How to boot your Samsung Galaxy J3 in safe mode, recovery mode, wipe cache partition and do factory reset [Tutorials]

To be able to know how to boot your Samsung Galaxy J3 in safe mode and recovery mode is one of the most important things you should learn as they always come handy when issues occur. Starting the phone up in safe mode alone doesn’t fix the problem but it gives you an idea as to what caused it, although if the issue is due to a third-party app, doing the procedure will leave an impression that it is fixed but when you boot back up in normal mode, the problem occurs.

Booting in recovery mode (Android System Recovery) is actually necessary when you cannot access the Settings menu for some reason. In the event that the phone is experiencing firmware related issues and cannot boot up successfully, this method can help you determine if the hardware is affected or if it’s all in the firmware. While in recovery mode, you can do some things that have direct impact on your phone but the two most common things you need to do is wipe cache partition and master reset. Read on to learn how to do these things…

• How to reboot your Galaxy J3 in Safe mode
• How to reboot your Galaxy J3 in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition
• How to perform factory and master resets on your Galaxy J3

Before we jump right into our tutorials, if you have other issues, drop by our Galaxy J3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed many issues with this phone since we started supporting it. Try to find problems that are similar with yours and use the troubleshooting procedures or solutions we suggested. Should you need further assistance from us, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit. Don’t worry, it’s free.

How to reboot your Galaxy J3 in Safe mode

It is important that you know how to start your phone up in safe mode because it’s the first thing you have to do if your phone experiences issues that are related to your apps. By doing this, you are temporarily disabling all third-party apps, which isolates the problem immediately as you will be able to tell if third-party apps have something to do with the problem or not. Here’s how you boot your device in safe mode:

1. Power off your Galaxy J3. Press and hold the Power key, tap Power off and then touch POWER OFF to confirm.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
3. When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

Once the phone enters this mode, all you have to do if you’re troubleshooting a problem or two is to observe if it still happens because if it happens that the problem won’t occur in this mode, it means a third-party app is causing it. You need to find the culprit and either clear its cache and data to see if that makes a difference or immediately uninstall it.

Another application of safe mode is when your phone cannot boot up successfully in normal mode. While it basically means the problem is with third-party apps, the important part is that you will be able to continue using your phone if you cannot troubleshoot your device at that moment. When in this mode, everything works fine except third-party apps but you can still open them manually though.

Also, if your device is draining its battery quicker than usual, you can boot your phone in safe mode to observe if it still drains the battery at the same pace. More often, fast battery draining is caused by some third-party apps and you’re still trying to isolate the problem by starting it up in safe mode, although this time, it has something to do with the battery.

I hope you now understand the importance of safe mode in troubleshooting problems with your device.

How to reboot your Galaxy J3 in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

Another troubleshooting procedure you should know about is wiping the cache partition. It simply means you’re deleting everything that is inside the cache directory. You cannot access individual apps nor be able to tell which file is for a specific service or app that’s why you need to delete all system caches at once. To do so, you first need to boot your phone up in recovery mode (Android system recovery) and here’s how you do this entire process:

1. Power off your Galaxy J3. Press and hold the Power key, tap Power off and then touch POWER OFF to confirm.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Wiping the cache partition will have a great impact if you’re troubleshooting your phone due to a problem that started after firmware updates or anything that occurred without apparent reason or cause. There are times when system caches get corrupted and when they do and the system continues to use them, performance-related problems may occur which may include the crashing of apps (both built-in and third-party), slowing down of the phone, freezing, hanging, etc.

When your phone cannot boot up successfully, this must be the first thing you need to do. Your files and data will remain intact and nothing will be deleted not to mention that it’s very effective in dealing with issues that have something to do with apps and firmware. It’s just fitting that you know how to do this on your Galaxy J3.

How to perform factory and master resets on your Galaxy J3

The title of this section speaks of two kinds of resets but basically, they’re just the same just done in different ways. The factory reset is done through the Settings menu and deletes everything that’s stored in your phone’s internal storage. Therefore, if you have files you don’t want to lose, you better create a backup by creating a copy to your SD card or computer before you actually do the steps below:

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Cloud and accounts.
4. Tap Backup and restore.
5. If desired, tap Backup my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
7. Tap the back key twice to return to the Settings menu, then tap General Management.
8. Tap Reset.
9. Tap Factory data reset.
10. Tap Reset device.
11. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
12. Tap Continue.
13. Tap Delete all.

When you’re resetting your phone through the Settings menu, you don’t necessarily need to disable the anti-theft feature or the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) because it’s given that you can access your device. However, that’s not the same when you’re doing the master reset. While it basically just the same as the factory reset, it formats both the cache and data partitions, which thoroughly gets rid of corrupt system caches, files and data that might be causing the problem.

You will also need to backup your files and data before the actual reset and disable anti-theft as you will be locked out of your phone after the reset especially if you don’t know your Google ID and password. So, here’s how you disable anti-theft…

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Accounts.
4. Tap Google.
5. Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
6. Tap More.
7. Tap Remove account.
8. Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

And this is how you do the master reset…

1. Power off your Galaxy J3. Press and hold the Power key, tap Power off and then touch POWER OFF to confirm.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up button and then press and hold the Home key. While holding both, press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Android logo appears on the screen, release all three keys. It may take a minute before the Android recovery screen appears.
4. While on Android recovery screen, use the Volume Down key to highlight options, in this case, highlight the option ‘wipe data/factory reset.’
5. Press the Power key to choose the highlighted option.
6. Press  the Volume Down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ option is highlighted.
7. Press the Power key to confirm the reset.
8. Once the reset is complete, press the Power key to choose ‘Reboot system now.’
9. The phone will restart a little longer than usual and the reset is finished.

I hope that these tutorials will be able to help you troubleshoot your phone in case of issues and problems.

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