How to factory reset a Nokia Lumia 920

I recently upgraded from my Nokia Lumia 920 to the amazing Nokia Lumia 1020 and wanted to reset the 920 to factory settings so I could give it to a friend.  I went through the recommended approach:  Settings - About - Reset to Factory Settings.  The phone rebooted and then got stuck in the "spinning gears" for a very long time.  I thought that I bricked the phone. 

I searched high and low and it seemed that everyone else that tried to reset their phone had this same issue.  Ugh.  Many people posted different key combinations, power cord plugged in / unplugged, shake it twice and do a break dancing spin on your head.  At some point one of the combinations worked and I was able to complete the factory reset.  So, to help out anyone else that is having this issue in the future, I figured I would approach this scientifically and provide the steps needed to successfully reset the 920 to factory settings.  So, I hope that this helps someone, and more importantly will help me again in the future when I want to reset another Lumia and need to remember the steps.  :)

Without further ado, here are the steps, please feel free to share with others:

1.  On your phone, go into Settings - About
2.  Select "reset your phone"
3.  Select "yes" on both Warning message.
4.  Your phone will restart and when it comes back on, the gears will be a spinning.
5.  Let your phone run until the battery completely drains.  This is the only way that I found to actually turn off the phone.
6.  Remove the SIM card.
7.  Plug the phone into the charger to power it back on, and also press and hold the Volume Down button immediately after plugging in the charger.
8. The phone will turn on and will go to the Nokia screen and then turn off.  All attempts to turn the phone on will result in the Nokia screen displayed, or the "charging" image, or the spinning gears. 
9.  Press and hold the Camera, Volume Down, and Power buttons until the phone vibrates.  When the phone vibrates, release the Power button only.  Keep pressing the Camera and Volume Down buttons for the entire reboot cycle until you see the spinning gears again.  This time, the spinning gears should only last a few minutes and then go into the normal reset, and you should have your phone working again.

I was able to factory reset two Lumia 920's with these steps.  A black 920 and a white 920.  It was not a very straight forward process, and took quite a while each time, but in the end, this is what worked.

I hope it helps.