Here

Choose whether or not you want to enable or disable Location Services here, by tapping the right button.  When you do, the iPod Touch then prompts you to connect to an in-range WiFi network, as shown next.

Picture of the Apple iPod Touch player, showing the WiFi Networks selection screen.
Apple iPod Touch player, showing the WiFi Networks selection screen.

10. Connect iPod Touch to WiFi

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 prompt appears next, as follows.

Picture of the Terms and Conditions screen.
Apple iPod Touch portable player, displaying the Terms and Conditions screen.

11. Touch the Agree Button

Assuming that you agree with Apple’s terms and conditions of use for this iPod, tap the blue Agree button.

The iPod Touch then prompts you for how to handle diagnostics messages, that it sends back to Apple, as follows.

Picture of the iPod Touch portable media player, displaying the Diagnostics handling option screen.
iPod Touch portable media player, displaying the Diagnostics handling option screen.

12. Choose to Send or Not Send Diagnostic Info Back to Apple to Continue with How to Hard Reset iPod Touch

We choose the Automatically Send option.  So we press this button.  You then see the  Thank You screen, meaning that basic setup is now done.

Picture of the Setup Complete screen.
Apple iPod Touch player, displaying the Setup Complete screen.

13. Finally, Touch the Start Using iPod Touch Button  

Doing so takes you once again to the Home screen, as shown next.  Note that any changes made to this screen are gone.  All settings are now set back to their default values.

Picture of the iPod Touch portable media player, displaying its home screen.
iPod Touch portable media player, displaying its home screen.

14. Done with iPod Touch Hard Reset!

You have now hard reset all settings in your iPod Touch music player to factory default values. But you have not deleting the media files on it.

You may clear those files later if you wish though, when next you connect this iPod to iTunes.  Or do that by running a similar routine to above. But when the iPod touch prompts for which type of reset you want to run on the Reset screen, choose the Erase all content and settings option, instead of the Reset all settings option.

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References for How to Hard Reset iPod Touch

  1. Where to Buy the iPod Touch Media Player

Revision History

  • 2019-07-13: Added key word targeting for ‘Hard Reset iPod Touch’, removed ad code, and added more links and tags.
  • 2016-03-05: Originally published.