As good as smart speakers like the Google Nest Audio are, there are going to be times things go wrong. Or a time when you want to safely dispose of them or pass them on to a new owner. In all of these cases, it may well take a factory reset to get to where you need to be.
The good news is that it’s not difficult to reset any of Google’s smart speakers or displays. The bad news is there’s no universal way to do it across all the various devices, new and old. Perhaps strangely, none of them can be reset from the Google Home app at this point, everything is done on the hardware. So let’s look at each individually so you know what to do.
How to reset a Google Nest Mini or Home Mini
The Nest Mini and the Home Mini look almost identical, but it’s important to know which one you have when it comes to resetting. Fortunately, the latter is easy to spot. Flip it over and if you have a hardware reset button, you have a Google Home Mini.
Push this and hold it until you hear a sound confirming that the speaker is resetting. Then you can release your touch and wait for it to complete. This same process also applies to the old Google Home Max.
If you have a Google Nest Mini you won’t have the reset button on the bottom. To reset this speaker you need to follow these steps.
- Enable the microphone mute switch.
- Touch and hold on the top of the speaker in the center where the four LED lights live.
- Continue to hold until you hear a sound confirming the speaker is resetting.
You can then release your touch and wait for the process to complete.
If you still have the first-generation Google Home speaker, resetting this is as easy as holding down the microphone mute button until you hear a message that the speaker is resetting.
How to reset a Google Nest Audio
Google’s largest current smart speaker, the Nest Audio, has a similar but still slightly different reset process to its smaller siblings. To factory reset one of these follow these steps.
- Enable the microphone mute switch.
- Touch and hold on the front of the speaker, in the center towards the top.
- Continue to hold until you hear a sound confirming the speaker is resetting.
Now, release your touch from the speaker and simply wait for it to complete the reset process.
How to reset a Google Nest Hub display
Whether you have the first or second-generation Google Nest Hub, or the larger Nest Hub Max, the process of factory resetting the smart display is the same. Here’s how to do it.
- Turn your Nest Hub around so you can access the rear.
- Hold down both volume buttons at the same time.
- Continue to hold until the Nest Hub tells you it’s resetting.
Now simply wait for the process to complete and you’ll have a factory-fresh Nest Hub ready to go.
It’s a shame that there isn’t a simpler, universal method that involves either the Google Home app that can be invoked with voice. But fortunately, the hardware interactions are simple enough.
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