How to Enter Recovery Mode on Galaxy Watch 4/5/6/7

If you own a Samsung phone or tablet, you must be familiar with the Download and the Recovery mode. While the Download Mode allows users to flash stock firmware, the Recovery Mode offers options to perform advanced tasks like wiping the cache partition and data, installing updates, mounting the system, and so on. Samsung’s Wear OS-powered watches such as Galaxy Watch 4, 5, 6, and 7 have a Reboot Mode. This guide will explore the method to enter the Download Mode and Recovery Mode on a Galaxy Watch.

How to Access the Reboot Mode

Now that you know about the Reboot Mode on your Samsung Galaxy Watch, let’s see how to enter it.

1. Ensure your watch is turned on and hold the Power/Home (top) and Back (bottom) keys for 5-7 seconds.
2. Release the buttons when the screen displays “Rebooting…” below the Samsung logo.
3. Quickly release both buttons and press the Power/Home button about 4-5 times.
4. You’ll see a screen with red text: Select Reboot Mode.

That’s it! Use the Home/Power button to select different reboot modes and long-press the Home button to reboot your Galaxy Watch to the Download or Recovery mode.

Understanding the Reboot Mode

You must have heard about bootloader, fastboot, download, and recovery modes on Android. The Wear OS offers a Reboot Mode which works like a gateway to different booting modes on smartwatches. Entering the Reboot Mode on a Wear OS-powered Galaxy Watch is relatively easy, but you must clearly understand the different reboot modes before doing anything.

• Continue: This option exits the Reboot Mode and boots the Galaxy Watch into normal mode.
• Force Upload Mode: This mode is disabled by default and is supposed to be enabled when you use NetOdin3 to flash firmware onto your Samsung watch via the Download (Wireless) Mode.
• Ship Mode: Samsung enables this mode when your Galaxy Watch is manufactured and ready to be shipped for sale.
• Download (USB): I don’t know why this option exists because the Galaxy Watch doesn’t have a USB port. Download (USB) mode can be used to flash the watch with Odin over a USB connection.
• Download (Wireless): This option boots your Galaxy Watch into the Odin Mode. Once booted, you can install stock firmware images (AP and CSC) on your watch via NetOdin3 over Wi-Fi.
• Factory: Do not confuse Factory Mode in the reboot menu with factory reset. It’s meant to be used by the OEM.
• Recovery: This is the most useful item on the menu. It lets you boot your Galaxy Watch into Recovery Mode.
• Bootloader Unlock: As the name suggests, this option lets you unlock your watch’s bootloader. It is unavailable on a Galaxy Watch 6 or 7.
• Power Off: Turns off your watch.

Entering the Recovery Mode on Galaxy Watch

Now that you’ve learned to boot your Samsung Galaxy Watch into the Reboot Mode menu, you’re just one step away from entering the Recovery Mode.

1. Press the Power/Home button to highlight Recovery in the reboot menu.
2. Now press and hold the Power button until the screen goes black.
3. Your Galaxy Watch will boot into Recovery Mode.
4. You’ll now have all Recovery Mode options available. Swipe up and down to highlight and then swipe left or right to select an option.

Galaxy Watch Recovery Mode Explained

The recovery options on Wear OS watches are almost identical to those in Android Recovery Mode. However, options like applying an update from ADB or SD card, and mounting system partition seem useless without a USB port on the Galaxy or Wear OS watches.

Android Recovery Mode can help recover your device in tricky situations. It can perform a factory reset, wipe data, and cache partitions. These actions can help you fix some problems on your device. Moreover, you can also install the OTA update.zip package from Samsung to update your device software manually. It is designed to help troubleshoot and fix issues with your phone.

• Apply update from ADB: This option lets you flash the update.zip via ADB-over-Wi-Fi.
• Apply update from SD card: This option lets you install an OTA zip saved on Galaxy Watch’s storage.
• Wipe data/factory reset: Wipe all data or perform a hard reset on your Galaxy Watch. Resetting your watch via Recovery might fix issues like battery drain and slow performance.
• Wipe cache partition: The cache partition keeps all cache data. With this option, you can clear the system cache on your watch.
• Mount /system: Enable this option if you want your computer to detect, read, and write the system partition.
• View recovery logs: Display the record of all activities done via the recovery.
• Run graphics test: This option lets you test the GPU (graphics processing unit) on your Galaxy Watch.
• Run locale test: This option helps developers “simulate the characteristics of languages that cause UI, layout, and other translation-related problems”.
• Reboot system now: Reboot your watch to normal mode.
• Power off: Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Booting Galaxy Watch into the Download Mode

Just like you flash a Samsung phone or tablet using Odin, the Galaxy Watch can also be flashed wirelessly via the Download Mode. However, you’ll need to download NetOdin3 and the firmware file for your Galaxy Watch model. I’ve never tried to flash my Samsung watch but you can find several videos on YouTube.

Follow the quick steps to enter the download or Odin Mode on a Samsung Galaxy Watch.

1. Boot your watch into the Reboot Mode by pressing the Home + Back keys simultaneously for 5-7 seconds.
2. Press the Home button multiple times until the Download (Wireless) option is selected.
3. Hold the Home button again for 3-4 seconds.
4. Your Samsung watch will boot into the Download or Odin Mode.

The Download Mode of the Galaxy Watch supports wireless firmware flashing via NetOdin3.

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