How to Factory Reset Your Ender 3 (Pro, V2, S1)
People wonder how they can reset their Ender 3 or 3D printer to its original settings, whether for troubleshooting or just for a fresh start to their settings. This article will take you through how you can factory reset your 3D printer with various methods.
Keep on reading through this article to learn how to factory reset your Ender 3 or similar 3D printer.
How to Factory Reset Your Ender 3 (Pro, V2, S1)
Here’s how to factory reset your Ender 3 (Pro, V2, S1):
- Use the Reset EEPROM function
- Use the M502 Command
- Reflash Firmware with SD Card
Now, let’s dig into the details of each of these steps.
1. Use the Reset EEPROM function
The Reset EEPROM function is another way to help factory reset the Ender 3.
This is basically a similar option to using the M502 command, as both perform a factory reset. This is inbuilt and comes on the printer’s main display itself.
The EEPROM is an onboard chip to write your settings to. The official firmware from Creality didn’t support writing to the EEPROM. It only saves the settings directly to the SD card. This primarily means if you remove your SD card, or change it, you will lose your settings.
Getting to the onboard EEPROM essentially means all your settings won’t be lost or changed when you swap the SD Card.
As per a user, simply go to the display settings and tap “Reset EEPROM” followed by “Store Settings”, and you will be good to go! This will revert back all your settings to default.
2. Use the M502 Command
One way to factory reset your Ender 3 is by using the M502 command. This is basically a G-code command- a simple programming language to control and instruct 3D printers. The M502 G-code command instructs the 3D printer to reset all settings to their basic states.
Once you send the M502 command, you need to also save the new settings to the EEPROM. To do that, you need to use the M500 command, which is also known as Save Settings. If you don’t run this essential command, Ender 3 won’t keep the changes.
The settings will be lost if you do a power cycle instantly after running the M500 command.
A user suggested using Pronterface to send the “factory reset” command directly to talk to the printer. He has been resetting his Ender 3 using Pronterface with good results.
Check out the video below to see how to set up Pronterface.
Another user suggested just using a simple .txt file and writing M502 on one line and M500 on the next line, then saving that .txt file to a .gcode file. You can then save it to an SD card and print the file as you would a normal 3D print file to reset your 3D printer.
Keep in mind that the M502 code resets many things listed by a user here.
3. Reflash Firmware with SD Card
Another way to factory reset your Ender 3 is to reflash the firmware using your SD card.
The firmware is a program that reads G-Code and instructs the printer. You can download the default firmware for your Ender 3 on the official Creality website. Many users have had positive results doing this.
It can be confusing to learn how to properly do these steps. One user had issues with this even after following the manual.
Here is a great video with detailed steps to upgrade your firmware on Ender 3.
General Advice
A useful tip while looking for the right firmware for your Ender 3 is to first locate the type of motherboard your specific model comes with. You can check it out yourself by opening the electronics box and locating the mainboard’s Creality logo with numbers like V4.2.7 or V4.2.2.
This will help you find out if your printer has a bootloader or not.
The original Ender 3 comes with an 8-bit motherboard, which requires the bootloader, whereas the Ender 3 V2 comes with a 32-bit motherboard and doesn’t need any bootloader.
One user asked how to reset his Ender 3 after he updated the firmware on his printer, and nothing worked except the printer starting up. It’s important to check that you are flashing the right firmware. It can be mistaken that you flash a 4.2.7 firmware when you have a 4.2.7 board for example.
Another user also said to have a firmware file with a different filename to the one last installed, and that it should be the only firmware file on your SD card.
These options have worked for most users of Ender 3 Pro, V2, and S1.