[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Magic Plants:
American Network Solutions (ANS) mobile phones provided by Assurance Wireless (Virgin Mobile) have been known to boot loop, freeze, stay frozen, crash, (right out of the box, brand new) and worse there is inaccurate or completely wrong information on how to do a factory reset and reboot the device. Below I will outline how to reboot the phone and perform a hard factory-reset with no home button on this cellphone.

Problem: Phone won’t turn off, won’t restart, or is stuck on and has no removable battery.

Solution: Keep the phone on and unplugged until battery dies or perform a hard reboot (see below).

Problem: My cell-phone is stuck on and there is no home button to do a hard reset

Solution: Perform a hard reboot. To restart a phone without taking out the battery, simply hold the Volume Up button, the home button (do not press if there is none obviously) and the Power button at the same time. While you hold these simultaneously, the phone will reboot in about 5 to 10 seconds.

Problem: I can’t factory reset my ANS UL40 phone (American Network Solutions) from Assurance Wireless by Virgin Mobile because I can’t get into the recovery menu.

Solution: Turn the phone off (or do a hard reset by holding the Volume-Up Button and the On-Button. Phones with no home button all reboot like this so just wait a few moments and the phone will restart.

Problem: My new mobile phone from Assurance Wireless gets stuck on the loading screen!

Solution: Perform a hard reboot (Volume Up + Power) then when it restarts and you’re on the white Assurance Wireless screen, stop holding power and only hold Volume Up. Keep pressing-and-holding the Increase Volume button and after a while you will be navigated to the Factory Reset Menu. You can wipe the cache partition only or perform a factory reset (which will also wipe the cache). To move around on the menu, use the volume keys (increase volume goes up, decrease volume goes down) and to select your entry simply use the power button (the on button). If this still doesn’t work, see further instructions in the solutions below.

Problem: Phone is frozen on loading screen, stuck in boot-loop even after factory reset/wiping cache partition.

Solution: After you have factory reset or wiped the cache partition you can also choose to install an update from the internal memory or sd-card. If you select this option it will perform a more rigorous factory reset then since you won’t have a package to install it will cancel. I’ve noticed my device getting out of the boot loop once I did this process and it was stuck on the boot screen even after I did a factory reset.

Problem: Can’t get to the recovery menu with my government assistance phone.

Solution: Turn off the phone and with the volume up button held down, power the device on. Keep holding both buttons until you see the white “American Network Solutions” screen with the outline of an eagle. At this point release the power button and continue to hold the volume-up key. After about 5 seconds you will now be inside the Recovery Menu and can do a factory reset.

Problem: My phone has no home button and I need to hard reboot to get to the Recovery Menu and perform a factory reset!

Solution: Hold the Volume-Up Button and the Power Button at the same time. for at least 10 seconds. Your device will restart and after the white ANS screen shows, stop holding the power button. Continue holding the increase audio key until you are at the Factory Reset / Recovery Menu screen. Use the volume buttons to navigate the menu and use the on button to select your choice.

Problem: My phone hangs on the blue Assurance Wireless screen.

Solution: See Above.

Even on the Virgin Mobile and Assurance Wireless websites and in the owner’s manual it says to hold the Volume Up + Home Button + Power Key and to keep holding them until you’re in Recovery Menu. This isn’t going to work for two reasons on the UL40: 1) It has no home button! and 2) it will just keep rebooting every 5 seconds if you hold the power button down constantly. You have to hold the Volume-Up Button and the Power Button until the phone reboots and then let go of the power button while still holding the volume up button. Keep holding the volume up key until you’re into Recovery Mode.

I hope this helps as the information online is either incomplete or completely wrong. Some places say to keep holding the power button along with the volume up key and if you do that the device will just keep restarting, effectively creating a boot loop where there wasn’t any before. Genius! lol. I figured this out after my device, fresh out of the box, froze while charging on the blue Assurance Wireless screen. Finally OCD is good for something! These phones are supposed to be a “Lifeline” but I’d be hard-pressed to get ANYTHING on the line with this potato. Avoid at all costs unless absolutely necessary.

Enjoy.