How to Reset the Canon Rebel T7 (1500D / 2000D) to Factory Settings

Note on Camera Names: Canon sells this exact same camera under three different names depending on where you live in the world. It is called the EOS Rebel T7 in the Americas, the EOS 1500D in Asia, and the EOS 2000D in Europe. The hardware, menus, and reset procedures are completely identical.

There are several reasons you might need to completely reset your Canon Rebel T7. Some of the most common include:

• You’ve been messing with the menus and ended up with results or behaviors that aren’t what you planned.
• You are lending the camera to a friend and want them to have a clean slate.
• You just bought the camera used and want to wipe the previous owner’s setup.

Whatever the reason, here is exactly how to wipe your Canon Rebel T7 and get it back to its original factory defaults.

How to clear settings on the Canon Rebel T7 (1500D / 2000D)

Somewhat confusingly, Canon doesn’t actually use the word “reset” for this procedure in the menu like most other camera manufacturers do. Instead, they refer to it as “Clear settings.”

You can find this command under the third yellow wrench tab:

Settings 3 (wrench icon with three dots) > Clear settings

There are two levels of reset available on the Rebel T7. Here is what they are and what they do.

Clear all camera settings

This option is mostly self-explanatory; it resets your primary shooting settings back to their defaults.

However, there’s a quirk to Canon’s menu system that isn’t immediately obvious: the Clear all camera settings function doesn’t actually work as a total “clear everything” procedure.

Specifically, it does not clear any Custom Functions you have set. So if you want to wipe the camera completely clean, you need to run this setting, and then run the next one as well.

Clear all Custom Func. (C.Fn)

This option targets the deeper, customized behaviors you’ve programmed into the camera.

While an exhaustive dive into custom functions is beyond the scope of this post, it refers to advanced settings like exposure level increments, high-ISO noise reduction, low-light autofocus assist behaviors, and the specific functions assigned to certain physical buttons. You can find more information about them in the manual in the Customizing the Camera chapter.

Default settings chart

If you just want to fix a single mistaken setting without wiping your entire camera, a full reset might be overkill. For a more fine-tuned approach, this table shows the exact default settings of the Canon Rebel T7 straight out of the box so you can adjust them manually.¹

Section	Function	Setting
Shooting Function Settings	AF operation	One-Shot AF
	AF point selection	Automatic selection
	Drive/self-timer	Single shooting
	Metering mode	Evaluative metering
	ISO speed	AUTO
	ISO Auto	Maximum 3200
	Exposure Compensation	Canceled
	Flash exposure compensation	0
	Custom Functions	Unchanged
Image Recording Settings	Image quality	Large
	Picture Style	Auto
	Auto Lighting Optimizer	Standard
	Peripheral illuminuation correction	Enable / Correction data retained
	Color space	sRGB
	White balance	Ambience priority
	Custom White Balance	Canceled
	White balance correction	Canceled
	White balance bracketing	Canceled
	File numbering	Continuous
	Dust Delete Data	Erased
Camera Settings	Auto power off	30 sec.
	Beep	Enable
	Release shutter without card	Enable
	Image review	2 sec.
	Histogram display	Brightness
	Image jump w/dial	10 images
	Auto rotate	On
	LCD brightness	Middle
	LCD off/on button	Shutter button
	Date/Time/Zone	Unchanged
	Language	Unchanged
	Screen color	1
	Feature guide	Enable
	Copyright information	Unchanged
	Eye-Fi transmission	Disable
	Wi-Fi/NFC	Disable
	Wi-Fi function	Unchanged
	My Menu settings	Unchanged
	Display from My Menu	Disable
Live View Shooting Settings	Live View shooting	Enable
	AF method	FlexiZone – Single
	Grid display	Hide
	Aspect ratio	3:2
	Metering timer	8 sec.
Movie Shooting Settings	Movie shooting mode	Auto
	AF method	FlexiZone – Single
	AF w/shutter button during movie recording	Disable
	Shutter/AE lock button	AF/AE lock
	Highlight tone priority	Disable
	Movie recording size	1920×1080
	Sound recording	Auto
	Metering timer	8 sec.
	Grid display	Hide
	Video system	Unchanged
	Exposure compensation	Canceled
	Auto Lighting Optimizer	Standard
	Custom White Balance	Canceled
	Picture Style	Auto

Things worth knowing about factory resets

There are two major things a factory reset will not do:

• It will not roll back the firmware. If you are looking to update or change your firmware, I have a separate guide for that: How to update Canon Rebel T7 firmware.
• It will not wipe the data on the memory card. Your photos are safe during a reset. There is a separate function required to erase your images: How to format the SD card in a Canon Rebel T7.

Notes & References:

1. These were taken from pages 195-196 in the manual. [↩︎]