Short answer: restart the router first. A restart only turns it off and on again and keeps your settings; eero, for one, recommends trying that before any reset. A factory reset is different: it erases every custom setting and returns the router to how it came out of the box. Do it only when a restart hasn’t helped, when you’ve lost the admin password, or when the router is leaving your home.
Restart vs factory reset
| Restart (reboot, power cycle) | Factory reset | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | The router turns off and starts up again | Every setting goes back to the manufacturer default |
| Your Wi-Fi name and password | Unchanged | Gone; back to the defaults on the label |
| Admin password | Unchanged | Gone; back to the default |
| Port forwarding, parental controls | Unchanged | Gone |
| Can you undo it? | Nothing to undo | No |
| When to use it | First step for almost any problem | Forgotten admin password, persistent faults, giving the router away |
The confusion comes from the button. Many routers have a single Reset button that restarts the router after a short press and erases it after a long hold, and the hold time is different on every brand.
Try a restart first
Unplug the router’s power, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in. That’s eero’s recommended first step, and it’s the same idea behind the restart step in most troubleshooting guides. If your provider’s modem is a separate box, restart the modem first and the router second, so the router finds a working connection when it starts.
If the problem comes back after a restart, update the firmware next. TP-Link recommends a firmware update before a factory reset for a router that keeps misbehaving, and how to update your router’s firmware walks through it.
Before a factory reset: what to save
A factory reset erases your internet settings, Wi-Fi settings, port forwarding rules and parental controls (TP-Link’s list), and NETGEAR adds the admin user name and password and the security settings. TP-Link is blunt about it: a factory reset can’t be undone.
If you can still log in, save a settings file first. TP-Link, NETGEAR and ASUS routers all let you download your configuration from the admin page and upload it again later, which puts everything back in one step. ASUS notes that its file only works on the same model, so it won’t move your settings to a new router.
If you can’t log in, write down what you’ll need to rebuild by hand:
- your Wi-Fi network name and password (so your devices reconnect without changes)
- any internet login details your provider gave you
- port forwarding rules and reserved addresses, if you use them
- which parental controls or schedules were set up
How to factory reset a router
There are two ways: the reset button, or the reset option in the router’s admin page or app.
With the reset button
Leave the router powered on, then press and hold the reset button with a paper clip until the lights change. How long to hold depends on the brand:
| Brand | Hold the reset button for |
|---|---|
| NETGEAR | About 7 seconds |
| ASUS | 5 to 10 seconds, until the power light flashes |
| TP-Link | More than 10 seconds, until the SYS light flashes fast |
| eero (hard reset) | About 15 seconds, until the light flashes red |
| Xfinity XB2 and XB3 gateways | 30 seconds |
Check your model’s manual if it isn’t listed; the button is usually a small hole on the back or bottom.
Be careful on routers where the reset button is also the WPS button. On TP-Link’s combined WPS/Reset button, a press of under five seconds starts WPS pairing instead, and the reset only happens at 10 seconds or more.
If the normal reset doesn’t work, ASUS documents a model-specific “hard factory reset” as the next step.
From the admin page or app
If you can still log in, the reset is also in the settings. TP-Link puts it under System Tools, Backup and Restore, Factory Default Restore, and ASUS offers it from the same Administration page where you save your settings. This route avoids guessing at button timings. How to log in to your router covers getting into the admin page.
Mesh systems
Mesh systems often have more than one kind of reset. eero separates a soft reset, which reboots a unit and returns it to its default Wi-Fi channel but keeps it on your network along with its logs and settings such as IP reservations and port forwarding, from a hard reset, which factory resets the unit, clears its data and removes it from the network.
Reset the main unit (the one plugged into the modem) only if you mean to rebuild the whole network. On most mesh systems, resetting a single satellite and adding it back in the app is enough when only that unit misbehaves.
Provider gateways
If your router is a gateway from your internet provider, a factory reset also wipes the provider’s settings on it. Xfinity says a factory reset of its XB2 and XB3 gateways erases your custom Wi-Fi name and password, and that Xfinity Voice stops until the gateway restarts. If you own your own router behind the gateway, reset the device that actually has the problem, and check your provider’s instructions before resetting theirs. Modem vs router vs gateway explains which box does what.
After the reset
The router is now back to its defaults, with the login details and network name printed on its label.
- Log in and create a new admin password. On ASUS routers the first login after a reset goes straight into setup and asks you to create one.
- Restore your settings file, if you saved one, or set the Wi-Fi name and password back to what they were.
- Update the firmware before anything else.
- Re-enable subscriptions. NETGEAR says an active Armor or Smart Parental Controls subscription has to be reactivated in the Nighthawk app after a factory reset.
- Run through the security basics in our router security checklist.
How to set up a new router covers the full setup if you’re starting from scratch.
When a reset isn’t the answer
A reset fixes settings, not hardware. If the router still restarts by itself or runs hot afterwards, work through why a router keeps rebooting. And if it no longer gets security updates, a reset won’t change that; when to replace your router explains how to tell.