Microsoft Lumia 540 Tips and Tricks

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone.

To hard reset your phone, go to Start – Applications list – Settings. Then scroll to the bottom and choose About. Then press Reset your phone. Then press Yes.

If you can’t do that, then some alternative methods are as follows:

1) First press and hold the Camera + Volume Down + Power buttons simultaneously.
Then release the Power button when the phone vibrates – but continue to hold down Camera and Volume Down.
Then release the camera button and Volume Down when the Format prompt is displayed on screen.
Then press Windows button twice to confirm.

2) Turn the phone off. Then press and hold the power key until it vibrates. Then release.
Press and hold the Volume Down button. If the exclamation mark is displayed, then let go of the button.
Then input the follow sequence of keys: Volume Up – Volume Down – Power – Volume Down.

Sometimes while trying to download a game from the Marketplace an error will occur and the download will stop.

To resume the download, open the Marketplace tile and choose Games. Find the game that is having the problem and select ‘Check install’. Then when you’re in the Marketplace downloads screen long-press on the error and choose ‘try again’

If you use multiple Windows or Windows Phone device, then Sync My Settings is a great feature.

This can be found by going to Settings – Sync My Settings and can be used to sync Apps, Themes, Passwords and Web Browser settings across multiple devices. For example you may use a phone and a tablet during the day and want to be able to keep websites open in your browser as you move between the devices.

If your phone is on standby, there is an option where if you hold down the camera button it will wake the phone up and launch directly into the camera app. This is great if you want to snap a photo quickly.

From the homescreen, scroll to the right and choose Settings – Applications. Then find Pictures + Camera. Then turn the top option to on.

When in your Email application, you can Press and Hold on individual emails. This will give you a menu whereby you can Delete, Mark as unread, Move or Set a flag to your emails

If you are browsing a website and read something that you want to find out more about, simply highly the text. Then press the Search / Hardware button. The phone will then search for that highlighted word on Bing. This is much quicker than having to open a new browser Tab and searching manually.

To find an address on maps, then go to a location by panning and zooming.

Then Press and Hold on a location to drop a pin.

This will give you the address of the location you have selected.

To PIN music or playlists to your start menu, go to your Music player.

Then select the music file or playlist you want.

Then Press and Hold on an item and select Pin to start

To change the screen lock timeout, go to Settings – Lock & wallpaper. Then choose the duration before the screen locks.

This is handy so you don’t accidentally bump the keys when the phone is in your pocket. It will also improve your battery life.

To skip to the next track in a playlist, press the Track list below the album cover. This will let you move through the playlist