How to Force Restart an Android Phone

The screen is frozen, the phone will not respond to taps, or the power menu never appears. A force restart cuts power at the hardware level and boots the phone fresh. Nothing on the phone is erased.

Try a normal restart first

Hold the Power button until the power menu appears, then tap Restart. On Pixel phones, a long press of Power may open the assistant instead; press Power and Volume Up together to get the menu. On Samsung, press the Side button and Volume Down together and hold for a second or two until the menu appears.

Hold Power for about 30 seconds

If the screen is frozen, press and hold the Power button and keep holding. On a Pixel, hold for about 30 seconds. Ignore anything that appears on screen and do not let go until the phone vibrates and the screen goes black.

Hold Power and Volume Down on phones where Power alone opens the assistant

On Samsung phones, press and hold the Side button and Volume Down together for about 7 seconds. Other brands that map a long Power press to an assistant usually use the same combination; hold for 10 to 30 seconds until the phone vibrates.

Wait for the logo, then release

When the phone vibrates and the manufacturer logo appears, release the buttons. The phone boots normally. If it comes back to the same frozen state, repeat the process once; if it freezes again, the cause is likely a specific app, a bad update, or a battery that is nearly empty.

Your data is safe. A force restart is the same as pulling the battery on an older phone. It does not reset the phone, sign you out, or delete anything. It only discards whatever was in memory at the moment, so unsaved work in an open app is lost.

If the phone will not turn on at all. A dead battery looks the same as a freeze: black screen, no response. Plug the phone into a charger you know works and leave it for 15 minutes before trying the button hold again. A fully drained battery can take a few minutes before the charging icon appears.