SAFE MODE on Droid RAZR & RAZR MAXX...yep, it's a winner!

[FoxKat]

SAFE MODE FOR THE RAZR AND RAZR MAXX!

Note: this MAY ALSO work for the coming DROID RAZR 4!! If anyone with that phone once released can confirm, it would be appreciated!

For all who may not already know this, there is ONE more way EVERYONE should try first to troubleshoot problems before you give up all your beautiful apps and personal settings to the System Restore GODS.

To boot into Safe Mode;

1. Power down the phone by hitting and holding Power,
2. Select "Power Off" from the pop-up menu,
3. Wait for the phone to completely shut off, first you'll feel a short vibration, and then the screen will be black and all lights will go out.
4. Now that the phone is completely off, hit the power button to power up again, but be ready...
5. Once you see the RED Motorola "M" Circle logo, press and hold BOTH Volume buttons, and don't let go!!
6. Wait until you see the home screen and the transparent words "Safe Mode" in the bottom left corner of the screen,
7. Now release the Volume buttons.

Now the phone is essentially running a Stock Android straight from the Flash ROM, and there will be NO User-installed apps running or available to bugger up the system. All apps that show in your app tray will be those which were Factory Installed or installed as part of the most recent Over The Air (OTA) update you've installed. Of course, in the case of those who installed either leaked ROMs or custom ROMs, this will NOT take you back to a Stock Android, but instead back to the leaked or custom ROM, but will be ONLY that ROM and NO user-installed apps.

It's so encompassing of a clean boot that even if you go into the Market, you'll see your apps showing as installed, but the "Open" button will not be there at all.

If whatever problem you were having is gone while in Safe Mode, it's almost certain that it was a user-installed app that's causing the problem. Then it's just a matter of a process of elimination, and you should start with the most recently installed app and work backwards - one app at a time until the problem disappears. Whatever app you last uninstalled is then most likely the culprit.

To get back to a normal boot, simply shut down and restart.

Good Luck with another troubleshooting tool!!

:icon_ lala:

 

[SallyC]

Very cool!! Thanks!

 

[FoxKat]

Very cool!! Thanks!

Thought you'd get a kick out of that one! Anyway, you're really barking up my heels with solutions for others. I'm going to have to start trying even harder! LOL!

 

[equake]

Excellent tip. Should be stickied. I hope not to use this but with these random reboots it might be useful

 

[djspy]

Interesting, I tried safe mode to see if this problem persisted (http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-razr-support/186488-adjusting-call-volume-problem.html) and it's gone in Safe mode and for the time being seems to be working again in regular mode.

 

[SallyC]

Thought you'd get a kick out of that one! Anyway, you're really barking up my heels with solutions for others. I'm going to have to start trying even harder! LOL!

Haha. I wish I knew half of what you do. THEN you'd have to try harder.

 

[FoxKat]

Haha. I wish I knew half of what you do. THEN you'd have to try harder.

Any time you want to start a tech support company, give me a call. You'll be my lead technician! :rating10:

 

[FoxKat]

Interesting, I tried safe mode to see if this problem persisted (http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-razr-support/186488-adjusting-call-volume-problem.html) and it's gone in Safe mode and for the time being seems to be working again in regular mode.

Well, interesting is an understatement. I wonder how many more "strange" problems will simply go away due to this method of troubleshooting? Perhaps one of the following Moderators could stickie this to the top of the list.

• Quicksilver7714
• rck76
• Venomhatch
• jntdroid

 

[thaDroidz]

just wondering about frozen or removed apps, are they back in safe mode?

 

[equake]

Well, interesting is an understatement. I wonder how many more "strange" problems will simply go away due to this method of troubleshooting? Perhaps one of the following Moderators could stickie this to the top of the list.

• Quicksilver7714
• rck76
• Venomhatch
• jntdroid

Good luck trying to get a hold of Venom, he's camped out on Razrforums lol. There is way to many of these forums and let alone these Motophones. Googorola should have just sold these phones at 10 bucks a piece and destroy all remenants of apple :biggrin:.


My 2 cents.

 

[SallyC]

Good luck trying to get a hold of Venom, he's camped out on Razrforums lol. There is way to many of these forums and let alone these Motophones. Googorola should have just sold these phones at 10 bucks a piece and destroy all remenants of apple :biggrin:.


My 2 cents.

Yeah but droidforums.net is the best! DancingNexus

My only gripe is I usually access the forums using TapaTalk and I can't "Like" a post using it. I looked into another app and it was the same. I think the mods are looking into fixing that, but I'm not sure how well it's going. So if anyone can like from the phone, tell me how. Otherwise I'll keep trying to remember to come back using my pc for that.

 

[SallyC]

Well, interesting is an understatement. I wonder how many more "strange" problems will simply go away due to this method of troubleshooting? Perhaps one of the following Moderators could stickie this to the top of the list.

• Quicksilver7714
• rck76
• Venomhatch
• jntdroid

Yes, this would be a good sticki. It's not documented in the manual and will really help in troubleshooting.

 

[Nealius]

I believe I entered safe mode on my nexus before I was rooted. I can't do it now tho. Maybe a stock nexus could try this to confirm.

Sent from my GummyNex'd Galaxy Nexus!

 

[FoxKat]

just wondering about frozen or removed apps, are they back in safe mode?

Good question, and I believe the answer is Yes, however I am testing now.

Update: Hidden apps remain hidden but still accessible through the Menu button while in the app tray. I don't know about removed apps for sure, but if you've deleted them from the phone, there would be no way I know of for them to suddenly reappear since the APK would not be included in the ROM, at least that's what I believe.

Another interesting development with Safe Mode though, is that even though the user-installed apps and widgets don't appear in the Home Screen or the app tray and don't start as services in the background, they are still visible in the Settings, Applications, Manage section. I find that quite interesting.

Another thing I discovered while in Safe Mode is that two widgets I run while in normal mode, and only run under LauncherPro are 3D Flip Clock & Calendar, and Circle Battery. Ironically, both of those widgets showed as running services and I was able to select "Stop" on their manage screens, yet the actual widgets were not displaying and are not available as a selection in the Widgets menu. I wonder how they got past the Safe Mode boot process. I suppose that when in Safe Mode, one should also go into Running Services and kill any known 3rd party widgets.

Another update. I rebooted, to allow the widgets to restart, and then rebooted again into Safe Mode. Sure enough, the two widgets, 3D Flip Clock & Calendar and Circle Battery were running as services. They were however the only 3rd party services I found running. So, we have yet another angle to troubleshoot with.

 

[FoxKat]

Yeah but droidforums.net is the best! DancingNexus

My only gripe is I usually access the forums using TapaTalk and I can't "Like" a post using it. I looked into another app and it was the same. I think the mods are looking into fixing that, but I'm not sure how well it's going. So if anyone can like from the phone, tell me how. Otherwise I'll keep trying to remember to come back using my pc for that.

I agree, +1 for Like in DroidForums app too! That and a few other minor tweaks, such as simleys and the DroidForums app would be perfect.