Technipages

Smart phone, gadget and computer tutorials

Help! My Android is Stuck in Safe Mode

By Mitch Bartlett 80 Comments

It seems a common problem for Android users is that it might get stuck in Safe Mode. While in Safe Mode, you might not be able to do much on the device since much of the software required for normal functionality isn’t loaded. Your device might say “No Service” or have problems running apps. Don’t worry though. We’ve got some things you can try to get your Android out of Safe Mode.

The methods to get out of Safe Mode can vary on each device. Here are some ways that generally work with most devices.

1. Power Completely Off

Power completely down by pressing and holding the “Power” button, then select “Power off“. Do NOT select “Restart” or “Reboot”. Many Android devices will stay in Safe Mode if you select “Restart” or “Reboot”.

Once the device is powered off, wait about 2 minutes, then turn the device back on.

2. Check Stuck Buttons

This is the most common cause for being stuck in Safe Mode. Safe Mode is usually enabled by pressing and holding a button while the device is starting. Common buttons you would hold are the volume up, volume down, or menu buttons. If one of these buttons are stuck or the device is defective and registers a button is being pressed, it will continue to start in Safe Mode.

Ensure none of the buttons are held down by a foreign object or an accessory. Pull the device out of its case to be sure that’s not the cause. Give each button on the device a push to test out if they stick in any way. You may need to clean the buttons with a damp cloth in some cases.

3. Battery Pull (If Possible)

If a simple power down doesn’t do the trick, pull the battery if you own an Android device with a removable battery. Wait about a minute or two before inserting the battery back into the compartment and powering the device back on.

4. Uninstall Recently Installed Apps

If the above options didn’t work, a recently installed app may be causing the device to start in Safe Mode. Open “Settings” > “Apps” and uninstall any recently updated or installed apps, then power the device off and restart.

5. Wipe Cache Partition (Dalvik Cache)

The Android OS stores data in a cache partition. That data can sometimes cause your Android to endlessly be in Safe Mode. Steps for clearing the cache partition can vary with each device. Consult the documentation provided with your device about how to enter Recovery Mode.

6. Factory Reset

If you have tried and tried again to get your phone out of Safe Mode using the steps above, you may want to factory reset your Android. This can be done by going to “Settings” > “Backup & reset”. This will clear all data off of the device and set it back to its factory default state. This is an unfortunate last resort if your problem cannot be solved otherwise.

 

Did this post help you get your Android out of Safe Mode? Let us know what worked for you in the Comments section below.

You Might Also Like

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Andrew says

    Simulated battery pull/soft reset worked for me. Hold power and volume down for about 10 seconds. It may take a screen shot, just keep holding. Release buttons when the phone begins to reboot.

  3. Cassi says

    I tried all the above and nothing worked.

    Afterwards I decided to leave the phone powered off all night. In the morning I removed sim & sd card, and blew compressed air into all the ports and over the buttons before turning it back on. It worked! Just wanted to share in case this might help someone else who tried all of the above with no luck.

  6. Momoh Michael says

    My android phone has been on safe mode ever since and volume key is hot stucked

  7. Ny says

    Thanks a lot!!! I uninstalled my my most recently installed app and the safe mode went away FINALLYYY!!!

  8. Aiman fatma says

    My Samsung A20s automatically went in safe mode .i tried many times Samsung Galaxy features to disable safe mode. But again again showing safe mode on.please solve the problem

  9. Kusum says

    Hi team
    My samsung phone put into the water bucket . I pull it back immediately . When i switch on the phone, it on with safe mode. I tried everything available on internet, but nothing is workable to get my phone into normal mode.
    Please suggest

  10. Larry Mwambazi says

    Thanks a lot. My phone went to safe mode last evening and i tried to everything including factory resent and nothing worked. Until i saw your advise, then i realised the lower volume button was stuck and not working hence sending phone into safe mode.

  12. Jessica says

    Thank you so much, been working on this problem for hours. I ended up he volume down key was stuck. i used a straight pin to get it unstuck. I appreciate your post.

  13. Dan says

    This happened to my sons phone, the issue was due to a cheap case ordered online which kept the lower volume key continually pressed down.

    Followed the steps on technipages and quickly diagnosed the fault, thankyou for the advice.

  15. Tyesha Hale says

    Samsung Galaxy J7 stuck in safe mode. We have tried everything even factory resetting it and nothing is working. Need help on how to fix it. Buttons aren’t stuck either.

  16. Aisha says

    My phone doesn’t get out of safe mode, i’ve tried every single method and still in safe mode, my volume up and down keys are stuck i’ve cleaned them but they aren’t still working suggest me something.

  22. Bradley A Wilson says

    tried factory rest , button not stuck, tried all the other methods but cant remove battery still in safe mode cant use whatsapp big problem

  23. Glenn says

    Countless restarts and the phone was always in Safe mode.

    After reading the article, I removed the phone from it’s case, turned it off, restarted it, and it was not in Safe Mode.

    I turned it off, Put it back in the case, restarted it, and it was again in Safe mode

    Remove the case, restarted and no Safe Mode.

    I believe the case is holding down one of the buttons but I can’t tell which one. So I’ll be careful to take it out of the case when I restart the phone

    It seems to be OK when I put it back in the case when it is not in Safe Mode.

    Thanks for the information posted here!

  24. Amoah says

    It worked perfectly for my wife’s J4 core. I’m surprised because it’s been more than two months of worry. We switched it off completely for about 6 minutes removed it from the cover and made sure nothing was disturbing the volume and on and off buttons. Yes we did it at the same time. In fact we’re more than happy. Thank you very much indeed

  26. Hassan Fayyaz says

    I have tried everything I even did a factory data reset and when it turned back one it was still in safe mode so now what

  27. Nella says

    Hey thank you for the great advice.
    However my volume down button is not functioning and my phone is now stuck in safe mode
    Please kindly help me

  28. Bel Stephens says

    This helped perfectly. The case I purchased was the wrong one for my tab so it pressing the down volume button. I didn’t realize it until I read your article.

  29. Rachael Monks says

    I dropped my phone on the volume button which is bent out of shape and stuck in. (One plus five)
    Going to try a razor blade down the side of it to unstick it as it keeps rebooting in safe mode because of that I think.
    Fingers crossed

  33. Jim Holsinger says

    I did what you asked and Yeah ! It worked. I completely powered down my Android and waited about three minutes and when I powered it back on the Safe Mode went away and I got my phone back. Thanks so much for the help.

  34. Agnes says

    I have tried everything by am still stack on safe mode I even lost everything on my phone and my volume button is stucked don’t know what to do please help

  35. Mesfin says

    Hi
    My phone is stuck on said “Safe mode”
    I’ve tried everything: Restart, Power Off, Check Buttons (all are in working condition), Uninstall Apps. I skipped 5 and 6
    I didn’t do 5 because I was confused and I didn’t do 6 because I was too scared to lose all of my photos and app. Please help!!!

  39. Shania Faye Mendoza says

    I already tried this methods but still my chronos ace stuck in safe mode? help me please. ASAP?

  41. DaisyPatch says

    Jim nailed it!! He said “press power button till three icon come up. power, ,restart and emergence…… hit restart button twice” Mine only had 2 choices – power off and restart, so feeling silly I hit restart twice and VOILA – no more safe mode. Thank you JIm!!!!

  42. Margaret Pardoe says

    Your first suggestion – ‘Turn it off and turn it on again’ worked! Thank you!!

  43. Rama hk says

    Yes is helpful
    I tried all the way but can’t
    Coz my note 3 volume down
    Key water damage
    Thanks alot

  44. Fee says

    After trying everything including a factory reset on my galaxy s8 plus. I found this article. Turns out my volume button was stuck and causing the phone to stay in safe mode. Thanks so much for helping me fix this problem! This site rocks

  46. Cheri M Towles says

    i’ve done i all too…not working….beginning to think i should flush the dang thing…nothing working can’t get to my contacts or apps…very irritated at the moment. so any solutions after following all steps above and still stuck?

  47. Fred says

    I must of had a stuck button. Nothing worked. I had a old phone with the same back. changed out the back and restarted from completely off. All is good. Put the stuck back on old phone and that phone works fine also????? must of unstuck it????

  48. Jim says

    None of this worked for me

    ..press power button till three icon come up. power ,restart and emergence…… hit restart button twice

  49. Emma says

    I was stuck in safe mode and I then didn’t switch off my phone for about a week or 2. I had tried all the options above previously and none of them worked so I just left it. The next day I decided to leave my phone off overnight and put it on when I woke up. When I woke up the next morning my phone was no longer in safe mode but my down volume button was still stuck.

  50. Charyl says

    my phone is still on the safe mode. I tried everything but the volume up and down are not working.

  51. Maliek says

    Am stuck in safe mode, and am pissed right now. I cant get into my phone neither can i turn it off, bacause i have to use a password for that, and it still cannot go in while in safe mode, i need some help..

  52. Marilyn Bargemann says

    No did not help still in safe mode cannot access anything settings not available so will have to send it back to virgin biggest peice of garbage ever will go back to Samsung

  55. Kayden chambles: tuh says

    I have tried everything I even did a factory data reset and when it turned back one it was still in safe mode so now what

  56. Kayden chambles says

    I have tried everything I even did a factory data reset and when it turned back one it was still in safe mode so now what

  58. Lillian says

    I did a factory reset on mine and it is asking for a password. It was working fine and the next day I could’nt sign in. I tried how to disable lock screen on androud. it is stuck on safe mode at bottom of left screen. I do not know what to do after this. It said to use the volume buttons to select but it just stats there. Help. Thank you.

  59. Edlir Petroshi says

    Unfortunately my android is stuck on safe mode .
    I have tried a lot of but is still on safe mode .
    Can you help me please ???

  60. Mike says

    Yes your first suggestion worked perfectly and I am back in business thank you. I dont know what caused the problem but I am glad to be rid of it. Thank you again!

  62. Kalpana sharma says

    Volume key is stuck and safe mode is enabled i tried to fix it but still the volume key is not working.

  64. monica says

    Please have tried all you suggested but still stuck in safe mode and my down volume not working.what else please

  65. tom says

    Tried everything you suggested but phone still stuck in safe mode.problem is that the phone is uninstalling some of the system apps!

  67. Sage says

    I’ve done all these things and even pulled out my down volume button but still safe mode automatically comes on

  68. izzy says

    Solution – use a nail cutter for the s8 to pull out the volume button. then restart your phone and lightly push your volume button back in!

  70. Jackson says

    What do you do if you did press Restart instead of powering it off and it’s still stuck?

  71. Bob Klimple says

    I did everything that you mention, but nothing worked to get it out of safemode.. Finally I just pulled the battery out of it without power down. Waited about 3 minutes re-installed the battery and restarted and no safemode.

  74. Naveen Kumar Chella durai says

    my phone display is being damaged but thats not a issue volume down botton also damaged and it stuck so automatically my device goes to safe mode suggest me any solution for this .

  75. Shikhar says

    Hi, great article but I need your immediate help.

    Here’s my problem:

    My phone was working fine earlier, then I used the ADB command fastboot reboot recovery and that’s when it displayed the dead Android and the red triangle error symbol.

    Since I own LG K10, Model number K430TV, the volume up, down and power button are at the back of this phone. I held down on all three until I saw the LG logo.

    Then, I only held the top volume key and power button for a bit longer, perhaps 10 more seconds?

    Finally, instead of booting normally, it is now asking me to enter a password to unblock Android.

    I have been given 30 attempts to do so. But no matter what I enter, the number of attempts do not decrease below 29, that’s strange!

    Also, I have never ever set up any password on this phone before so I am not sure what to enter here.

    Is there a way out of this? Do I need to flash a new OS or something? If so, how?

  76. Anthony says

    I took an exacto knife and put it under the volume button, afterwards i kept pullin up until it came out and then i restarted the phone and it came out of safe mode.

  77. khan says

    Hi,

    I followed all steps (factory reset as well) and also took out battery, unscrewed motherboard but same problem.

  78. Paul / Newport says

    #2 did the trick. It seems my case wasn’t completely on after I had to charge it via the USB landing pad.

  79. Pat says

    Yes indeed your suggestion no 2 was spot on. The volume button must have got stuck. Recently whenever I powered on my android it gave out quite a loud tune and to stop this ear piercing noise I would press hard on the volume down button. Today it must have got stuck. But it now comes on ((.still playing the loud musical notes) but WITHOUT THE SAFE MODE. so thanks to you. I am now back in business and my greyed out icons are now back in glorious colour.. thank you. Maybe you will know how I can be stop the noise it now makes when powered on. This started since updating to android version 6. In fact several weird things have happened since then but I am working on them one at a time.
    Thanks again

Did this help? Let us know!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.