What word would you use for this instance of "back?"

Question

I tried to say the following sentence earlier today in Spanish but I wasn't sure what the appropriate word would be for "back."

"You need to know how to change it back." In this instance, the word back is meant to return the settings on a phone to their original state.

¡Ayúdame por favor!

Answer 1

From the SD dictionary:

El informático restableció la computadora a su configuración inicial.

The computer technician restored the computer to its initial settings.

From the menu of a phone in a YouTube video in Spanish about doing a factory reset.

Restablecer datos de fábrica

Necesitas saber restablecerlo a su configuración inicial.

OR

Necesitas saber cómo restablecerlo a su configuración inicial.

You need to know how to reestablish it to its initial configuration.

I'm not a native speaker so you may want to wait for another answer.

By the way, I intentionally did not give you a one word answer for how you would say "back" in this case because I don't think the sentence is very clear in English in terms of what you really want to say. Your slightly longer version of what you meant is much clearer. Change it back could mean many different things. Change it back to the way it was before you just made those setting changes, etc.

Answer 2

Change back is a phrasal verb in English. Like most other phrasal verbs( put down, look up, break through etc ) they're verbs that are mostly used in an informal way. When you use them more formally you could usually use their Latin "synonym". For example instead of "come in", "enter"instead of "go up" increase.

Dilken gave you excellent solutions. . They are very good for a manual, for a lecture or in an educated context. They are not very informal while your "change back" sounds informal to me.

go is ir
go back could be ir de vuelta

change is cambiar
change back could be cambiar de vuelta
come is venir

come back could be venir de vuelta
read is leer
read back could be leer de vuelta

Instead of de vuelta you could also hear nuevamente or de nuevo. They are all everyday Spanish.

Answer 3

By the way, I've also heard it said in a computer or cellphone situation: configuración por defecto.