In this quick guide we’ll go over how to factory reset your Xbox One as if it was brand new out of the box. This is perfect if you want to sell your Xbox One, give it to a friend or perhaps fix the OS.
Before continuing make sure your console has the latest updates, otherwise the steps below might be different for you.
Backing Up Data
- Plug in an external USB 3.0 storage with at least 128GB of storage in your console.
- While your console is powered on, press the Xbox button on your controller.
- On this popup window, navigate to the last section on the right and scroll down to and open “Settings”. This will open the console’s main Settings menu.
- From here navigate to “System” on the left and from this menu open “Back up & transfer”.
- There are two options here. “Network Transfer” allows you to transfer data over your network to another Xbox console. The other option is the one we want to focus on, which is “Back up my settings”, open this option.
- Here you’ll notice that the recommended external storage having USB 3.0 (for fast data transfer) and 128GB of storage (since game data can be large) is listed. Back up your data in this section.
- After your data backup completes, go back to the main Settings menu to proceed with the factory reset.
Factory Reset
- Select “System” on the left again, and in this menu select “Console info”.
- Now select “Reset console”.
3. On this popup menu you can “Cancel” to go back. Next is “Reset and keep my games & apps” this retains data but resets the OS, I still recommend backing up your data if you choose to do this (just in case). The last option (and the one you’re probably interested in) is “Reset and remove everything” which erases all data as if it was brand new out of the box, select this.
4. The console will reboot and take a few minutes to load back to the setup screen and you’re done!
