The 30-30-30 router reset is wrong, and here is what each manufacturer actually says
No mainstream router made in the last fifteen years needs a 30-30-30 reset. Almost all of them want the reset button held for somewhere between 5 and 15 seconds, and several tell you to watch a specific light rather than count at all.
Holding for 90 seconds does not do damage on most hardware, but it does not help either, and the belief that it is necessary sends people into a full factory reset when a reboot would have fixed the problem.
Where 30-30-30 came from
The instruction is to hold the reset button for 30 seconds, keep holding it while you unplug the power for 30 seconds, then keep holding for 30 seconds more after plugging it back in. It is real advice, but it is advice about a specific situation: flashing third-party firmware such as DD-WRT or OpenWrt onto consumer hardware from the mid-2000s, where the sequence reliably cleared the NVRAM that a normal reset sometimes left behind.
It spread because it worked for the people writing about it, and because it sounds like the sort of arcane thing that ought to be true. It then got copied onto pages about routers it was never written for. If you are running the firmware your router shipped with — which is almost everybody — it is simply the wrong procedure.
What each manufacturer documents
These are the hold times published by the manufacturers themselves, taken from the same sources cited on each model page. Where a manufacturer describes a light to watch instead of a number of seconds, that is what is listed, because that is what they actually say.
| Make | Documented hold | Models |
|---|---|---|
| Aruba (HPE) | more than 10 seconds during normal operation, or 15 seconds when held from power-up | Aruba Instant On AP22 |
| ASUS | until the power LED flashes | ASUS RT-AX88U |
| BT | Not published by BT for this model | BT Business Smart Hub 2 |
| BT | 5 to 10 seconds | BT Smart Hub, BT Smart Hub 2, BT Home Hub 5 |
| BT | BT says only "a few seconds" and publishes no exact figure | BT Home Hub 4 |
| DrayTek | 5 or more seconds, until the ACT light flashes very rapidly | Vigor 2865, Vigor 2866, Vigor 2927, Vigor 2765 and 2 more |
| EE | 5 seconds, or 20 seconds for a pinhole button, until the light turns green | EE Smart Hub |
| EE | About 20 seconds, until the light turns green | EE Smart Hub Plus |
| about 12 seconds, until the light turns solid yellow | Google Nest Wifi, Google Wifi | |
| Hyperoptic | 20 seconds | Hyperoptic Hyperhub |
| NOW Broadband | About 10 seconds, until the power light begins to flash amber | NOW Hub Two |
| Plusnet | 20 seconds, releasing when the front light turns green | Plusnet Hub Two, Plusnet Hub One |
| Ruckus | 10 seconds — see the note, because Ruckus quotes three different figures | Ruckus R550 |
| Sky | 10 seconds | Sky Broadband Hub, Sky Hub |
| Sky | Sky publishes 10 seconds on one page, up to 30 on another, and 10 to 30 on a third — hold until the lights on the front blink | Sky Q Hub |
| Sky | Either 30 seconds on WPS or more than 12 seconds on Reset, depending which Sky page you read | Sky Max Hub |
| TalkTalk | 30 seconds | TalkTalk Super Router, TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub, TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub Black |
| TP-Link | about 6 seconds, until the Power LED blinks | TP-Link Archer AX73 |
| TP-Link | one second, then release | TP-Link Deco X50, TP-Link Deco M5 |
| TP-Link | 8 seconds, until every LED lights up at once | TP-Link Archer VR2100 |
| Ubiquiti | 5 to 10 seconds, until the lights show the restore has started | UniFi U6+ |
| Virgin Media | 10 seconds | Virgin Media Hub 3 |
| Vodafone | 10 seconds | Vodafone Ultra Hub, Vodafone WiFi Hub |
| Zen Internet | Not applicable — this router is reset from the interface or by a phone code rather than by holding a button | Zen FRITZ!Box 7530 |
Not one of them is 30-30-30.
Reset and reboot are not the same thing
This is the distinction that matters most, and the one the 30-30-30 myth obscures. A reboot is turning the router off and on again. It keeps every setting and fixes a surprising number of problems. A factory reset erases the configuration: your broadband settings, any port forwarding, your Wi-Fi name and password, everything. On a business firewall that can be a day of work to rebuild.
People reach for the reset button because a page told them to hold it for 90 seconds, when what they needed was to unplug the thing for 30 seconds. Try the reboot first, always.
Before you reset anything
- Check whether your model can even be recovered afterwards. On some makes a lost admin password genuinely cannot be retrieved, which means a reset is a one-way door.
- Write down your broadband username and password if your connection needs them. On some connection types you cannot get back online without them.
- Photograph any port forwarding, firewall or DHCP reservation screens. A configuration backup is better, but only if you know its admin password — a backup restores the password you have forgotten along with everything else.
- Only then press the button, and hold it for the time your manufacturer documents above.
