Restoring Back to Factory Firmware
Restoring your Tachyon to the original factory firmware can be useful for troubleshooting or preparing a device for reassignment.
This process will erase the operating system, user data, and configuration from your device.
If you do not have a backup of your modem provisioning data, your device will not function correctly until Particle provides a file for your individual device to restore it for you.
Automatic Restore Using the CLI
The simplest way to restore your Tachyon is to use the Particle CLI.
Step 1: Install the Particle CLI
You will need the Particle CLI to perform this procedure.
If you don’t already have it installed, follow our CLI installation guide.
Step 2: Put the Device into EDL Mode
To restore factory firmware, your Tachyon must be placed into EDL (Emergency Download) mode so the CLI can access the low-level flash programmer.
-
Disconnect power
Unplug both the battery and USB-C cable from the Tachyon board. -
Press and hold the button
Locate the main button next to the LED.
Press and hold this button before reconnecting power.
-
Reconnect USB-C to your computer
While still holding the button, plug one end of your USB-C cable into the primary USB port (USB1) on Tachyon, and the other end into your computer.
-
Release the button after 3 seconds
The device will now be in EDL mode — there is no LED feedback in this mode.
If you accidentally power the device on normally instead of entering EDL mode, unplug the battery and USB, then repeat the steps above.
Step 3: Run the Tachyon Restore Command
Run the following command and follow the prompts to restore your device. This will back up your provisioning data, download the factory image, flash it, restore the provisioning data and set up your device again.
particle tachyon factory-restore
Example output:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WARNING
This process will erase the operating system, user data, and configuration from your device.
If you do not have a backup of your modem provisioning data, your device will not function correctly
until Particle provides a file for your individual device to restore it for you.
For more information please visit: https://developer.particle.io/tachyon/troubleshooting-and-tricks/restore
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
? Do you want to continue with the process? Yes
Preparing your device for factory restore...
Connecting with your device, make sure your device is in system update mode (blinking yellow).
Logs will be saved in /home/user/.particle/logs/tachyon_422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_factory_restore_1756839425007.log
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Device Info:
Device ID: 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx
Region: NA
Manufacturing data: Found
OS Version: Ubuntu 20.04
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Backup of manufacturing data found in the working directory, skipping backup step.
Downloading factory image...
Using cached file: /home/user/.particle/downloads/Tachyon_NAPAR60A03_BP01.003V01_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.305V02_factory.zip
Installing factory image...
[█████████████████████████] 100% | Flashing complete OS
▌ Restore Tachyon NV dataRestoring NV data to device 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx...
Logs will be saved to /home/user/.particle/logs/tachyon_422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_factory_restore_1756839425007.log
[█████████████████████████] 100% | Flashing complete Restore
Restoring NV data to device 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx complete!
Starting device setup process...
===================================================================================
Particle Tachyon Setup Command
===================================================================================
Welcome to the Particle Tachyon setup...
Step 4: Final Boot
- Disconnect all cables.
- Reconnect the battery and USB-C power.
- The device will boot into the factory OS, activate its modem, and reconnect to the Particle Cloud.
🎉 Your Tachyon has now been restored to factory firmware!
Manual Step-by-step Restore
If you run into issues with the Tachyon Restore command in the CLI, you can follow these individual steps to restore your device.
First, follow step 1 (install the Particle CLI) and step 2 (put the device into EDL mode) above.
Step 3: Check the Backup Partition
Run the following command to verify the device status:
particle tachyon identify
Example output:
Device ID: 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx
Region: NA
Manufacturing data: Found
OS Version: Ubuntu 20.04
The most critical line here is Manufacturing data: Found - this tells us whether your modem provisioning data exists.
Select which status you have in your identify command:
- ✅ Manufacturing Data Found
- ❌ Manufacturing Data Missing
If manufacturing data is found, back it up before doing anything else. This ensures you can restore it after flashing.
First, change to a directory where you can create files. i.e.
Linux / Mac:
mkdir -p ~/tachyon/
cd ~/tachyon
Windows:
mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\tachyon"
cd /d "%USERPROFILE%\tachyon"
Then run:
particle tachyon backup
The log will show something like:
Backing up NV data from device 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx...
Logs will be saved to /Users/nicklambourne/.particle/logs/tachyon_422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_backup_1754608199993.log
Backing up NV data from device 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx complete!
This will output files as follows:
128K May 6 08:04 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_fsc.backup
4.0M May 6 08:04 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_fsg.backup
4.0M May 6 08:04 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_modemst1.backup
4.0M May 6 08:04 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_modemst2.backup
1.5M May 6 08:04 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_nvdata1.backup
1.5M May 6 08:04 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_nvdata2.backup
To keep these safe, we recommend putting into a ZIP file (replace the device ID with your Device ID):
Linux / Mac:
zip 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_backup.zip *.backup
Windows Powershell:
Compress-Archive -Path *.backup -DestinationPath 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_backup.zip
Keep this backup very safe — without it, your device will not be able to register on the network.
If manufacturing data is missing, stop here and contact Particle Support. Post in the Tachyon category with your Device ID and request a copy of your provisioning backup.
You must have this file before restoring factory firmware — without it, the device will not function correctly.
Step 4: Download the Factory Firmware
Download the factory firmware based on if your device is an NA or Row device.
Linux / Mac:
NA (North America):
wget https://tachyon-ci.particle.io/release/Tachyon_NAPAR60A03_BP01.003V01_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.305V02_factory.zip
RoW (Rest of World):
wget https://tachyon-ci.particle.io/release/Tachyon_EMPAR03A06_BP10.001V02_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.004V02_factory.zip
Windows Powershell
NA (North America):
Invoke-WebRequest "https://tachyon-ci.particle.io/release/Tachyon_NAPAR60A03_BP01.003V01_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.305V02_factory.zip" -OutFile "Tachyon_NAPAR60A03_BP01.003V01_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.305V02_factory.zip"
RoW (Rest of World):
Invoke-WebRequest "https://tachyon-ci.particle.io/release/Tachyon_EMPAR03A06_BP10.001V02_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.004V02_factory.zip" -OutFile "Tachyon_EMPAR03A06_BP10.001V02_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.004V02_factory.zip"
Step 5: Flash the Factory Firmware
With the device still in EDL mode, run:
particle flash --tachyon --skip-reset ./Tachyon_NAPAR60A03_BP01.003V01_Ubuntu20.04.003.51.305V02_factory.zip
(Replace the filename with your downloaded RoW or NA image.)
After flashing, the device will stay in EDL mode (flashing yellow).
Next, we need to restore the manufacturing data.
Step 6: Restore Provisioning Data
Change to a spare directory (unless you already did this step before!).
Linux / Mac:
mkdir -p ~/tachyon/
cd ~/tachyon
Windows:
mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\tachyon"
cd /d "%USERPROFILE%\tachyon"
And copy in the backup ZIP file from either (a) Particle (b) your own backup.
Unzip the files for use!
Linux / Mac:
unzip 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_backup.zip
Windows Powershell:
Expand-Archive -Path "422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_backup.zip" -DestinationPath "."
Restore your provisioning data:
particle tachyon restore
The log will show something like:
Restoring NV data to device 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx...
Logs will be saved to /Users/nicklambourne/.particle/logs/tachyon_422a060000000000xxxxxxxx_restore_1754608822892.log
[█████████████████████████] 100% | Flashing complete Restore
Restoring NV data to device 422a060000000000xxxxxxxx complete!
If you do not have this file, contact Particle Support to obtain it.
After restoring the data, the device will stay in EDL mode (flashing yellow).
Finally, we need to reprogram the OS image.
Step 7: Run Setup
Run:
particle tachyon setup
Follow the on-screen setup instructions to reinstall the OS, set passwords, and configure connectivity.
Step 8: Final Boot
- Disconnect all cables.
- Reconnect the battery and USB-C power.
- The device will boot into the factory OS, activate its modem, and reconnect to the Particle Cloud.
🎉 Your Tachyon has now been restored to factory firmware!