How to factory reset amazon tablet without password

Amazon Fire tablets are among the most popular tablets on Amazon, and not without reason. They’re affordable, pack some great features, and come with Alexa as a voice assistant. But as popular as the tablets are, here’s an issue you may face if you accidentally forget your password or PIN: how to unlock Amazon Fire Tablet? And if you have data, you don’t want to lose, how to unlock kindle fire without resetting? Having been in that spot more than once, read on to learn more about how we cracked the case!

If you find yourself locked out of your Amazon Fire tablet, the solution is to tap Unlock Device from the ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’ section of your Amazon account settings. Most new Amazon Fire Tablets support unlocking via this method, but if you haven’t registered your Kindle Fire tablet on Amazon, you will need to factory reset your device to use it again.

How to Factory Reset your Amazon Fire

There are two ways to factory reset your Amazon Fire — the first method is a soft reset, and the other is a hard reset. The soft reset is used when you notice your device glitching or slowing down, or you notice some software bugs while operating the Amazon Fire tablet. The hard reset is more useful when you find yourself completely locked out of your tablet, or maybe if your screen stops responding for some reason. 

Using the factory reset option wipes out all of the data on your tablet, and there is no way to recover it.  However, if you have recently backed up your device on the Amazon cloud, the device will allow you to restore that version. While a factory reset wipes out all the content you’ve downloaded to the device, any content you may have purchased from Amazon is safe. This is because your purchases sync with your Kindle Library in the cloud.

Let’s go ahead and see how to reset your Amazon Fire Tablet.

How to Hard Reset your Amazon Fire Tablet

The hard reset for your Amazon Fire can be done by using the volume rocker and the power buttons. Here’s the exact process:

1. Hold the Power button until you get the option to power off the tablet. If your screen is not responding, keep holding the power button until the tablet powers off. 
2. Once your device is switched off, power it back on, but hold the ‘Volume Up’ button as well. Press both of these buttons and wait until you see the Amazon logo with the black background appear on your screen.
3. Eventually, your tablet will show you the Android OS recovery menu. Note that you can navigate this menu using your volume keys as the touch functionality is disabled in this mode. To select an option, you have to use the power button.
4. The options you will see in this menu are: ‘reboot system now,’ ‘wipe data/factory reset,’ ‘wipe cache partition,’ ‘reboot to bootloader,’ ‘power down,’ and ‘view recovery logs.’ You need to choose ‘wipe data/factory reset.’ Just a reminder that this will wipe all your data and take you back to the setup menu of your device, exactly the way it was when you bought it. The operating system will be up to date, and only your personal data will be wiped out.

1. The screen will now ask you to confirm, and here you have to scroll using the volume buttons and choose ‘Yes.’ The screen will then go black, and you’ll see some commands running at the bottom of your display.
2. Once the wipe process is complete, you should be back at the recovery menu. Here, go ahead and choose ‘reboot system now.’ Your tablet will then restart.
3. The device may take some time to power up in the beginning or while it’s at the Fire logo, but there is no need to worry as you will soon be at the setup page. You can then continue to set up your Amazon Fire tablet.

So now that we’ve covered the hard reset method for your tablet, let’s move on to the soft reset.

How to soft reset your Amazon Fire Tablet

Soft resetting your tablet, as mentioned earlier, is great if you’re not too happy with how your Fire tablet has been performing. A soft reset usually gets your device back to its original zippiness. Here’s how you perform a soft reset: 

1. First, hit the Settings button on your tablet desktop, and scroll all the way down to Device options.
2. Here, you will see an option named ‘Reset to Factory Defaults’. But before you hit it, you can tap on Backup and Restore, which is just above the reset button, and make sure you backup your data. A soft reset wipes all of your data as well, but unlike the hard reset, at least you get to back up your data first.
3. Once you’ve backed up your data (confirm the time and date), you can go ahead and perform the factory reset for your Fire tablet. Your device will ask you to enter your PIN or password, to confirm that you do want to reset it.
4. After the soft reset is performed, just like the hard reset, you’ll find your tablet at the setup window once again, where you can continue to set up your device. 
5. Once you’re done setting up your Fire Tablet, you can then use the restore option in your settings menu to restore your device’s data and apps.

Did you find these options daunting? There’s a quicker method to get your factory reset done, right from the Password Screen. Here’s how you go about that.

How to unlock Amazon Fire From the lock screen: Forgot Password/PIN

The quickest way to factory reset your Amazon Fire tablet if you forget your PIN or password, would be from the lock screen itself. Note that you will lose all your data, just like the hard reset and the soft reset methods mentioned above. Here’s how you do it:

1. Enter the wrong PIN or password at least five times. Your display will keep mentioning ‘Wrong PIN’ or ‘Wrong Password’ until finally, after the fifth attempt, you get a pop-up message that says ‘Incorrect Password’, and offers you a few options.
2. The first option is, of course, to reset the password via your Amazon account. But if your device isn’t linked to your account the only choice you have left here is to perform a factory reset. So go right ahead and hit the ‘Tap here to perform a factory reset’ button.
3. Your screen will then ask you to confirm that you do want to perform the reset, which you can do. You will then see a window that says your Amazon Fire tablet is being deregistered from your Amazon account. 
4. After this, the tablet will default to factory settings and you will find yourself at the setup screen once more, after which you can go ahead and set up the Fire tablet.

While setting up your device, it would be a good idea to link your Fire tablet to your Amazon account. For some great reasons why you should, keep reading.

Why keep your Amazon Fire Tablet synced to your account

It is not atypical for people to forget their tablet passwords, considering we have so many accounts and devices that we use frequently. This is why Amazon allows you to unlock your Fire tablet via your account settings. Most users add their Amazon accounts to their Kindle Fire devices during the setup process, and this provides a lot of benefits. 

Besides the ability to unlock your tablet, adding your account automatically links your device and gives you access to all of Amazon’s content via the company’s various entertainment platforms like Prime Video and Amazon Music. Additionally, you also get access to other bundled subscriptions. It also gives you the ability to back up your Kindle Fire tablet on the cloud service.

Now, if you’re having trouble getting into your Fire tablet, which is linked to your Amazon account, you might wonder, how do I unlock my Kinde Fire without the password? Luckily, the process to regain access to your tablet is pretty simple. 

How to Unlock Kindle Fire Without Resetting

Getting into an Amazon Fire tablet that is linked to your Amazon account is a breeze. There are two ways of doing this — the first method is via your Fire tablet itself, and the other is through your Amazon account settings. The first method is already listed above, where you can access the Reset Password button when you enter the wrong PIN/password five times. This allows you to enter your Amazon password and set a new password. Here’s a great video that shows you how:

Alternately, if you wish to reset your device through your Amazon account settings, here’s how you can do that:

1. Go to Amazon’s website or the settings option on the Amazon app on your phone. Here, under Account Settings, look for Content and Devices. You can directly access this by clicking on this link.
2. You should now be able to view your Fire device, along with any other device that is linked to your Amazon account. Choose your fire tablet, and under ‘Device Actions’, tap or click on ‘Remote Lock’.
3. You can now enter a password or PIN of your choice (and remember it this time!), hit Confirm, and go ahead and lock your tablet.
4. Now you can tap ‘Unlock Device’ on your Fire tablet and get access once more, by using the new PIN/password that you just set.
5. You’re good to go!

Jailbreaking the Amazon Fire Tablet

All Amazon Fire tablets run on FireOS, which is essentially Amazon’s custom operating system that is baked on top of Google’s Android operating system. What this means is that Amazon has modified Android to run better on their own devices. But what it also means is that you can root your device using Android tools and methods, and with the help of the massive jailbreaking community that exists online. If you want an idea of how complicated the process is, take a look at our post on how to root Kindle Fire.

A strong reason to jailbreak your Fire tablet is that it would give you access to the apps in the Google Play Store. On the other hand, you could end up turning your Fire tablet into a brick. This basically means your device goes dead and you’ll need to take it to a service center to get it back up and running again.

SEE ALSO: Google Play on Fire Tablet: Instructions and download links!

So let’s sum it up:

Pros

1. You get access to a whole lot of games, books, movies, namely content of every kind thanks to the Google Play Store access.
2. You can download critical Google apps such as Google Drive and Google maps. You can also store movies and songs directly in the file system.
3. You can also install an Android operating system of your choice, but this of course, depends on the options available.
4. You can get rid of pre-loaded apps or bloatware, freeing up precious storage space and improving performance.

Cons

1. You will be voiding the warranty of your device by jailbreaking it.
2. You may not see the performance you expected to see after jailbreaking your tablet.
3. The process of rooting/jailbreaking is quite tricky, and you might end up damaging your device permanently. The operating systems are made by enthusiasts and are often not as good as you think they will be. It’s common to find bugs and broken features in the software.
4. You need to be up to date with the jailbreaking community to find updates and features for your Android OS. It gets tricky because developers from the community often appear and disappear sporadically.
5. Amazon keeps pushing updates to Fire devices, and an update could regain access to your system and reset the device. This means you’ll have to repeat the process of jailbreaking once again, this time with updated tools/methods.
6. There is a fair chance a virus could be a part of the Android OS that you download. In a worst-case scenario, someone could gain access to your personal data.

As you can see, the cons greatly outweigh the pros! Why not consider an Android tablet instead? In fact, here’s a great article to get you started on the differences between a new Fire tablet and a popular Android tablet: the Fire HD 10 vs the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I unlock my Fire tablet if I forgot my PIN?

If you forget your PIN/password, the easiest way to unlock your Fire tablet is by resetting the password through your Amazon account, or by entering the wrong password five times until the tablet asks you to reset your password. To do this, your device must be linked to your Amazon account. If it is not linked, you will have to factory reset your device.

How do you bypass the lock screen on a Kindle Fire?

There are two ways of bypassing the lock screen on a Kindle Fire. The first method is by resetting the password or PIN via your Amazon account, and the other is by factory resetting the device, which would wipe out all user data.

Conclusion

If you ever find yourself locked out of your Amazon Fire tablet, we definitely hope one of the methods listed above helped you get out of that tight spot. Seeing how it’s such a common issue (and one that we have faced as well!), it’s always good to know how to unlock Amazon Fire tablet, or at least perform a factory reset so you can start using it again. If this article was of use to you, be sure to leave us a comment!