How to boot into recovery mode using button combos, ADB, and root apps

Updated Jan 27, 2024

A senior evergreen reporter at XDA Developers serving up reviews, buying guides, deals, and more on laptops, PC hardware, and smartphones that you care about. He's been covering the computing and smartphone industry for over seven years now and has worked with various brands to establish an authority in the technology space. Before joining XDA Developers, Karthik was a senior reviewer at Digit, a popular tech magazine in India. You will likely find him yelling at his monitors while playing an online shooter in his free time.

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All smartphones — including the budget-friendly ones — have a built-in recovery mode, which you can use for a variety of tasks depending on the operating system of your device. On Android smartphones, it can be used for things like performing a simple factory reset, installing update packages, and clearing the cache, among other things. On aniPhone, the recovery mode is used to restore the device using your computer if it's experiencing issues like being stuck on the Apple logo while booting.

While the stock recovery that comes pre-installed on your device has limited features and functionality, there’s a lot more you can do with a custom recovery like TWRP for Android. The process of getting into the recovery mode in case of both stock as well as custom recovery remains the same, though, and there are a few ways you can boot into it.

How to boot into recovery using button combinations

For Android phones

This is the most common and the easiest way to boot into recovery on your smartphone as it doesn't need any additional tools or software. The process may differ slightly depending on your device manufacturer, but it should generally be the same. To enter the recovery mode on an Android phone:

Long press the power button (or power button + volume up in some phones).
Tap thePower off button or move the slider toPower off option.
Hold the volume down and power button simultaneously until you feel your phone's vibration or see the manufacturer's logo show up on the screen.
Some devices, including theSamsung Galaxy phones, will require you to hold the volume up and power button instead of the volume down. If your Samsung Galaxy phone has a Bixby button, then you must hold that down as well.

Once you are in the Recovery mode, you can use the volume buttons to navigate the menu options and press the power button to select. You won't see the same set of options in the Recovery menu of each phone, so don't go in expecting to see a barrage of menu items. Some phones like the ones sold by OnePlus only have a limited number of options, whereas Google'sPixel phones, for instance, have the option to enter fastboot, etc.

For Apple's iPhones

Apple iPhone 14 Pro Front Shot — Apple iPhone 14 Pro with widgets on screen

There are different ways to put youriPhone into recovery mode depending on the iPhone model you have.

iPhone 8 and newer models: Press the volume up button once and quickly release it, and repeat the same with the volume down button. Then quickly press and hold the Side button until you see the Recovery mode screen.
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: Press and hold thevolume down andpower buttons until you see the recovery screen.
iPhone 6s and below: Press and hold thehome andpowerbutton until you see the recovery screen.

You can use the Recovery mode on iPhones to update or restore it using Finder on thelatest Macs or iTunes on older Macs and all Windows machines.

How to boot into recovery using ADB

Another easy and reliable way to make your phone boot into recovery

If your smartphone’s physical buttons don’t work anymore, or you're unable to find the right combination or physically press the buttons, then you can access the recovery via ADB as well. You will need Minimal ADB and Fastboot on your PC or Mac to make this work. So if you don’t have it already, make sure youinstall ADB following these instructions for your computer OS.

Once ADB is installed, connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled inDeveloper Settings.
Head over to the folder where you have installed ADB. While holding the 'control' key on your keyboard, right-click on the ADB folder and selectOpen command window here orOpen PowerShell window here.
Next, type in the following command and hit enter to make sure your smartphone is properly connected. You'll see a string of numbers if it is connected properly.
```
adb devices
```
All you have to do now is type in the following command to make your phone reboot to recovery.
```
adb reboot recovery
```

How to boot into recovery using an app on rooted devices

Only applicable for rooted devices

If you have a rooted Android device, you can easily boot into recovery using apps likeRecovery Reboot. You just have to open the app and grant root access, following which you'll find the option to boot into recovery. Many custom ROMs also offer the option to boot directly into the recovery mode from within the power menu.

Closing thoughts

All of the methods mentioned above can be used to boot into recovery mode. Make sure you know what you’re doing while accessing the recovery on your smartphone since it can result in wiped internal storage if you reset your device by mistake or worse, a bricked device if you flash the wrong zip file. If you’re using a custom recovery, it’s always advisable to make a backup before making modifications to your device — especially when flashing a ROM when your phone is running low of power.

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