- You can turn off Safe Mode on Android by simply restarting your phone.
- You can also exit Safe Mode through the notification panel, but this doesn't work on all phones.
- While in Safe Mode, you can troubleshoot apps by clearing their cache and data or uninstalling them.
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Android phones are small portable computers, and like any computer, they can suffer glitches that prevent them from working properly. To resolve certain problems, Android offers Safe Mode, which lets you start the phone with just the most essential features and services. When in Safe Mode, most third-party apps are disabled.
If you unintentionally enable Safe Mode, a bug causes it to happen automatically, or you're done troubleshooting after deliberately enabling Safe Mode, here is how to get out of Safe Mode and start your phone normally again.
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How to turn off Safe Mode on Android
There are two ways to turn off Safe Mode on Android: by restarting your device or using the Notification panel.
Turn off Safe Mode using the Power button
The easiest way to turn off Safe Mode on Android is to simply restart your device. You can turn off your phone when it's in Safe Mode just like you would do normally — just press and hold the power button until a power icon appears on the screen, and then tap it.
When you restart the phone, it should boot into the normal mode.
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Turn off Safe Mode using the Notification panel
If you don't want to – or can't – use the power button to shut down your phone and exit Safe Mode, there might be another method at your disposal.
Swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the notification panel. You should have one of the following options:
- Use notifications. There might be a notification that says Safe Mode is on. You can tap it to turn off Safe Mode.
- Use the Power icon. If you don't see the Safe Mode notification. Swipe down again so you can see all the quick access options. At the bottom of the screen you should see Option and Power icons. Tap the Power icon and then tap Restart.
These options may not be available on every Android model, so if you don't see this, you'll need to turn off your phone another way.
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How to troubleshoot apps on Safe Mode
While you're in Safe Mode, you should troubleshoot any apps causing problems on your phone. Here are some things you can try.
Wipe the app's cache
If an app is causing problems due to a corrupted or overloaded cache, clearing the device's cache is the best way to solve the problem.
1. Start the Settings app on your Android device.
2. Tap Apps, then tap All apps if needed.
3. Tap on the troublesome app to select it.
4. Tap Storage & cache.
5. Tap Clear cache.
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Delete the app's storage
If clearing the cache doesn't work, then deleting its data might help if that's also contributing to the app misbehavior.
- Start the Settings app on your Android device.
- Tap Apps, then tap All apps if needed.
- Tap on the troublesome app to select it.
- Tap Storage & cache.
- Tap Clear storage.
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Uninstall the app
If you are confident a particular app is the problem but nothing else has worked so far, you may need to remove the app from your Android phone.
1. Tap and hold the app's icon on the home screen or in the app drawer.
2, When the Remove and Uninstall buttons appear, drag the app icon to Uninstall.
3. Confirm that you want to uninstall the app by tapping OK.
If you find that your problems aren't resolved even after performing these steps, or if your phone continually boots into Safe Mode on its own, you may have to fully reset your Android device. Consider this a last resort, because that will take the phone back to its factory settings and erase your apps and data.
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
