How to fix a Windows Phone device that has frozen or won't start

Technical Level : Intermediate

Summary
This wiki article walks you through the procedure you can try if your Nokia/Microsoft/HTC Windows Phone goes into a bricked state (as a last resort before contacting a service center).
Details

If your Windows Phone device stops responding, appears to be stuck or isn't starting, you can give Windows Device Recovery Tool a try before sending your phone off to a service center. The tool can also be used on phones that appears to have software problems or software update problems. It can also be used to roll back from a beta version to the latest official version.

Windows Device Recovery Tool is meant for home use.

The tool currently supports the following devices (more will be added in the future):

  • Microsoft Lumia
  • Nokia Lumia
  • HTC Windows Phone

The device also need to support one of these operating systems:

  • Windows Phone 8.x
  • Windows 10 Mobile

Note! Your phone will be reset to factory status when using this tool.

Start by downloading and installing Windows Device Recovery Tool (for Windows 10, 8.x and 7) from here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=525569

When the installation has finished, start the application and the main screen will appear:


The procedure to restore your phone using Windows Device Recovery Tool is as follows:

  1. Connect the phone to your PC (using the USB cable that came with the phone).
  2. After a few seconds the PC should find the phone and you'll see the Phone Selection screen. Click your phone in this screen to select it.
  3. After a few seconds more the latest available firmware version for your device will be shown. Cick the 'Install software'/'Reinstall software' button to flash your phone

Windows Device Recovery Tool will then download and install the latest firmware + OS available for your phone.

Too complex or can't get it to work?

If this is too complex or you just can't get it to work, contact your local service center.

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You could always try Volume Down + Power to wake an unresponsive handset, this will only'soft' reset your device losing NO personal data.

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Absolutely. This wiki article, however, is meant for bricked devices that won't respond to soft- or hard resets.

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We can update our phone or not with this software ?

My phone works perfectly..

I only want to update my phone to LUMIA BLACK.

Is this software safe to use ??

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It is Nokia's official recovery software for home use. It will not, however, update your phone if the update is not yet available for you phone. So if you simply want to update your phone, wait until it is available (check Settings > phone update) and update the regular way.
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My phone does this regularly. Easiest fix is to take battery out, then put it back and power on. Doesn't lose data but is a very sorry example of hardware.

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If it goes into a bricked state, it won't power up correctly after taking out the battery.. Just as I already mentioned above.
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Yes, it does. I've done it multiple times. This is the only phone I've ever had that became an inoperable brick. Its other problem is that sometimes the battery dies in four hours of non use and must be recharged. Can't figure out wha makes that happen.

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Yours has not, no. But again: This wiki article is for phones that go into a bricked state and won't power on. If you aren't experiencing that, this wiki is not for you.

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I am told to press the volume down key but it appears it is not working. Is there any way to bypass that step?

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I am told to press the volume down key but it appears it is not working. Is there any way to bypass that step?

Then you likely need to ask Nokia Care for help.

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Last updated February 24, 2021 Views 274,804 Applies to: