How can I do factory reset on Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab?

Question

After more evidence of my son breaking into my tablet (darned 11-year-old... going to be a true Social Engineer hacker, if I can't get through his thick head that he'll lose all computer privileges...), I changed the password this morning... and can't remember it now.

Unfortunately, after multiple failed password attempts, IT IS NOT ASKING FOR MY GOOGLE LOGIN TO UNLOCK. I don't seem to be able to get to the "failsafe" unlock mechanism any more, and so am looking to do a complete factory reset.

I've seen instructions to hold down the Volume-Up + Power buttons to initiate this (remember, I can't log in, so I can't do this from settings.) All that happens is that the tablet goes into a mostly-blank screen showing what is probably a newly-opened box, and a blinking Android that says "Downloading...". I let it sit for close to two hours in this state, and nothing. It did respond to a power-down from here, but just came back up to the password login.

What am I doing wrong? (Apart from choosing such a simple password as 10 U/L/num characters... obviously not sufficiently complex...).

Brian

Answer 1

As I just wrote on the same question for another device 5 min ago: This is a quite frequent question, so you will find a lot of ansers in the Related links section, and now some in the Linked section of this page as well.

I could not verify my search results, but basically there should be different approaches available for this device:

Using a dialer code

Though this option will not be available to you currently, since you cannot unlock your device, I will include this option for completeness:

1. Open your telephone app (dialer)
2. Dial *2767*3855#
3. Follow the instructions

This is not a real phone call, but rather a "magic number" (shortcut to system functions).

Via the system menu

Also currently unavailable to you:

In Menu Mode select Settings → Privacy → Factory data reset → Reset Tablet

Using hardware keys only

This probably is the only option left to you:

1. Turn your Tab off
2. Press and hold the Volume Up button, and then briefly press the Power button.
3. Use Power Up to move the cursor to the Left, and Power button to select.
4. Use the Power Up/Power Down buttons as cursors to move to the Factory Reset
5. Use the Power Up/Power Down buttons to scroll to "Confirm".

Last word: Be aware that with a factory-reset all your manually installed apps and all your data on internal/phone memory are lost, so backup what you need before! I guess you knew that, but just in case ;)

Answer 2

If you were able to unlock the device, you would go to Settings ~> Privacy ~> Factory Data Reset & follow instructions. Done!

Since you don't have access to OS, press and hold "Volume Down + Power" for 10 seconds. Screen will appear with standard Droid recovery icon. Select it with volume down key & press volume up to enter. Now, you're in recovery mode from where you can factory reset your device.

Depending on your device sub-model, if its not working, try "Volume up + Home + Power" for 10 seconds. When something is displayed on screen, release power button while holding other ones.

If this one is also not working, turn on device with power button and just after first display, press and hold "Volume up + Volume down" for 10 seconds.