“Safe mode”, feel like you’ve heard that some time recently? Well, you might have, as safe mode is not exactly a new thing. It has been a part of PC OS for a long time and always helps you in the time of PC crisis. There is a good chance you must have utilized the safe mode on your PC at least once by now, probably when you required to troubleshoot a problem or your system was just going haywire. Trust me, we have all been there. If you have utilized it in the past, you must be aware of just how valuable safe mode can be in a bad position. It’s fundamentally like a lifebuoy for your system – you can utilize it to float and make your way to the shore.

Safe mode in computer OS is not a new thing but what may intrigue you is that a similar feature exists even in your Android phone. Yes, your Android is capable of running in safe mode when you require it to. Safe mode for Android will make your phone keep running with all the default settings and applications that it initially accompanied. It resembles taking your phone back to the past yet still leaving it with the capability to tamper with the present.

We will explain that point in just a while, but first let’s have a look at how to boot in safe mode.

How To Boot Android Into Safe Mode

Sometimes, if your system is seriously corrupted or an application is malfunctioning, your Android may boot into safe mode by itself and that’s like a fail-safe mechanism. But if that’s not the case, to do the same manually on all gadgets running Jellybean 4.1 and above just follow these steps:

STEP 1: Make sure your device’s screen is on, now press and hold the power button.

STEP 2: In the box that appears, touch and hold “Power off”.

STEP 3: You’ll see an option saying “Reboot to safe mode” box. Tap OK to continue.

STEP 4: That’s all it takes. Your device will now reboot in safe mode.

For Devices Still Running Older Android Version

STEP 1: Power off your device as usual.

STEP 2: Press and hold the power button to restart your device.

STEP 3:After rebooting, when you see a logo on the screen, release the power button and simultaneously press and hold both the volume keys.

STEP 4: If everything went fine, your device will start up in safe mode.

However the first technique is more generally utilized, the second one should also work with latest versions of android. This one can be valuable if your phone is stuck on a force close screen and you are not getting the choice to power off or any similar situation where the screen is frozen.

What Good Is Safe Mode?

Presently comes the big question, what good is safe mode? Why go through all that inconvenience? Well, safe mode is valuable for troubleshooting application related issues. Suppose you recently downloaded a horde of applications on your phone and now it’s getting into mischief. Whether applications continue crashing, android keeps force closing your applications, your gadget has slowed down, it continues restarting on its own, it has frozen or anything that may even slightly be application related can be solved in the safe mode. In safe mode only the default applications that came preloaded with your phone start up and so none of the issues of the newly downloaded applications can create their way into this territory.

You may have had a tough time deleting applications or even creating a phone call in the original boot mode but in the safe mode, your gadget will work way better. The response time is better plus no third party application related problems. You can just go to settings and uninstall any application that you think may be the cause of the problem. The applications you downloaded cannot be run and will not bother you, but you can uninstall/disable them. The only downside? It may be more of a hit and miss scenario if you are not entirely sure which application is the causing you the trouble, you are going to have to continue uninstalling applications and testing your gadget, till the problem(s) is solved.

Aside from deleting applications, you can also modify your storage. Suppose you end up in a scenario where your gadget wouldn’t even start except for in safe mode and this was caused by malware in your internal storage. In this case, you can utilize safe mode to clear any part of your storage or even format it completely. You can also factory reset your gadget if nothing else works for you. In a nutshell, safe mode can help you with any application related problem and it is also a good method of finding out if your issue is application related or something else. If the difficult is something worse than misbehaving applications then even safe mode won’t function correctly and you can seek help accordingly.

How To Exit Safe Mode

Just normally power off your android gadget and turn it back on. Your gadget should automatically boot in normal mode.

Conclusion

So there it is, everything you would want to know about safe mode on Android. Now, the next time you have a problem on your Android you should be able to perform some first aid on your own. You can use it if any app keeps on freezing, crashing or you might be facing a lagging problem or even something that may be caused by malware. It is a basic feature of the Android OS and it can be very useful in times of trouble.