How do you reset the Withings Steel HR?

The Withings Steel HR is a great watch (click here for my review) with good accompanying software. However, during my test, I had need to factory reset the watch and found that Withings’ instructions were, shall we say, inconsistent. Here are accurate instructions on how to restart and reset the Withings Steel HR.

Restart a Withings Steel HR

This is a simple one – not even the Withings’ instructions get this wrong.

• Hold down the side button and keep it held down for around 20 seconds
• Whilst it’s held down it will go through a number of menus, including showing a “Factory Reset” option. Don’t panic, keep your finger down and ignore anything on the screen
• The only sign that it’s restarting is that the screen will go blank*. You can now release the button
• After a few seconds, it should be working again, and pressing the side button will show the display as usual

(*The issue with this is that there’s actually no way of knowing it’s restarting. The blank screen could just mean it has timed out and turned off the display. Withings could do with adding some kind of confirmation to this.)

Factory reset a Withings Steel HR

There are numerous reasons why you may need to reset the Withings Steel HR, including sync issues not fixed by a restart, or simply that you need to disassociate your watch with one smartphone and move it to another (if you sell it, for example). Here’s how to do it:

Stage 1: Disconnect it from the app

• In the Health Mate app, select the Devices tab at the bottom of the screen
• Select the watch from the list of devices
• Select the “All settings” option
• Scroll down to the bottom of the list and click on “Disassociate this product”

Stage 2: Remove it from Bluetooth

• Go into the Bluetooth settings for your smartphone
• Find the watch in the device list
• Click the icon to the right of the device name and then select “Forget This Device” or “Forget”

Stage 3: Perform a factory reset

• Press and hold the side button for around five seconds, until a Factory Reset menu appears
• Release and then press and hold the button again for a couple of seconds
• When “Reset in 5 clicks appears”, release the button again
• You must now click the button 5 times. Each time you click it the number will go down
• You need to do this at a steady pace and not do too many or pause for too long, either. If you get it wrong, you’ll have to start the factory reset process again
• “Reset” will appear on the screen and the hands will move into the 10 past 10 position
• After a short while “Setup” will display on the screen. The factory reset is now complete!