Everything used to work flawlessly on your Chromebook. The speed is fast. Your media plays perfectly. Now, you're experiencing lag, and you don't know what's wrong.
If you need to fix a specific issue without completely erasing your Chromebook, we provide separate guides on how to fix the most common problems. However, if resetting seems to be your only solution, we show you how to run your Chromebook like new.
Notes before entering
Chromebooks provide three ways to reset settings if a simple reboot doesn't work. The following is a brief explanation of each method:
- Hard reset: This simply resets hardware settings, such as keyboard and camera.
- Powerwash : This will reset the Chromebook to its factory settings, returning it to a ready-to-use state. After that, you have to link it to your account, re-download the app, and so on.
- Recovery: This reinstalls Chrome OS from an external source, such as a flash drive. Recovery is required when Chrome OS is corrupt/damaged and cannot be repaired.
- Now that you are familiar with this method, start your troubleshooting by doing a hard reset.
Hard reset Chromebook
It may not work, but it's worth a try before returning your Chromebook to its default settings.
Step 1: Turn off the Chromebook by holding down the Power button.
Step 2: Press and hold the Refresh button then tap the Power button.
Step 3: Once the Chromebook has started, release the Refresh button.
If your problem persists, continue to the next section.
Chromebook Powerwash
Powerwash is your next choice. This built-in tool completely resets all settings to return Chrome OS back to its ready-to-use state. That means it does the following:
