How To Boot Samsung Galaxy Devices Into Recovery & Download Mode

Download Mode and Recovery Mode are two popular terms among Android users. You must have heard about them a lot but you may not be very familiar what these modes actually do and how to get into them. So before going to explain you a step by step guide how to boot any Samsung Galaxy into Download Mode or Recovery Mode, I will quickly explain to you what are these modes.

Download Mode – This is also known as Odin Mode. If you haven’t heard about Odin before, it is a light tool that helps you to install the stock firmware, bootloaders, and many other files. The tool to do this on Samsung devices is named Odin and the mode you have to put the phone to allow Odin to flash the files. To clarify things; Odin is a program for computers. Basically, you can use Odin to flash files from your PC. If you want to flash files right from your phone you will need a Custom Recovery and boot your phone into Recovery Mode.

Recovery Mode – There are two types of recoveries. The one that is installed by default on every phone and Custom Recovery that is made from developers. The difference between the stock and the custom recovery is that the second one allows you to perform much more action that you can actually do using the stock recovery. Basically, the stock recovery allows you to do simply some basic operations such as wipe data, cache, factory reset the phone and that’s all. While the Custom Recovery allows you to do much more. It lets you flash different files such as Custom ROMs, Mods and other zip files that will tweak the device settings. Also, via recovery, you can make a Nandroid backup and restore it later.

Usually, we use these modes when we want to make changes to the software with or without our likings. Sometimes it can happen the software crashes and the phone can’t boot up normally. So in this case, we have to choices either to boot into download mode and install a stock firmware or boot into recovery, if you have installed one, and flash a custom ROM or restore Nandroid backup.

In short, this is all you need to know about what these modes are so let’s go further and learn how to boot Samsung Galaxy devices into Download Mode and Recovery Mode.

How to boot Galaxy devices into Download Mode

There are two different type of Galaxy Devices, the Galaxy series such as Galaxy S, Galaxy A, Galaxy J etc. All these devices have the same procedure to boot into download mode. All you have to do is follow the steps below:

• Turn off your device.
• Press and hold at the same time Power Key + Home + Volume Button.
• A warning will appear on the screen telling you to press the Volume Up to continue.
• The phone will boot into Download Mode.

Galaxy Tab Devices

Here’s how to boot the Galaxy Tab devices into Download Mode.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold Power Key + Volume Down.
• You should see a message asking you to press Volume Up to continue.

Galaxy S2 Sky Rocket and similar variants like AT&T

• Turn of the device.
• Press and hold at the same time Volume Up + Volume Down keys.
• While holding these two buttons connect the device to computer using an USB cable and use.
• Do not release the buttons until the device vibrates and asks you to press Volume Up to continue.

ADB & Fastboot guide to boot Galaxy devices into Download Mode

If none of the above methods don’t work for your Galaxy device, there is another option but it requires a bit more work and some time. Here’s how to do it:

1. Install ADB and Fastboot drivers on your PC.
2. Enable USB Debugging on your device but first, you must enable Developer Options. If you don’t know how to do it check this guide.
3. Now connect your device to the computer and allow debugging when it asks for the access.
4. Now open the fastboot folder and press and hold the shift key on the keyboard and right click on any empty area on the fastboot folder.
5. Select “Open Command Prompt/Window here” 
6. On the window that will appear type the following code: adb reboot download
7. Press Enter and your Galaxy device will boot into download mode.

How to boot Galaxy Devices into Recovery Mode

This method works for most of the Samsung Galaxy devices.

• Turn off your phone completely.
• Press and hold Volume Up + Home + Power Button at the same time.
• The device should boot into recovery mode now no matter if it’s the default recovery or a custom one.

For few other devices, the above method might now work. If it doesn’t follow these steps:

• Turn off the phone and then press and hold at the same time Volume Up + Power Button. 
• Once you see the Galaxy logo, release the buttons and the device should boot into recovery mode.

Universal guide using ADB and Fastboot.

This method will work fine on every Galaxy device but it needs a little work. So I would recommend try one of the methods above and if they don’t work then try this one.

This method involves giving commands to the phone using your computer. For this method to work you should have Adb and fastboot installed and configured properly on your computer.

• Enable USB Debugging. First, you need to enable Developer Options. Here’s how to do it.
• Connect your device to computer using an original USB cable.
• Allow debugging when it prompts on your phone.
• Now open the fastboot folder and while holding the shift key right-click on an empty space on the folder.
• Click on “Open Comand Prompt here”
• A Command Prompt Window will open.
• Type the following code: abd reboot recovery
• Press Enter and the phone should boot into recovery.

Note: If you want to use the ADB & Fastboot method you should install USB drivers on your computer.

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