Android has a few special boot modes that offer a number of features and this tutorial shows you how to boot the Essential Phone into Recovery Mode.
I have been walking you through the basics of the Essential Phone as of late and today I’ll be showing you yet another. People familiar with Android devices may have heard of Recovery Mode already. Recovery Mode is a way to prevent the device from booting into Android. Instead, booting into Recovery Mode allows you to do a number of basic tasks that can work even if you don’t have the Android operating system installed at all.
This special boot mode is almost always used for performing a factory reset when you can no longer boot into Android.
Whether this is due to a bad update that causes issues or a root modification that made the device go into a bootloop. As long as you have the stock recovery image (or a custom recovery installed) then you can boot the Essential Phone into Recovery Mode and perform a factory reset so that you can begin using your device again.
However, there are some other features included in Recovery Mode (even just stock recovery) that you may end up using it for.
How to Boot the Essential Phone into Recovery Mode
- Power down the Essential Phone
- Wait until it has completely shut down
- Boot the Essential Phone into Fastboot Mode
- Press the Volume Up or Volume Down button until you highlight the Recovery option
- Press the Power button to select this option
- Wait until the phone boots to the Recovery Mode splash screen
- Then press and hold the Power button and immediately press the Volume Up button afterwards
- Once taken to the Recovery Mode menu, let go of these two buttons
Explanation
Step 7 of this guide can be a bit tricky to get the timing down properly. Even today, I have booted dozens of devices into Android’s Recovery Mode and there are still times when I miss the timing and have to try it again until I get it right. I’m not sure why Recovery Mode still has this splash screen to prevent you from accessing the actual menu, but it is one of those things that you should definitely know about just in case you can no longer boot into the Android OS.
The first thing we need to do is to power down the Essential Phone. We can do this by pressing and holding the Power button for a few seconds to bring up the Power Menu and then tapping the Power Off option when it appears. Then you’ll need to wait until the device has completely shut down (should only take a few seconds really) and then we can boot it up into Fastboot Mode. Simply follow the link for Step 3 above if you’re not sure how to do this.
Once you are in Fastboot Mode, we want to press the Volume Up or Volume Down button until the Recovery Mode option is highlighted at the top of the screen. Then we just need to press the Power button to select this option and the device will reboot again. This time though, we’ll be taken to a splash screen for the Essential Phone Recovery Mode. If you do nothing here then it will eventually reboot back into Android, but there’s a way to bypass this screen.
You’ll want to press and hold the Power button and as soon as you press the Power button you will want to press the Volume Up button. If done properly, you’ll instantly be taken to the Recovery Mode menu on the Essential Phone. If not, then you got the timing wrong and you’ll want to try it again. Just like with Fastboot Mode, you will need to use the hardware buttons to navigate through this menu and pick whichever mode is highlighted.
If you just want to get out of Recovery Mode then highlight the Reboot System Now option before pressing the Power button and you’ll be taken back into the Android operating system.
