In the ten years I’ve owned an iPhone, I’ve rarely had a problem with them. Sure, there are occasional bugs, but Apple squashes them pretty quickly. But what if your iPhone is acting up and no one else is reporting similar problems?

In that case, your iPhone probably doesn’t have a widespread bug. Instead, there’s probably a localized issue with its software on your device only. So what do you do to fix it? The quickest way to get things working again is by resetting your iPhone.

But what exactly does “resetting an iPhone” do? Resetting your iPhone is the “lighter” version of formatting your device back to factory settings. A reset can be done directly on the iPhone itself--right in the Settings app--and doesn’t need to be connected to iTunes on a Mac or PC to complete.

When resetting your iPhone you have the option of resetting all the settings on the device to factory default or just the network, keyboard dictionary, home screen layout, and location & privacy settings. These settings are the preferences which make your iPhone yours: network passwords, icon arrangement, system and app settings, and the like.

Depending on what problem you are having with your iPhone, you’ll want to reset only some–or maybe all–of its settings. For example, if your iPhone is acting buggy as all heck no matter what you are doing, you’ll probably want to reset all settings. But if your iPhone is only giving you problems when joining known networks, you might want to try only resetting network settings first.

How to Reset Your iPhone Running iOS 11

Resetting your iPhone is simple:

1) Tap the Settings app.
2) Tap General.
3) Scroll all the way to the bottom of the screen and tap Reset.
4) On the next screen, you’ll see six options. Select one of the following:

• Tap Reset All Settings to reset all settings (network, keyboard dictionary, home screen layout, and location & privacy settings, etc) back to default.
• Tap Erase All Content and Settings to reset all settings back to default and also erase all your personal content (emails, photos, movies, etc) on the iPhone. 
• Tap Reset Network Settings to reset all your network settings to default (this will erase all network passwords).
• Tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary to reset the custom dictionary you’ve built up over time by using the iPhone’s typing and autocorrect features.
• Tap Reset Home Screen Layout to reset the icon arrangement of your apps on the home screen to their default arrangement.
• Tap Reset Location and Privacy Settings to return all your location preferences and privacy settings (like this you give to apps) to default.

5) After choosing one of the above, enter your security passcode when prompted and then tap the red Reset button. Your iPhone may need to be restarted depending on which above option you chose.