How to Reset a GoPro HERO5 Black

If something’s gone wrong with your GoPro HERO5 Black, or if you’re selling it or lending it to a friend, you might want to reset your GoPro.

There are a few different types of reset on the HERO5 Black. There’s a factory reset. That’s the nuclear option that wipes everything and restores it to the settings it comes out of the box with. But there are also some other more selective reset options that might be useful for solving specific problems.

So here’s a rundown of how to reset a GoPro HERO5 Black.

How to Do a Factory Reset on the HERO5 Black

This is the nuclear option that clears everything. Before you do this, know that it’s going to wipe all of your settings and custom presets. It will clear all the wireless connections and deregister your HERO5 Black from your GoPro PLUS account. It will not delete anything off your SD card (but you can remove it if you like–it doesn’t need to be in the camera to perform a factory reset), and it doesn’t roll back the camera’s firmware.

1. On the camera’s back screen, swipe down to bring down the Settings Menu.
2. Choose Preferences.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom to the Reset section and choose Factory Reset.
4. Tap Reset.

The camera will then be back to square one.

How to Restore Presets to Defaults on the HERO5 Black

This is basically a gentler variation on the factory reset. It wipes many settings back to their defaults but leaves some settings untouched:

• date and time
• camera name and password for wireless connections
• the language you’ve set
• video format

To do it:

1. On the camera’s back screen, swipe down to bring down the Settings Menu.
2. Choose Preferences.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom to the Reset section and choose Camera Defaults.
4. Tap Reset.

How to Reset a GoPro HERO5 Black’s Wireless Connections

There’s also a way to reset just the wireless connections info such as the camera name and password. But you find that in a different different place in the menu system. It’s under the Connect category rather than the Preferences like the others.

You can reset all of the HERO5 Black’s wireless connections by:

1. On the camera’s back screen, swipe down to bring down the Settings Menu.
2. Choose Connect.
3. Scroll down to the Camera Information section and choose Reset Connections.
4. Tap Reset.

You’ll obviously need to know the new camera name and password that has been automatically assigned during the reset. To find that:

1. On the camera’s back screen, swipe down to bring down the Settings Menu.
2. Choose Connect.
3. Scroll down to the Camera Information section and choose Name & Password.

How to Format a Memory Card in the HERO5 Black

For the sake of completeness, I’ll mention this since GoPro has put it under the Reset menu category too. It’s for formatting the memory card. While it kind of makes logical sense to put the card formatting under the resetting category, it’s not necessarily the first place I’d look for it. I have a much more detailed post on using SD cards in the GoPro HERO5 Black, but here’s the short version for formatting your SD card in the HERO5 Black:

1. On the camera’s back screen, swipe down to bring down the Settings Menu.
2. Choose Preferences.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom to the Reset section and choose Format SD Card.
4. Tap Delete.

How to Restart Your GoPro HERO5 Black

This doesn’t change any settings, but it can be a useful first step in troubleshooting if your HERO5 has frozen (something I’ve found happens far too often with GoPros of just about any model). If your GoPro isn’t responding, this is the first thing to try:

1. Press and hold the Mode button for 8 seconds. The Mode button is the one on the side, also known as the power button. So long as there’s charge in the battery, this should restart (or reboot) the camera, but it doesn’t delete any settings.

If that doesn’t work, try taking the battery out and putting it back in.

A non-responsive GoPro is often caused by a problem with either the camera’s firmware or the microSD card. You can find more troubleshooting for this issue here.