If you’re trying to troubleshoot a problem on your Android, you may have come across the term Safe Mode. This post will try to explain what this troubleshooting step is. Of course, we also give you the steps on how to Safe Mode on Galaxy S10. Learn what safe mode is, why you want to do it, and how it’s performed by checking below.
How to Safe Mode on Galaxy S10 | fix bad third party app
Before we give you the steps on how to Safe Mode on Galaxy S10, we want to discuss some basic things about this procedure. A lot of Android don’t have any idea what safe mode is at all so hopefully this article can be helpful in informing those who are doing for the first time.
Why restart to Safe Mode?
Safe Mode on Android is a tool that allows a technician or owner to check if a third party app is causing a problem to the system. There’s no direct way to know if an app is poorly coded or potentially problematic so when troubleshooting, you need to narrow down the suspected apps. When on Safe Mode, all third party apps are suspended so it’s a good way to know if one of your downloaded apps is bad.
In some cases, booting a device to safe mode is a good troubleshooting step like when checking why a device crashes or why it may be too slow without apparent reason. In our blog, we also sometimes recommend to try booting to safe mode to see if there’s a difference in performance if a device keeps rebooting on its own. The main purpose of this tool is to check for a bad or rogue third party app so it’s one of the important things to learn as a Samsung Galaxy user.
How to Safe Mode on Galaxy S10
The steps on how to Safe Mode on Galaxy S10 are simple. If you’ve tried doing in on your old Samsung Galaxy device before, it’s basically the same process on your new Galaxy. Follow the steps below on how to do it:
- Press and hold the Power button until the Power Off window appears then release.
- Touch and hold Power off until the Safe mode prompt appears then release.
- To confirm, tap Safe mode. The process may take up to 30 seconds to complete so just wait for it.
- Upon reboot, “Safe mode” appears in the lower-left of the home screen.
- Once the phone has started to safe mode, proceed with your troubleshooting.
How to use safe mode to troubleshoot
The first thing that you want to do once the device has booted to safe mode is to check if there’s any difference. For example, if you were previously having an issue downloading and installing an app via the Play Store app, you should try again after rebooting to safe mode. If there’s no problem during safe mode, that’s an indication of a third party app problem. By third party apps we mean those that you install after you unboxed and set up the device. Third party apps are those that are not part of the software. Anything that you added yourself are considered third party, even if they are published by Google or Samsung. If you installed a lot of third party apps and you have no idea which of them may be causing the problem, you have to spend time in eliminating potential problem apps using safe mode. If you remember that the problem started right after you installed a new app though, delete that app from the system and see what happens when it’s gone. If the problem won’t appear afterwards, that app must be the source of the problem.
If you suspect that there’s a third party app issue and you want to narrow down the possible reasons, these are the steps that you want to do:
- Boot to safe mode.
- Check for the problem.
- Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
- After you uninstall a single app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem again.
- If your S10 still has the problem, repeat steps 1-4.
Continue doing the cycle until you’ve identified the culprit.
Keep in mind that when your device is running on safe mode, only preinstalled apps can be used. If you rely on third party apps to, say, communicate with your friends or family, you won’t be able to do so. You should get out of safe mode first to be able to use those apps again.
How to get out of safe mode on Galaxy S10
Going back to normal mode is also easy. All you have to do is to restart the phone via the Power Off menu. Just press and hold Power button, then select Restart from the options that appear.
What to do if there’s still a problem after restarting to safe mode
If your problem won’t go away on safe mode at all, that means that the cause may not be an app. There may be a deeper software or hardware trouble causing your issue so you should consider doing further troubleshooting. In many cases with Samsung Galaxy devices, factory reset or hard reset is a good follow up. Be sure to do it to fix the issue for good.