Does resetting network settings remove your custom keyboard on iPhone?
Reset Network Settings sits one line above Reset All Settings in the same menu, with a name close enough to cause real hesitation — but it only clears networking preferences, and the keyboard list lives somewhere else entirely.
Wi-Fi has been dropping every few minutes, or the car stopped pairing over Bluetooth last week, and Reset Network Settings is the fix that keeps coming up. It sits in Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Reset, one line above Reset All Settings — and if a reset from that same screen has ever wiped your keyboard list before, it is reasonable to stop with a finger over the button and wonder whether this one does the same thing. It does not.
What Reset Network Settings actually clears
The name is precise about its own scope, which is easy to miss when two similarly named options sit in the same short list. Reset Network Settings only touches things related to getting online:
- Every saved Wi-Fi network and its password, on every network the phone has ever joined
- Bluetooth pairings — the car, headphones, a watch, anything paired before has to be paired again
- Cellular settings and APN configuration
- VPN configurations that were not installed through a management or configuration profile
The phone restarts once the reset runs, and after that restart you are looking at a phone with no known networks — the next Wi-Fi connection has to be picked and its password typed in again, the same as setting up a new router.
Why the keyboard is not on that list
Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, the list a keyboard app added itself to, and the Allow Full Access switch next to its name, are both stored as keyboard preferences, not networking ones. Reset Network Settings is scoped narrowly enough that it never opens that part of the Settings database at all — it is not that the keyboard survives some broader wipe, it is that this particular reset was never going to reach it in the first place. The keyboard app itself, still sitting on the Home Screen exactly where it was, was never in question either; nothing about a network reset removes an installed app.
The easy mix-up: Reset All Settings
One line below Reset Network Settings, in that same Reset menu, sits Reset All Settings — a broader option that does clear the keyboard list and Full Access grants, because those genuinely do live in the part of the Settings database it resets. The two options are adjacent, similarly named, and both promise to fix a vague, hard-to-pin-down glitch, which is exactly the situation where a tired thumb taps the wrong one. If a keyboard has gone missing after using the Reset menu, the honest next step is checking which of the two was actually tapped rather than assuming the milder-sounding one caused it.
If the keyboard is missing anyway
Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard… and tapping the keyboard again restores it to the list in a few seconds, since the app itself was never removed — it only needs to be pointed to again. If a clipboard button on its toolbar stops working afterward, that same screen has an Allow Full Access switch to turn back on, next to the keyboard’s name.
Where Kibo fits
Kibo has nothing for a network reset to disrupt even in principle: it makes no network requests at all, has no server and no account to reconnect to, so there is no online piece of it waiting to reconnect after Wi-Fi comes back. Its keyboard entry and Full Access grant, like any keyboard’s, live in the keyboard preferences that Reset Network Settings never opens — so after fixing a Wi-Fi problem with it, the themes, key sounds, backlight effects and languages already chosen are exactly where they were left. Kibo is free to download.
Frequently asked questions
Does Reset Network Settings remove a third-party keyboard on iPhone?
No. It only clears Wi-Fi networks and passwords, Bluetooth pairings, cellular and APN settings, and VPN configurations. The keyboard list under Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, and each keyboard’s Full Access grant, are stored as separate preferences that this particular reset never touches.
What is the difference between Reset Network Settings and Reset All Settings?
Reset Network Settings only clears networking preferences — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular and VPN. Reset All Settings, the option just below it in the same menu, is far broader: it also clears the keyboard list and every app’s permission grants, including Full Access, back to factory defaults.
Will I need to turn Full Access back on after resetting network settings?
No. Full Access is a keyboard permission, stored in a different part of the Settings database than anything a network reset touches, so it stays exactly as you left it.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with real mechanical key sounds, a wardrobe of themes and RGB backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.