How do you turn safe mode off on an Android, and why it came on

Restart first

Samsung’s US page says that to exit Safe mode you simply restart your phone or tablet and it will reboot normally. Engadget, in an article dated 1 September 2026, gives the same first step: open the power options screen, by holding the power button or, depending on the model, the power and volume down buttons, tap Restart, and Safe Mode will be turned off when the phone restarts. Samsung New Zealand’s page puts it as the Power key held on the right-hand side and then Restart on the screen, and adds that all of the ways out require the phone to restart completely.

The notification

Samsung US says you can also swipe down from the top of the screen, tap the notification that says Safe mode is on, and tap Turn off. Samsung New Zealand describes the same notification and says Turn Off on the prompt restarts the device. Engadget says to swipe down from the left side of the screen, find the notification saying the phone is in Safe Mode, and tap it for an option to turn Safe Mode off. Google’s Pixel article does not mention this notification.

Google’s Pixel steps

Pixel Phone Help’s article on finding problem apps gives the exit as its step 3. On a Pixel 5a and earlier, press and hold the Power button for about 30 seconds, or until your phone restarts. On a Pixel 6 and later, including the Fold, press and hold the Power button and the Volume up button for a few seconds, then tap Restart. The same article describes entering safe mode on the Pixel 6 and later by holding Power and Volume Up and then touching and holding the Power off or Restart button, and says you will see Safe mode at the bottom of the screen.

If it comes back, or will not leave

Samsung New Zealand lists three ways out and says all of them require the device to restart completely: hold Volume Down and Power for at least 5 seconds to force a restart, hold the Power button and select Restart, or use the notification. The same page says a phone may be in Safe Mode because the Menu button was touched while the phone was booting up, because the phone was not properly switched off, or because of unnecessary installed apps, which is Samsung’s own wording. Engadget makes a different point: holding the Power off icon in the power menu offers a Safe Mode option, so it is quick to select by mistake. Samsung New Zealand’s page carries an update date of 29 November 2021, so button names may have changed since. We did not test whether a force restart clears Safe mode on any phone.

What safe mode changed

Samsung US says that in Safe mode your device does not run any third-party apps, and that when you exit, some customization options, such as wallpapers and themes, may be reset to defaults. Pixel Phone Help adds two changes: safe mode removes some Home screen widgets, so it suggests a screenshot of them first, and airplane mode is turned on automatically when you enter it, which Google recommends turning off to use GPS, Wi-Fi and calls. Engadget says airplane mode may still be active after you leave safe mode, and that you can tell by the airplane icon in the status bar; swipe down from the right to Quick Settings and tap the plane icon. After exiting, Google says you can put back any removed widgets.

What it is for

Safe mode exists to find a bad app. Pixel Phone Help says some apps you download can cause problems, and that if the problem goes away in safe mode an app is likely the cause. It then says to remove recently downloaded apps one by one, restarting normally after each, and to reinstall the others afterwards. Samsung US likewise says to start by removing apps that were updated or installed when the problem started. For removing an app see uninstalling apps on Android; for a phone that is slow or whose apps keep stopping, fixing a slow Android phone and apps crashing on Android; and for the Windows meaning of the same words, safe mode on Windows.

What we did not use

We did not read the guides from a security software site, a parental-control help centre, a paid question service, a VPN provider and Quora that also cover the topic. We ran none of these steps on a phone, and button combinations differ by model: Pixel Phone Help separates the Pixel 5a and earlier from the Pixel 6 and later, and Samsung’s pages are for Galaxy phones.