4 Methods to Enter Safe Mode on Android Devices

Safe Mode on Android is an essential feature designed to troubleshoot and resolve any software-related issues that may arise during device operation. When activated, this mode disables all third-party apps. It allows us to identify problematic apps or settings. In this tutorial, I’ll describe 4 ways to enter Safe mode on Android devices.

Android’s Safe Mode differs from the Download Mode or the Recovery Mode. It is a diagnostic tool to help you find out misbehaving apps. The main purpose of the Safe Mode on Android is to find whether a device problem is caused by an app, the OS itself, or the device hardware. In Safe Mode your Android phone or tablet boots up only with system apps. All 3rd-party apps are restricted or disabled and the Flight Mode is enabled automatically. You’ll also see the Safe Mode watermark at the bottom of the device screen.

An app or game installed on your Android phone might cause one of the problems listed below:

• Sudden bump in the battery drain.
• Connectivity issues on your device.
• Interference with incoming or outgoing calls.
• Device overheating issues.
• Increased mobile data consumption.
• Intrusive ads and pop-ups.
• Abrupt device restarting.
• Frequent device freezes and app crashes.
• Slow performance.

To diagnose if a rogue app is responsible for any of the problems listed above, you can turn on Safe Mode. By doing so, you can at least eliminate the possibility that a third-party problematic app is causing issues on your device.

There are at least 4 methods that you can use to boot your Android device into the Safe Mode. As a rule, these methods should work on all Android phones and tablets but depending on the OS version and manufacturer, it may differ.

Method 1: Hold the Power off Option

Note: This method works on Samsung (phone and tablet), OnePlus, Google Pixel, Nokia, LG, Motorola, and Realme devices. It might not work on Xiaomi, Redmi, Huawei, Honor, Vivo, or Oppo smartphones.

1. Hold the Power button to bring up the Power menu on your device.
2. Touch and hold the Power off option until the Safe Mode icon or Reboot to Safe Mode prompt or pop-up appears.
3. Tap the Safe mode icon or OK.

   

Your Android phone or tablet will restart into the Safe Mode.

Method 2: Hold the Volume Down Key on the Boot Animation

This method to boot into the Safe Mode works on all Android phones and tablets.

1. Power off your Android device and then power it on. You can also use the Reboot or Restart option.
2. When you see the Powered by Android logo on the boot screen, press the hold the Volume Down key.
   • Xiaomi and Redmi: Wait until the Xiaomi or Redmi logo disappears and you see the ‘Powerd by Android’ on the screen.
   • Vivo: Hold the Volume Down button when the ‘Powered by Android’ logo disappears.
   • Oppo: You should hold the Volume Down key when you see the Oppo animation.
   • Huawei and Honor: You need to press and hold the Volume Down key when you see the Huawei and Powered by Android logo.
3. Keep the Volume Down key pressed until your device boots up and you see the Safe Mode watermark at the left-bottom corner of your phone’s screen.

Method 3: Volume Up + Down Key on Boot Logo Screen

This method is the same as Method 2 with the addition of the Volume Up key.

1. Power off and restart your phone or just reboot it.
2. When you see the boot animation logo (Powered by Android), hold the Volume Up + Volume Down keys together.
3. Your Android device will boot into the Safe Mode.

Method 4: Using ADB Command (Requires Root)

You can enter Safe Mode on your Android phone or tablet device using ADB Shell commands as well. However, you need root privilege on your Android device for this method to work.

1. Download and install the latest Android USB driver for your device on your computer.
2. Enable USB debugging from Settings > Developer options on your device.
3. Download and extract the latest SDK Platform-tools.zip on your desktop.
4. Launch the command prompt window, connect your phone or tablet to the computer, and execute the “adb devices” command to check the connection.
5. Now, type the following command and press the Enter key.

   adb shell

6. You need to execute the following ADB shell command to enable the Safe Mode on your device.

   

   setprop persist.sys.safemode 1

7. If the above command doesn’t work, try the following command instead.

   echo "1" > /data/property/persist.sys.safemode

8. It’s time to reboot your device using the following code.

   1. adb reboot

In case your Android device is rooted and has a custom recovery like TWRP installed, you can also use the following commands.

1. Reboot your device into the Recovery Mode. You can use the “adb reboot recovery” command for that.
2. Go to the Mount option in the recovery menu and mount the data and system partitions.
3. Connect your device to the computer via a USB cable.
4. Launch the command prompt window and execute the following commands one after one.

   adb shell 
   echo "1" > /data/property/persist.sys.safemode
   adb shell chmod 600 /data/property/persist.sys.safemode

5. Now go to the main menu in the recovery and select the Reboot option.

Your Android device should reboot into the Safe Mode. If you boot your device to normal, try these methods to turn off Safe Mode on Android.

How to Open Apps in Safe Mode on Android

Android is a highly versatile mobile operating system. Due to the diversity in various Android devices and OS versions, app developers write extra bits of code to make the app compatible with a wide range of chipsets and OS versions. Due to this fragmentation problem, some apps might act weirdly on some devices or OS versions. However, the worst thing is that you can’t distinguish whether the issue is from an app or it is system-related. In such situations, the Safe Mode feature on Android can help you. All downloaded apps on your Android device are disabled by default in the Safe Mode.

Now, the question is how can we determine which app or apps might be creating problems on your device? You can consider the following things to find out the culprit.

• Try to recall the names of the apps you installed right before you started having problems.
• If your device encountered a boot loop after installing or opening an app, you can uninstall it to solve the issue.
• Some apps automatically start as soon as your phone boots up. Such apps might create issues. Custom clock and weather widgets, and home launcher apps come in this category.
• If you have too many apps, try removing the unused ones.

Once your Android device has entered the Safe Mode, go to Settings > Apps > All Apps and uninstall the apps or games you think might be causing the problem. In most cases, it is some recently installed app that causes problems. Try uninstalling apps one by one and restart your phone after each installation to check if the problem you were having has been fixed.