“Hard Reset” versus "Reset Network Settings"

Hi there rbvrabel,

I understand you have some questions about the difference between resetting your iPhone and resetting the settings. It sounds as though you're describing force restarting an iPhone. Here is a great resource below that can help:

Force restart iPhone

This would be different than a process such as Reset Network Settings. Below is a resource with additional information:

Return iPhone settings to their defaults

I hope this helps,

Cheers!

Reset Network Settings restarts your phone after it completes its function so the change can take effect; it’s the same as restarting the phone by turning it off, then back on as described here—>Restart your iPhone - Apple Support. A forced restart (what I think you mean by “hard reset”) is different. A normal restart gives apps an opportunity to shut down “gracefully”, saving their status and any unsaved data. A forced restart does not, it kills all apps immediately (“kill -9” in Unix terminology), and can result in data loss.