In this guide, we will show you various methods through which you can boot your Android device to Safe Mode. The biggest perk of having an open-source operating system like Android is the plethora of tweaks and customizations that you can carry out on your device. Right from installing icon packs to custom launchers to changing the theme of the device and even the Always On Display, there’s a plentitude of things to look forward to.
However, it is the ability to install apps from outside of the Play Store that is the biggest perks that stand out among the crowd. There are a few apps that aren’t available in the Play Store mainly due to region restrictions or Play Store policies. But you can easily welcome those apps on your device by sideloading its APK file. On the flip side though, installing these apps from third-party sites has its fair share of risks as well.
For instance, it might cause a conflict or two with the proper functioning of the system or its associated services, thereby completely slowing down the OS. However, with a slew of apps installed, it becomes quite a challenging task to identify the culprit. This is where the role of Safe Mode comes into the picture. In this guide, we will be explaining what is this mode, how to boot to this mode, and the benefits involved in booting to the said mode. So without further ado, let’s get started.
What is a Safe Mode on Android?
Safe Mode is a boot mode in Android that disables all third-party apps and services. As a result, your device will be exactly as it was when it came out of the box- with only the preinstalled system apps [which also include the bloatware apps].
How to Identify If My Device is in Safe Mode
As soon as you boot to Safe Mode, all the third-party app icons will be greyed out in the Home Screen and will be missing/greyed out in the App Drawer. Moreover, you will also see a Safe Mode text at the bottom left or right of the screen, signifying that your device is indeed booted to this mode.
What are the Benefits of Safe Mode
If your device isn’t functioning along the expected lines, then in most instances the culprit is usually a third-party app. However, it becomes quite a challenging task to identify which one out of the long list of apps installed on your device is the real cause. So in such cases, you can boot your device to Safe Mode and then check out the results.
If the device is functioning well and good in this mode, then the culprit is indeed a third-party app that needs to be removed at the earliest. For that, you can start off by uninstalling the newly installed apps and then verifying if the issue has been resolved or not. If it is still there, then again boot your Android device to Safe Mode and remove the next batch of apps. Do so a couple of times and the underlying issue should be rectified.
This was for the generic users. This mode has some very important goodies in store for tech enthusiasts as well. Once you have unlocked the bootloader on your device, you can then carry out numerous different types of tweaks. However, it is the ability to gain administrative access by rooting the device via Magisk that has always been at the top of the priority queue.
One of the biggest reasons for the same is that you can then install numerous types of Magisk modules, which tend to add numerous nifty, new, intriguing functionalities to your device. But on the flip side though, there have been a few compatibility issues as well, either one module got in the way of another preinstalled one, or the module was being installed on an incompatible OS. In all such cases, your device will straightaway end up in a bootloop or soft brick state, in other words, you cannot access the OS.
While this definitely quite a scary situation, but you can easily rectify this issue simply by booting your device to Safe Mode via ADB Commands. When you do so, all the modules will be disabled and you can uninstall the recently installed ones that caused the problem in the first place. Once done, you could then boot your device to the OS with ease. So these were some of the most useful benefits that a Safe Mode beholds, let’s now make you aware of the steps to boot your Android device to this mode. Follow along.
How to Boot New Android Devices to Safe Mode
There exist three different methods through which you can boot your device to Safe Mode. Go through each of them once and then try out the one that is in sync with your requirements.
Via Long Tap on Reboot
This method is applicable for older Android devices and might. not work on newer ones [still you may give it a shot, if it doesn’t work, then try out the next method]. Moreover, many Android devices have now assigned Digital Assistant on the long press of the Power button, however, it is advised that you revert this setting back to the Power menu. To do so, head over to Settings > System > Gesture > Press and hold Power button > Power Menu.
- Long press the Power button to bring up the Power button.
- Then long tap on the Reboot option.
- This will bring up the Reboot to Safe Mode prompt. Tap OK.
- Your Android device will now reboot to Safe Mode.
Via Hardware Key Combination
This method works on newer Android devices. So if you own one, then here’s how you can get this job done.
- To begin with, power off your device. Then press and hold the Power key until you see the OEM logo.
- Once that happens, release the Power key and instead press and hold the Volume Down key.
- Keep on holding that key until your device boots to the Safe Mode. Once that happens, you may let go of the keys.
Via ADB Command
This method comes in handy if you have flashed a Magisk module but now are unable to boot to the OS. In such cases, here’s how you can take the help of the Safe Mode to rectify the underlying issue:
- First off, download and extract the Android SDK Platform Tools on your PC.
- Then type in CMD in the platform-tools folder address bar and hit Enter.
- This will launch the Command Prompt. So connect your device to PC via USB cable.
- Now long press the Power key to power off your device.
- Then execute the below command to boot your device will boot to Safe Mode.
adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules
- All the modules on your device will now be disabled.
- You may now reboot your device to the OS via the Power key.
How to Exit Safe Mode
Once you are done with the required task and now wish to exit this mode, then that’s quite easy to do. All that is needed is a normal restart and then your device will exit the Safe Mode and boot to the OS. For the restart, simply long press the Power key and select Reboot/Restart from the Power menu. [If the Power menu does not come up upon long pressing the Power key, then go to Settings > System > Gesture > Press and hold Power button > and select Power Menu.
That’s it. These were the steps to boot newer Android devices to Safe Mode. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution as soon as possible.
