You can boot your Android device into a “Safe Mode” that allows you to start your phone with only the essential services and apps. Android is a relatively stable mobile operating system, but every now and then, performance issues arise. Sometimes you may got an app that’s crashing your phone. Safe mode is a great tool that you can use to troubleshoot these issues.
Safe mode boots your phone running only the apps that came with the phone – that means no third-party apps. Therefore, if your phone runs without any issue in safe mode, then you can easily say that the problem isn’t system related, and instead a third party app you have downloaded.
When your phone is in safe mode, you can see the words ‘Safe Mode’ in the lower left corner of the screen. In safe mode, you would only see the factory-installed apps on the phone but you can still go to settings -> Apps to manage and uninstall any apps that is causing the problems. All your Google apps like Gmail, Maps, Chrome, Calender and so will still run in safe mode.
How to boot into safe mode?
Method 1:
1. Press and hold the power button to load the power menu.
2. Press and hold the “Power Off”, so that a pop-up window appears asking if you want to boot into safe mode.
3. Press OK. Now your Android device reboot into safe mode. You can see the words “Safe Mode” displayed in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
Method 2:
1. Turn off your phone.
2. Once your phone is off, turn it on by pressing the power button.
3. As your phone is booting, hold down both the volume-up and volume-down buttons simultaneously and keep them held. If your phone booted in the safe mode, then you can see the “Safe Mode” displayed in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
For HTC devices with physical buttons:
1. Turn off your Android device.
2. Press the Menu button on your device and keep on holding.
3. Turn on the device and keep holding the Menu key until you see the lock screen.
4. Now your device starts into Safe Mode.
How to exit Safe Mode?
Method 1: Regular Restart
This method should work on the majority of Android devices, regardless of the model or manufacturer. This is the official and default way of getting your device out of Safe Mode. Restarting your device is probably the easiest and quickest method, so make sure that you try this first before trying another method.
1. Hold down the Power button on your Android device.
2. Select Restart/Power off and restart.
3. Wait for your device to restart and you should be back into regular mode.
Method 2: Battery Removal
1. Turn off your Android device.
2. Remove the battery from your device.
3. Wait for 60 seconds, put in the battery and place the back cover.
4. Turn on your device by holding the Power button.