I have a Fido Razr HD (xt925) in Canada, running stock JB, not unlocked/rooted/anything, just the standard phone.
So I did a hard reset, on the suggestion of some to deal with the stuttering issues (which I found were quite bad). Now I have somewhat of a worse issue, it's stuck in an infinite loop of the android update logo (the green android with the spinning blue thing), then a black screen then the motorola logo. Occassionally it shows the android logo on it's bag with a red symbol with a ! in it (which I presume means it's corrupt). It's just repeating endlessly. After 20 minutes or so I tried a few things, plugging it into a PC, holding down the power/volume up/volume down buttons (which makes it go to a black screen while I'm holding them, but then it goes back to looping as soon as I release them), nothing works.
Any suggestions on what I can do or is this a return to the store because it's dead problem?
Just try Power + volume down for 10 seconds (simulates a battery pull.) Aside from that if you can get into stock recovery try wiping data and cache and then rebooting. If you can't, take it back.
champdood said:
I have a Fido Razr HD (xt925) in Canada, running stock JB, not unlocked/rooted/anything, just the standard phone.
So I did a hard reset, on the suggestion of some to deal with the stuttering issues (which I found were quite bad). Now I have somewhat of a worse issue, it's stuck in an infinite loop of the android update logo (the green android with the spinning blue thing), then a black screen then the motorola logo. Occassionally it shows the android logo on it's bag with a red symbol with a ! in it (which I presume means it's corrupt). It's just repeating endlessly. After 20 minutes or so I tried a few things, plugging it into a PC, holding down the power/volume up/volume down buttons (which makes it go to a black screen while I'm holding them, but then it goes back to looping as soon as I release them), nothing works.
Any suggestions on what I can do or is this a return to the store because it's dead problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever get it fixed? I had the same issue and eventually found a path to success. Let me know if not and I'll see if I can help!
zimzum57 said:
Did you ever get it fixed? I had the same issue and eventually found a path to success. Let me know if not and I'll see if I can help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't mind if you posted your path to success in case I run into the same problem at some point. My bootloader hasn't been unlocked as of yet. I'm holding out for a ROM that's really, really worth a proper flashing but am scared as hell about the issues people run into.. factory reset loops and failures, bootloader unlock loops now apparently. With the exception of Busybox, which has an uninstaller, I have everything symlinked into my /system directory from a folder in /data and it works great and makes everything easy to keep track of but there's always the doubt of the stray app that put a file there when I granted permission and I didn't know about it.
For my Razr HD, I found that holding volume up and down while the android logo did it's spinning until it ended got me to the recovery menu.. However this hasn't really fixed anything, every time I restart the phone it goes through the same process again and does a hard reset all over again. After a few seconds in the recovery menu it restarts the phone again and goes through a normal load process, but the phone is hard reset every time. It doesn't matter what option I select in the boot menu, it does the same thing (so I don't think it's detecting what option I select at all).
So back to Fido it goes.
Scratch the above post, someone posted a fix on the Fido forums that works perfectly, see thematrix49's post here - fido.ca/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Smartphones/thread-id/8805
Same issue. Took me a while to figure it out through an amalgamation of various online helps. I repeated it several times to make sure it worked before I posted.
I was experiencing android logo with blue loading bar... after a few seconds it would stop and then quickly show the android symbol on its back with a red exclamation point logo. Then it would shut off.
- To restart, press and hold both power and volume down for approximately 10 seconds, then let go of the power.
(Should show Motorola logo, then go to green Android logo again)
- At Android Logo, immediately press the middle of the volume up/down rocker.... this should engage both buttons at once.
(I was able to initiate this with one press in the middle of the volume rocker... other times it took me a few quick presses)
(If done properly, the screen should stop and some yellow text will appear on the left side of the android logo.. let it continue, it may fail)
It should say:
Formatting /data....
Formatting /cache....
Data wipe failied.
Performing BP Masterclear...
This will bring up a blue text menu at the top. Use volume up/down to navigate. Power to select.
Go down to "wipe data/factory reset" and select by hitting power. Go down to "yes" and select by hitting power.
It should properly format the /data and /cache after about a minute. Once it completes it will bring the blue text menu back up. Select "reboot system now" by hitting the power button.
Voila.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Took a while to get the volume press to work, it's just a press, not a press and hold. I just kept tapping it over and over until it worked.
Guys can you post your build.prop and default.prop files? it needed to get fido fw with jb.
THANK YOU.......My Motorola xt925 went "Boot Loop" after i reset the settings. Neither Telstra or Motorola could help. Excellent work Champdood.......
champdood said:
Scratch the above post, someone posted a fix on the Fido forums that works perfectly, see thematrix49's post here - fido.ca/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Smartphones/thread-id/8805
Took a while to get the volume press to work, it's just a press, not a press and hold. I just kept tapping it over and over until it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are a king among men. I was stuck on this issue for so so so so long. I was downloading roms and trying to flash them and god knows what else!
champdood said:
Scratch the above post, someone posted a fix on the Fido forums that works perfectly, see thematrix49's post here - fido.ca/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Smartphones/thread-id/8805
Took a while to get the volume press to work, it's just a press, not a press and hold. I just kept tapping it over and over until it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK YOU! You just saved me so much trouble and it was quite the worrisome situation I was in. Sidenote for anyone reading this after June 6, 2013. The link to that Fido forum may be dead but Champdood's instructions are the straight goods! :good:
Is there a permanent fix for this? I have to go through those fix steps every time I wipe my phone as it continues to go into loop...
FunkmasterC said:
Is there a permanent fix for this? I have to go through those fix steps every time I wipe my phone as it continues to go into loop...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too! I also noticed that the version that re-installed (the one time I did it) wasn't completely stable. It acted super weird adding an icon of one of my apps to the top left position of the screen one swipe over from the main/home screen every time I did a reboot.
At first I didn't even know what was happening only that my Google Now widget (which I usually keep in that space) was disappearing every time I rebooted and an icon was in the top left corner instead. Finally, I realized what was happening. Weirdest part of it all is that if the OS put an icon in there, on a reboot it would remain the same. But if I tried putting an icon there (or widget) on reboot it would be replaced.
Champdood saved my phone...
I would like to add that the same thing happened to me. I performed a factory reset from Settings > Privacy > Factory Reset and that just sent the phone into an endless loop of red logo > android logo > android logo on back > power off > repeat. Nice job Motorola.
On Motorola help pages it was all about Power button + Down and getting the white menu where you volume down to choose and volume up to select. That would successfully reset the phone but as soon as I powered down and up again: back in the infinite loop.
In desparation, I found this thread. Completely unique to hit the Power Up+Down simultaneous as a press not a hold when see the Android logo, indeed, brought up a blue screen, followed the instructions, successfully reset and so far, have been able to successfully power down and back up again. Will be bookmarking this page.
Thank you so much Champdood!
Alternative External Reset Instructions from Motorola themselves...
Hey, as mentioned Champdood's factory reset instructions work fine. Since reading this thread, I realized other's are having the same problem resetting using the menu (Settings > Privacy > Factory Reset), so I initiated a chat with Motorola about this. The person would not respond to my quizzing about the reason for this but did say it was called an Internal Reset and then named Champdood's method the External Reset. He also gave slightly different instructions for accessing the blue menu. I am reproducing both sets of instructions for you all here:
From Motorola Customer Service:
PERFORMING AN INTERNAL RESET:
From the home screen of your phone, touch Menu
Touch System settings
Scroll down and touch Privacy
Touch Factory Data Reset
Scroll down and check Erase internal storage if you would like to erase all the data on the phone internal storage such as applications, music, movies or photos.
Touch Reset Phone
PERFORMING AN EXTERNAL RESET:
WARNING: When using this feature; everything is deleted from the device.
NOTE: Reset will require a minimum battery level of 25%. If you are unable to perform a reset, please charge for 20-30 minutes and try reset again.
With the phone powered off, press the VOL UP + VOL DOWN KEY together + POWER KEY .
The device will display different BOOT OPTIONS
Use the VOL DOWN Key to SCROLL to Recovery and VOL UP Key to SELECT
Tip: If the device reboots, you may have waited to long to make a selection, you will need to begin the process again.
The device will display the Motorola logo and then the Android in distress ( logo with Exclamation mark)
Press and hold the VOL DOWN key for 5-10 seconds
While still holding the VOL DOWN key tap and release the VOL UP key.
The device will display additional menu options (Text will appear in BLUE)
Use the VOL DOWN Key to scroll to Wipe data / factory reset and the POWER Key to SELECT this option.
Use the VOL DOWN key again to select YES - delete all user data and press the POWER key to CONFIRM
Once the Formatting is complete, press the POWER key to confirm a REBOOT
The device will reboot and start the normal power up sequence .
Motorola Razor Issue Fixed
Your Tip really helped me fix my Motorola Razor HD phone.
Created my account only to write a thanks and to comment for the same.
Thanks
Another thanks.
My wife's phone was doing this after a Settings menu factory reset, but the instructions champdood posted worked.
I had to re-re-format the data and cache partitions about four times, but after that it worked!
And somehow root was preserved; SuperSU was missing, but I had root over adb.
Cheers champdood.
Perfect fix
champdood said:
Scratch the above post, someone posted a fix on the Fido forums that works perfectly, see thematrix49's post here - fido.ca/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Smartphones/thread-id/8805
Took a while to get the volume press to work, it's just a press, not a press and hold. I just kept tapping it over and over until it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Champdood, THANKS! Your fix worked a treat - XT-925 now back on-line and loving it!!
Awesome, looks like the fixed worked on this POS Motorola I got here at work. Thanks.
my verizon xt 925 stucks at the loading screen logo, after it i had a low battery and it went off. Please help, my email is [email protected]
anthony
hello guys
i have the problem with my motorola xt925,
it refused to boot, uit only gets stuck at the loading screen logo (the red eye)
i tried hard reseting it but it does not show the android distress after i selected the recovery in the boot menu.
please help
Related
hi guys,
i just god nexus from a second hand store. i want to hard reset it but it does't.
it is stuck in the screen where the little green guy with the triangle with an exclamation mark next to it. please help.
is there a way to load the factory rom manually?
(i know how to jailbrake and downgrade an iphone so this should not be so hard)
Hold volume down and press on once you see menu with recovery
press volume again and you will see option for clear storage - thats what you want
that is what i have done already. but why is the mobile preventing me from hard reset ?
I have been hanging around the XDA forums (as well as every other forum I could think of) and have been unable to solve my re-set problem.
I got my Nexus S about a week ago and decided to unlock it. That went well, no problem. Then I decided to root using Superboot - that did not go well. Now my phone is unresponsive, just sits on the Google name with an unlocked padlock on a black screen. I can get into fastboot mode by using the volume up and power button if I do this right after replacing the battery. I cannot seem to go anywhere else. Once I got into a menu that would let me install from sd card, but none of the options would install. I followed the following directions to see if I could do a hard reset:
Hard reset Nexus S using hardware buttons
This option is recommended if you are unable to access the options via the Android OS.
1. Turn the phone off by pressing and holding the Power button for about 2 seconds, the tapping Power off. Alternately, you can pull the and replace the battery.
2. Press and hold the Volume Down button while pressing and releasing the Power button.
3. Continue to hold the Volume Down button until you see a menu appear.
4. Now tap the Volume Down button to scroll down to the Clear Storage option.
5. Press the Power button to select Clear storage.
6. Press Volume Up to select Yes.
After a few minutes the hard reset process will be completed and you can reboot your phone to factory default settings.
I never get to the clear storage option, although I have tried data/factory reset and wipe cache. I can get to the android with the triangle and exclamation point but that will just sit for ever, and removing the battery at that point and then rebooting does not work. It just takes me back to the Google and the unlocked padlock. FWIW - my phone updated right before I unlocked it. I don't think it is bricked, but I sure can't get passed the Google name or the Triangle/android.
Thanks for any help.
heliosue
I've the same problem now - did you ever resolve yours?
Here is how
Power off by removing battery
Hold vol up not down and power,
release power and you get Fastboot mode
vol down to recovery and click power
You get the screen with Android + triangle
Click up and Power again for few seconds
you will get the 'Android Sys recovery'
However if you have my problem 'error in loading the built in SDcard memory this wont help.
The only way i managed to get it to work some times although not now, is to reboot the mobile while it is connected to a PC, and load the PC at the same time.
However this time i am stuck at Google screen
hi guys
have same problem for no reason, the nexus s just keeps rebooting its selp for no reason, i get the power manager error when its booted up
i have tryed to reset from setting and no go, it reboot before i get too far and i tryed to reset from powering up with one finger on vol up and other on power button, i get into recovery and see the android and then i barly see the android on his back with ! and it reboots into its self with out resetting
this has never happened before and i dont know why
i moved some of stuff to usb storeage but that all i done lately
any ideas
Hi! So... I installed Magldr V1.13 many months ago and it has been very awesome. Yesterday, while sitting in class, my phone was in my pocket. (very rare occasion as I usually have it in a holster)
Anyhoo, it vibrated twice like it would for an email or text. I pushed the red (hangup) button to see the screen, and the screen stayed black but the buttons lit up. I repeated, same result. I took the battery out, turned back on and the phone stops loading after the "GO GO GO!". It just sits there.
I have taken the battery out and restarted it literally 12 times. I tried with and without SD card and Sim Card. I even tried holding in the yellow reset button. I don't know what else to do.
Any help is very much appreciated!
hope you find out the problem, I uesd to be in your situation, so sad
kimmy8705 said:
Hi! So... I installed Magldr V1.13 many months ago and it has been very awesome. Yesterday, while sitting in class, my phone was in my pocket. (very rare occasion as I usually have it in a holster)
Anyhoo, it vibrated twice like it would for an email or text. I pushed the red (hangup) button to see the screen, and the screen stayed black but the buttons lit up. I repeated, same result. I took the battery out, turned back on and the phone stops loading after the "GO GO GO!". It just sits there.
I have taken the battery out and restarted it literally 12 times. I tried with and without SD card and Sim Card. I even tried holding in the yellow reset button. I don't know what else to do.
Any help is very much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Always it happens something like that out of nowhere. So I think the solution is only one. Factory Restart the phone and re-install everything from the begging. If you don't want to loose your stuff try to copy paste the stuff you got in your SD card.
L0rkh said:
Always it happens something like that out of nowhere. So I think the solution is only one. Factory Restart the phone and re-install everything from the begging. If you don't want to loose your stuff try to copy paste the stuff you got in your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know right? This is the first time I have been without a phone this long since high school, lol. How can I factory reset it without being able to turn it on? I held down the volume down+home+power button and chose the wipe from that menu. It didn't do anything. I even held in the yellow button on the back, still nothing.
Ok. So I finally found a way to factory reset my phone even though I can't get it to really come on:
1. With your phone powered off, press and hold the VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN buttons.
2. While holding the volume buttons, press the END/POWER button briefly and then release it.
3. When you see a warning message on screen, release the VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN buttons.
4. Press the VOLUME UP button to perform the reset, or press any other button to cancel the reset.
Now, it's stuck on the "Stick Together" Tmobile logo
Hey everyone,
I updated to android 4.4.2 (OTA) about 2-3 weeks ago and I have noticed that my batter life has become horrible. The phone is not rooted and had perfectly fine battery life before the update. Now it goes from 100% to 70% with less than an hour of screen on time. I have read that after large updates like KitKat a factory reset is a good idea but I wanted to hear opinions from others first. Please help me out. The phone isnt very old either as I got it September 2013.
Thanks in advance :laugh::good:
Exactly the same story, from 100 to 60 in almost one hour of normal usage!
Verstuurd vanaf mijn HTC One mini met Tapatalk
HTcOneV said:
Exactly the same story, from 100 to 60 in almost one hour of normal usage!
Verstuurd vanaf mijn HTC One mini met Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its awful it makes the phone completely unusable in my opinion! If anyone can help us out PLEASE DO!
Check out your battery usage - is "Android System" consuming 70% or more of the battery? If so, the installation was buggy and a factory reset may be necessary. Or, you can root and use Tr1gg3r's version in the development section.
PuffDaddy_d said:
Check out your battery usage - is "Android System" consuming 70% or more of the battery? If so, the installation was buggy and a factory reset may be necessary. Or, you can root and use Tr1gg3r's version in the development section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset but im not sure if its done correctly. I may sound stupid but it gave me an option to do a reset where I can keep my pictures, music, etc. I chose that option. Should i have done the reset where it removes my data as well?
My friend have this problem. After upgrade from 4.2 to 4.4 the battery consuming is very fast. Before this upgrade it was very good the battery consuming.
People have found a solution?
FIXED IT!
Nick-ao said:
My friend have this problem. After upgrade from 4.2 to 4.4 the battery consuming is very fast. Before this upgrade it was very good the battery consuming.
People have found a solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys! I found a solution. This worked for me and hopefully it will work for you too.
Firstly if you arent prepared to do a factory reset try wiping the partition cache. HTC told me to this and here are the instuctions given by them
Wipe Partition Cache (In rare cases unforseen consequences can happen and corrupt the data, so make sure you have a backup if there is some data you absolutely cant lose)
1 Power off phone (be sure to turn off fast reboot in settings first).
2 Boot into recovery by press and holding the volume down key and then at the same time hold power key until boot menu appears. (you will see 3 green men in the buttom of the screen)
3 Press Volume down until you have selected RECOVERY then tap power key.
4 HTC logo appears followed by blank, dim screen. Briefly press simultaneously: power key and volume up then release immediately. You may have to do this step a few times to get the timing right.
5 Black screen appears and SD card error message scrolls. After about 5-10 seconds, recovery menu appears (all in very small font). Press Volume-down to Select "wipe cache partition" at bottom of list and tap power key. Cache gets cleared. Then select "reboot system now" by tapping power key again (this choice highlighted). Done!
Note: if you get a picture of a red triangle with a phone in it dont be scared just hold the lock/power button and the phone will turn off.
Then if wiping the partition cache didnt work then im afraid you will need to do a factory reset
Go to settings and then Backup& Reset. From here select the factory reset option. If it asks you if you want to keep your personal data(pictures videos music...) say you dont want to( this means you will need to back up everything on your phone.
Once you have factory reset it install your apps and use as per usual.
When you have to charge it drain the phone to 5-8% and then charge it fully. Only do this if possible. I have noticed by charging like this i get excellent battery life compared to before trying all the things i have written above.
modhvadia98 said:
Guys! I found a solution. This worked for me and hopefully it will work for you too.
Firstly if you arent prepared to do a factory reset try wiping the partition cache. HTC told me to this and here are the instuctions given by them
Wipe Partition Cache (In rare cases unforseen consequences can happen and corrupt the data, so make sure you have a backup if there is some data you absolutely cant lose)
1 Power off phone (be sure to turn off fast reboot in settings first).
2 Boot into recovery by press and holding the volume down key and then at the same time hold power key until boot menu appears. (you will see 3 green men in the buttom of the screen)
3 Press Volume down until you have selected RECOVERY then tap power key.
4 HTC logo appears followed by blank, dim screen. Briefly press simultaneously: power key and volume up then release immediately. You may have to do this step a few times to get the timing right.
5 Black screen appears and SD card error message scrolls. After about 5-10 seconds, recovery menu appears (all in very small font). Press Volume-down to Select "wipe cache partition" at bottom of list and tap power key. Cache gets cleared. Then select "reboot system now" by tapping power key again (this choice highlighted). Done!
Note: if you get a picture of a red triangle with a phone in it dont be scared just hold the lock/power button and the phone will turn off.
Then if wiping the partition cache didnt work then im afraid you will need to do a factory reset
Go to settings and then Backup& Reset. From here select the factory reset option. If it asks you if you want to keep your personal data(pictures videos music...) say you dont want to( this means you will need to back up everything on your phone.
Once you have factory reset it install your apps and use as per usual.
When you have to charge it drain the phone to 5-8% and then charge it fully. Only do this if possible. I have noticed by charging like this i get excellent battery life compared to before trying all the things i have written above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now the phone is better... I think it is a good solution... Thanks! :good:
modhvadia98 said:
Guys! I found a solution. This worked for me and hopefully it will work for you too.
Firstly if you arent prepared to do a factory reset try wiping the partition cache. HTC told me to this and here are the instuctions given by them
Wipe Partition Cache (In rare cases unforseen consequences can happen and corrupt the data, so make sure you have a backup if there is some data you absolutely cant lose)
1 Power off phone (be sure to turn off fast reboot in settings first).
2 Boot into recovery by press and holding the volume down key and then at the same time hold power key until boot menu appears. (you will see 3 green men in the buttom of the screen)
3 Press Volume down until you have selected RECOVERY then tap power key.
4 HTC logo appears followed by blank, dim screen. Briefly press simultaneously: power key and volume up then release immediately. You may have to do this step a few times to get the timing right.
5 Black screen appears and SD card error message scrolls. After about 5-10 seconds, recovery menu appears (all in very small font). Press Volume-down to Select "wipe cache partition" at bottom of list and tap power key. Cache gets cleared. Then select "reboot system now" by tapping power key again (this choice highlighted). Done!
Note: if you get a picture of a red triangle with a phone in it dont be scared just hold the lock/power button and the phone will turn off.
Then if wiping the partition cache didnt work then im afraid you will need to do a factory reset
Go to settings and then Backup& Reset. From here select the factory reset option. If it asks you if you want to keep your personal data(pictures videos music...) say you dont want to( this means you will need to back up everything on your phone.
Once you have factory reset it install your apps and use as per usual.
When you have to charge it drain the phone to 5-8% and then charge it fully. Only do this if possible. I have noticed by charging like this i get excellent battery life compared to before trying all the things i have written above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I
My wife is having the same problem after the update. I will try this.
Tried the fix, but unfortunately didn't work.
Sorry, i am really new to this site, and never had a problem like this with a previous phone.
I get home from the grocery store and my phone is off, so it seems, plugged in it, got the M to pop up do the little world thing, then the screen goes to black,
i leave it to charge a little while, come back, and everthing on my phone is working , except for the actual display{now i know its not the display or screen because when i boot it there are no problems with the boot/restart} and if i touch around the screen it lightly vibrates, weird,
i put it to boot menu and my first time trying a normal restart nothing, so i go to motorolas website to get an application to back up my data or something get the motorola device manager and its useless, all it does is tell me my drivers are up to date, look around some more for an easy backup program can't find any except one that won't connect because i can't see where to press ok on the screen
just ended up copy pasting over all 5 gigs of hardrive space
i try to do factory reset, but if i click factory on the boot menu it just restarts it, if i go into recovery it pops up the picture of the opened android robot, and says no command, i have tried pressing volume up for 15 seconds, and then taping the power button to no avail,
interestingly enough once i managed to get the screen on for the phone then it faded to black like a screen saver never to come back.
Anyone know what i can do to unbrick the phone?a program that i can go in and restore it back to factory settings?
i recently updated to 5.0 maybe on friday, haven't had problems, or dropped phone since then
just extremely frustrating,
Recovery key combination was changed after lollipop. Press and hold power button for few seconds and then tap vol up (when you see android robot and no command)
Sent from my XT1033 using XDA Free mobile app
U can flash stock firmware also from your pc..press vol down + power button for fastbootmod then press vol down and then vol up and power button for recovery mod
I see a lot of you saying you've rebooted your watch. Can someone please tell me how that's done. Cuz i'm not seeing where that's possible.
I can't get any apps to install because i'm getting the gear2 not connected message. I've rebooted the phone but that didn't fix the problem.
THANK YOU.
ALSO, how do i check for and download the latest rom for the s2? If there's an update.
Press and hold the bottom right button
Assuming you wore the watch on your left hand, there are two buttons on the right side - towards the fingers of your left hand.
Press and hold the button on the bottom, and it will show you a menu to power off.
Repeat to start again.
snowwy66 said:
I see a lot of you saying you've rebooted your watch. Can someone please tell me how that's done. Cuz i'm not seeing where that's possible.
I can't get any apps to install because i'm getting the gear2 not connected message. I've rebooted the phone but that didn't fix the problem.
THANK YOU.
ALSO, how do i check for and download the latest rom for the s2? If there's an update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From Tmobile support :
A master reset restores the original factory settings and may delete your personal data on the internal storage, such as downloads, ringtones, images, apps, contacts, and Visual Voicemail.
If the device menus are frozen or unresponsive, you can master reset using hardware keys. To perform a master reset, follow these steps:
Make sure that the Gear is powered off.
Press and hold the Power key until you see Galaxy Gear rebooting.
Release the Power key and then repeatedly press the Power key until you see the Reboot Select Mode screen.
Press the Power key to highlight the recovery option.
Long press the Power key (5-8 sec.) to select it. The device will reset and return to the factory initialization screen.
You can also directly reboot by simply holding the power/home button a bit longer -- about 10 seconds.
Press and hold, and when you see the "power menu" with the Power Off option, just keep holding the button until it appears to power off / go blank. Then, let go of the button. It will shortly display, "Rebooting...", and reboot.
Now, for those compsci folk out there, I don't know if this will cause any problems with caches/etc., leaving behind corrupt file system data structures or corrupting actual data, because it's not a proper shutdown of the linux kernel on the watch.
Yet, it is much simpler than the shutdown/restart method, and easier on the button (one press vs. two).
I'm not too worried, though, for a whole bunch of reasons about how linux is implemented on small and embedded devices like this with NV storage.