Your microcontroller ships running a factory demo. It's lovely, but you probably had other plans for the board. As you start working with your board, you may want to return to the original code to begin again, or you may find your board gets into a bad state. Either way, this page has you covered.

Factory Reset Example Code

If you're still able to load Arduino sketches, you can load the following sketch onto your board to return it to its original state.

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// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Limor Fried for Adafruit Industries
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

#include "WiFi.h"
#include <Adafruit_TestBed.h>
extern Adafruit_TestBed TB;

#define NEOPIXEL_I2C_POWER 2
#define NEOPIXEL_PIN 0

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);

  // turn on the QT port and NeoPixel
  pinMode(NEOPIXEL_I2C_POWER, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(NEOPIXEL_I2C_POWER, HIGH);
  
  // TestBed will handle the neopixel swirl for us
  TB.neopixelPin = NEOPIXEL_PIN;
  TB.neopixelNum = 1;
  TB.begin();
  TB.setColor(0xFF0000); 
  delay(50);
  TB.setColor(0x00FF00); 
  delay(50);
  TB.setColor(0x0000FF); 

  // Set WiFi to station mode and disconnect from an AP if it was previously connected
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
  WiFi.disconnect();
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
uint8_t wheelColor=0;
void loop() {
  if (wheelColor == 0) {
    // Test I2C!
    Serial.print("I2C port ");
    TB.theWire = &Wire;
    TB.printI2CBusScan();

    // Test WiFi Scan!
    // WiFi.scanNetworks will return the number of networks found
    int n = WiFi.scanNetworks();
    Serial.print("WiFi AP scan done...");
    if (n == 0) {
        Serial.println("no networks found");
    } else {
        Serial.print(n);
        Serial.println(" networks found");
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            // Print SSID and RSSI for each network found
            Serial.print(i + 1);
            Serial.print(": ");
            Serial.print(WiFi.SSID(i));
            Serial.print(" (");
            Serial.print(WiFi.RSSI(i));
            Serial.print(")");
            Serial.println((WiFi.encryptionType(i) == WIFI_AUTH_OPEN)?" ":"*");
            delay(10);
        }
    }
    Serial.println("");
  }

  TB.setColor(TB.Wheel(wheelColor++)); // swirl NeoPixel

  delay(5);
}

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Limor Fried for Adafruit Industries
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

#include "WiFi.h"
#include <Adafruit_TestBed.h>
extern Adafruit_TestBed TB;

#define NEOPIXEL_I2C_POWER 2
#define NEOPIXEL_PIN 0

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);

  // turn on the QT port and NeoPixel
  pinMode(NEOPIXEL_I2C_POWER, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(NEOPIXEL_I2C_POWER, HIGH);
  
  // TestBed will handle the neopixel swirl for us
  TB.neopixelPin = NEOPIXEL_PIN;
  TB.neopixelNum = 1;
  TB.begin();
  TB.setColor(0xFF0000); 
  delay(50);
  TB.setColor(0x00FF00); 
  delay(50);
  TB.setColor(0x0000FF); 

  // Set WiFi to station mode and disconnect from an AP if it was previously connected
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
  WiFi.disconnect();
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
uint8_t wheelColor=0;
void loop() {
  if (wheelColor == 0) {
    // Test I2C!
    Serial.print("I2C port ");
    TB.theWire = &Wire;
    TB.printI2CBusScan();

    // Test WiFi Scan!
    // WiFi.scanNetworks will return the number of networks found
    int n = WiFi.scanNetworks();
    Serial.print("WiFi AP scan done...");
    if (n == 0) {
        Serial.println("no networks found");
    } else {
        Serial.print(n);
        Serial.println(" networks found");
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            // Print SSID and RSSI for each network found
            Serial.print(i + 1);
            Serial.print(": ");
            Serial.print(WiFi.SSID(i));
            Serial.print(" (");
            Serial.print(WiFi.RSSI(i));
            Serial.print(")");
            Serial.println((WiFi.encryptionType(i) == WIFI_AUTH_OPEN)?" ":"*");
            delay(10);
        }
    }
    Serial.println("");
  }

  TB.setColor(TB.Wheel(wheelColor++)); // swirl NeoPixel

  delay(5);
}

Your board is now back to its factory-shipped state! You can now begin again with your plans for your board.

Factory Reset .bin

If your board is in a state where Arduino isn't working, you may need to use these tools to flash a .bin file directly onto your board.

There are two ways to do a factory reset. The first is using WebSerial through a Chromium-based browser, and the second is using esptool via command line. We highly recommend using WebSerial through Chrome/Chromium.

First you'll need to download the factory-reset.bin file. Save the following file wherever is convenient for you. You'll need access to it for both tools.

Click to download feather-esp32-v2-factory-reset.bin

Now that you've downloaded the .bin file, you're ready to continue with the factory reset process. The next two sections walk you through using WebSerial and esptool.

The WebSerial ESPTool Method

We highly recommend using WebSerial ESPTool method to perform a factory reset and bootloader repair. However, if you'd rather use esptool via command line, you can skip this section.

This method uses the WebSerial ESPTool through Chrome or a Chromium-based browser. The WebSerial ESPTool was designed to be a web-capable option for programming ESP32 boards. It allows you to erase the contents of the microcontroller and program up to four files at different offsets.

You will have to use a Chromium browser (like Chrome, Opera, Edge...) for this to work, Safari and Firefox, etc. are not supported because we need Web Serial and only Chromium is supporting it to the level needed.

Follow the steps to complete the factory reset.

If you're using Chrome 88 or older, see the Older Versions of Chrome section at the end of this page for instructions on enabling Web Serial.

Connect

You should have plugged in only the ESP32 that you intend to flash. That way there's no confusion in picking the proper port when it's time!

In the Chrome browser visit https://nabucasa.github.io/esp-web-flasher/. You should see something like the image shown.

Press the Connect button in the top right of the web browser. You will get a pop up asking you to select the COM or Serial port.

Remember, you should remove all other USB devices so only the ESP32 board is attached, that way there's no confusion over multiple ports!

On some systems, such as MacOS, there may be additional system ports that appear in the list.

The Javascript code will now try to connect to the ROM bootloader. It may timeout for a bit until it succeeds. On success, you will see that it is Connected and will print out a unique MAC address identifying the board along with other information that was detected.

Once you have successfully connected, the command toolbar will appear.

Erase the Contents

To erase the contents, click the Erase button. You will be prompted whether you want to continue. Click OK to continue or if you changed your mind, just click cancel.

You'll see "Erasing flash memory. Please wait..." This will eventually be followed by "Finished." and the amount of time it took to erase.

Do not disconnect! Immediately continue on to programming the ESP32.

Do not disconnect after erasing! Immediately continue on to the next step!

Program the ESP32

Programming the microcontroller can be done with up to four files at different locations, but with the board-specific factory-reset.bin file, which you should have downloaded earlier, you only need to use one file.

Click on the first Choose a file.... (The tool will only attempt to program buttons with a file and a unique location.) Then, select the *-factory-reset.bin file you downloaded in Step 1 that matches your board.

Verify that the Offset box next to the file location you used is (0x) 0.

Once you choose a file, the button text will change to match your filename. You can then select the Program button to begin flashing.

A progress bar will appear and after a minute or two, you will have written the firmware.

Once completed, you can skip down to the section titled Reset the Board.

The `esptool` Method (for advanced users)

If you used WebSerial ESPTool, you do not need to complete the steps in this section!

Alternatively, you can use Espressif's esptool program to communicate with the chip! esptool is the 'official' programming tool and is the most common/complete way to program an ESP chip.

Install ESPTool.py

You will need to use the command line / Terminal to install and run esptool.

You will also need to have pip and Python installed (any version!).

Install the latest version using pip (you may be able to run pip without the 3 depending on your setup):

pip3 install --upgrade esptool

Then, you can run:

esptool.py

Test the Installation

Run esptool.py in a new terminal/command line and verify you get something like the below:

esp32_factory_reset_ESP_factory_reset_esptool_verify.png

Connect

Run the following command, replacing the COM88 identifier after --port with the COMxx, /dev/cu.usbmodemxx or /dev/ttySxx you found above.

esptool.py --port COM88 chip_id

You should get a notice that it connected over that port and found an ESP32.

esp32_factory_reset_ESP_factory_reset_esptool_connect.png

Installing the Factory Test file

Run this command and replace the serial port name, COM88, with your matching port and *-factory-reset.bin with file you just downloaded

esptool.py --port COM88 write_flash 0x0 *-factory-reset.bin

Don't forget to change the --port name to match.

There might be a bit of a 'wait' when programming, where it doesn't seem like it's working. Give it a minute, it has to erase the old flash code which can cause it to seem like it's not running.

You'll finally get an output like this:

esp32_factory_reset_ESP_factory_reset_esptool_install.png

Once completed, you can continue to the next section.

Reset the board

Now that you've reprogrammed the board, you need to reset it to continue. Click the reset button to launch the new firmware.

In the event that pressing the reset button does not restart the board, unplug the board from USB and plug it back in to get the new firmware to start up.

The NeoPixel LED on the Feather ESP32 V2 will light up blue, followed by a repeating rainbow swirl.

You've successfully returned your board to a factory reset state!