How To Factory Reset An LG TV (And When You Should)

LG TVs are some of the most popular displays on the market, but they're not perfect. From LG's high-end OLED displays to its mid-range budget TVs, you can encounter all sorts of issues with updates, connectivity, and image quality.

LG TVs can last quite a while, and these issues aren't incredibly common, but some of them can seriously hamper your enjoyment of your favorite movies and shows. Digging around in the TV's settings menu can provide temporary relief for certain problems with image quality, but software and magic remote issues aren't so easily remedied. You can factory reset LG TVs to completely restore them to their original state. You can find the option to reset your TV by opening the settings and navigating to the General section.

This will hopefully fix whatever problem you're having, but it's not always the best move. A factory reset completely wipes all your TV's data and installed apps, so it's meant to be a last-ditch effort if nothing else works. Plus, a factory reset can only do so much to help an older TV with aging hardware.

The process of factory resetting an LG TV is simple, but it can vary depending on how old your TV is. All LG smart TVs run the same operating system, WebOS, which means the settings menu should look pretty similar regardless of the model you own.

To factory reset an LG TV, press the settings button on your remote and open the All Settings menu. From there, navigate to the Support category. There, you'll find an option to reset the TV to its initial settings. It'll warn you that you're about to completely reset the TV. Press OK to confirm, then the TV will restart.

If you have an older LG TV from 2019 or earlier, the process is slightly different. To factory reset an old LG TV, open the settings menu. Then, select All Settings and find the General section. There, you'll find the option to reset the TV to its initial settings.

There are several reasons why you'd want to factory reset an LG TV, but it's not always the recommended fix. If you're having a relatively simple issue, check the TV's settings menu before resetting everything. You might have energy-saving settings on that make the screen dimmer, or one of your HDMI cables could be going bad.

A soft reset might also be better for you than a hard reset to factory settings. To perform a soft reset on an LG TV, turn off the TV and then unplug it from the wall. Next, press and hold the power button on the bottom of the TV underneath the LG logo for 30 seconds. This will fully power cycle your display and hopefully fix your issues.

If you can't fix your problem with a simple settings tweak, then it's time to factory reset the TV. Updates are a very common reason why people reset their LG TVs, for example. Some TVs will refuse to download software updates or update certain apps, which can lock you out of streaming services. Some TVs can also turn off at random or repeatedly disconnect from Wi-Fi, two additional problems warranting a factory reset.