Android 11: Restore data after factory reset

When you reset to factory settings, all stored data is usually also removed from your Android smartphone. There are several ways you can restore the data on your device after such a reset.

Restore data using Google account

If you want to restore your data after a reset, the procedure depends on whether and how you backed up the data in advance. If you have set up your smartphone with a Google account and enabled automatic backup, you can restore your data either during setup or at a later time. Follow these steps to load a backup on Google Pixel:

1. Open your smartphone's settings and tap "Users and accounts" in the overview.
2. Select the Google account you used to back up your data. If necessary, add the account via the "Add account" option.
3. Tap "Sync account" afterwards to transfer the data from the backup to your smartphone.
4. If the account is not yet set up on the device, tap "Add account" to add your Google account.

If you have used another tool for backing up data instead of the integrated backup function, you must use it to restore. You can usually transfer locally stored data back to the smartphone via USB cable.

Restore data without a backup - is that possible?

Without a backup, a restore often turns out to be difficult. With special recovery software, such as PhoneRescue, you can still try to recover the lost data. However, there is no guarantee that you can recover all data this way.