How to Factory reset Samsung Galaxy S5 using a computer?

[Daniel Hawkins]

I have an old Samsung Galaxy S5 which i want to factory reset so i can sell online for spares and repairs.
So the back story here is i attempted to dismantle my S5 and replace the midframe as the power button had broken off. I cracked the screen when trying to remove it so now the screen does not work at all, thus the need to factory reset via a computer. I transferred all files i wanted off the phone before attempting the fix so there's no need to save any data before resetting.
If anyone can point me in the right direction or even step by step help me that would be great.

 

[lunatic59]

What version of Android do you have on the S5? You might have a chance if it was never upgraded to Marshmallow (6.x) otherwise you will be banging your head up against FRP.

If you can put it into download mode, you might have a chance flashing stock firmware with Odin, including the user partition. This will effectively wipe out everything you ever put on it and return to factory conditions. But without a working screen it will be tricky.

 

[Daniel Hawkins]

Thank you for your reply, yes with no working screen im finding it near impossible. I am very tech illiterate when it comes to the software side of things so again i thank you for your reply but most of it has gone over my head.

 

[lunatic59]

"Download mode" or "Odin mode" as it's sometimes called is basically booting the phone into a ready state to accept communication through the USB port. You put it in that state by turning the phone off and then pressing and holding the power button, the home button and the volume down button all at the same time for several seconds. On a working phone you'd see the screen pop up with the warning about altering the firmware, but with a broken screen all you can to is assume you did it correctly. Once you have that warning screen, you must then press the volume up button to confirm and enter download mode. If you can do that, then that's all that needs to be done with the phone.

Odin is a utility that you run on your PC that allows you to communicate with a Samsung phone in download mode when it's connected through a USB connection. And finally you'll need the stock firmware image to push to the phone. You can find the appropriate version of Odin here.

You can get that from https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ it's best to match the exact model number and original carrier of your device, especially since Samsung has a habit of producing a lot of the same model with the same name, but minor differences.

So what's I'd try is to open Odin, then try and put your phone into download mode and plug it into your PC. If you did it correctly, then Odin will indicate that it's connected to your phone (give it a minute, it's not instantaneous). If you can do that, then you should be able to install the factory firmware.

Yeah, it's a bit to take in and if you'd rather not attempt it, that's understandable.

The only other thing I could suggest is to log into your google account and use the the find my phone feature to attempt to erase your phone that way. Mind you, for that to work, your phone must be registered to that Google account and it must have a wifi or data connection.

 

[Hadron]

I believe the S5 supports MHL, which means that you can use an MHL adapter to mirror the screen to a monitor or TV (check compatibility though: Samsung need a different type of MHL adapter to other manufacturers). Booting into recovery and resetting from there usually only requires keys, not touchscreen, so if you can mirror the display I reckon you could probably reset that way.

Of course you need to check that it doesn't have factory reset protection: if it does you need to remove the Google account before resetting, and while that will be ok if the touch layer is working it will be a pain otherwise (best bet would be if you could pair a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse to it - the problem is that MHL uses the usb socket, so if you have to plug something in to control the phone you can't see what you are doing at the same time).

 

[lunatic59]

I believe the S5 supports MHL, which means that you can use an MHL adapter to mirror the screen to a monitor or TV

You know, I always seem to forget about that.

best bet would be if you could pair a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse to it - the problem is that MHL uses the usb socket, so if you have to plug something in to control the phone you can't see what you are doing at the same time

There is the possibility of casting the screen to another device while controlling it with an OTG mouse/keyboard, but that would be as tricky IMO as trying to put it into download mode and flash it with Odin.

 

[Hadron]

You know, I always seem to forget about that.

I had to do it once, to recover data from a phone where the screen (including digitiser) had failed. It's not something you forget easily!

(Unlocking using an OTG keyboard, turning off the damned screen lock so you'd not have to do that again, getting into the Contacts app and exporting the phonebook, and then pairing with a BT keyboard so you could see what you were doing from then on. All done while swapping between OTG and MHL: do something blindly using OTG, swap to MHL to see where you are now, plan next move, swap back to OTG and carry out next move blindly, rinse and repeat as necessary... It made for a memorable evening, especially the bits where the you couldn't switch to a pop-up window using the keyboard and so had to use a mouse. Using cursor keys blind is one thing, you just remember the grid and count keypresses. Using a mouse blind, on a device you don't normally control with a mouse anyway, is "memorable" )