How to Boot the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T into Recovery Mode

If you ever need to boot into Fastboot Mode, clear cache or install from ADB, then let me show you how to boot the OnePlus 3 into Recovery Mode.

There are a number of reasons why someone would need to boot into the OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode. You can wipe the cache partition from here, you can install an update from ADB, you can do a factory reset and you can reboot into Fastboot Mode. Today though, I’m just going to show you how to get into Recovery Mode.

In future tutorials, I’ll link back to this tutorial because, for example, installing an update from ADB requires that you boot into Recovery Mode first.

So hopefully this tutorial will be a good starting point for when it comes to learning about the OnePlus 3 and what you can do with it. There are also a couple of ways that you can boot into the OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode. I’m going to describe one method in the step by step guide down below, but I’ll talk about the second method in the explanation at the bottom of the page. I will also be showing off both methods in the video embedded below as well.

There’s even a 3rd method of booting into the OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode (via ADB & Fastboot tools), but I won’t be talking about that here since it requires additional setup.If you’re familiar with those tools though, then you won’t have any problem using them with the OnePlus 3.

OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode

1. Power Down the OnePlus 3
2. When Completely Off, Press and Hold the Power Button and Volume Down Buttons at the Same Time
3. Continue Holding These Two Buttons Past the OnePlus/Android Splash Screen
4. When You Boot into Recovery Mode, Let Go of These Two Buttons
5. Tap on the English Option
6. Or Press the Volume Down Button Twice to Highlight the English Option
7. And Then Press the Power Button

Explanation

So, just like with the regular special boot modes for Android, we first need to power down the OnePlus 3. One the device is completely shut off, you’ll then want to press and hold the Power button as well as the Volume Down button at the same time. You should continue holding both of these buttons down until after the OnePlus and Android splash screens. Don’t let these two buttons go until you get to the language selection screen.

Once you see that language selection screen, quickly let go of both of these buttons and that’s it. As you can tell from the video above, unless you let them go quick enough (or at the same time), then you will likely select a non-English language. If you did this, no need to panic, simply tap on the right capacitive button and that will take you back to the language selection screen. This right capacitive button is the back button for the OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode menu. From here, you can either navigate the menu with the Volume Up, Volume Down and Power buttons (like most Android smartphone Recovery Mode menus), or you can actually tap on the options.

Alternatively, you can also boot into the OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode directly from the software (without having to press and hold a combination of buttons during the boot process). This is the method I prefer, and you will do this by enabling Developer Mode on the OnePlus 3. Once that has been enabled, simply launch the Settings application, scroll down and tap on the Developer Options option and then enable the Advanced Reboot toggle.

With this feature toggled on, you can then press and hold the Power button (while still in the Android OS) to bring up the typical power menu. From here, you’ll want to tap on the Reboot option and then here you’ll see an option to reboot into the OnePlus 3 Recovery Mode. Simply tap on that option and then confirm this is what you want to do by tapping on the OK button. Your OnePlus 3 will start to reboot and without you even needing to touch the Power or Volume Down buttons, it will boot you directly int Recovery Mode.