How To Factory Reset The Steam Deck

Need to factory reset your Steam Deck? We’ve got you covered.

The Steam Deck is a magnificent gaming handheld, and its openness means that you can do basically anything you want with it. If you’ve modified too much with your system or need to send it back for repairs, though, you may want to factory reset it. Valve makes it pretty easy to do thankfully, and you can do it in just a few quick steps.

If you plan on factory resetting your Steam Deck, we highly recommend backing up your data first. This is an irreversible process, meaning that you will lose everything stored on it. It’s a great way to make your Steam Deck as good as new, but “as good as new” means all of your stuff will be gone.

How to factory reset the Steam Deck

Make sure you’re in gaming mode

Once your Steam Deck is switched on and in gaming mode, you’re ready to factory reset your Steam Deck.

Press the Steam button
Scroll down and select Settings
Go to System and scroll down to Advanced
Select Factory reset and tap Confirm

Confirming that we are factory resetting the Steam Deck OLED

Your Steam Deck will now begin to factory reset itself, which means it deletes everything stored on the device. You’ll be logged out of your account, your games will be deleted, and it will be as if you had just purchased your Steam Deck for the first time. This is a great way to get back to square one if you feel you over-tweaked your Steam Deck, or if you’re conscious of your personal data when you’re sending it back for repairs.

There are a ton of tweaks you can do on the Steam Deck OLED, but it’s no secret that they can be dangerous to play around with if you don’t know what you’re doing. One such tweak is CryoUtilities, which can improve the performance of your games but can also cause damage that can only be fixed with a lot of care. In these cases, we recommend simply factory resetting and starting again.

As you can see, it’s really easy to factory reset the Steam Deck. It takes mere minutes, and you’ll be back up and running again in no time!