How to Start Your Android Phone in Safe Mode / How to Get Out of a Force Close Loop

I recently checked out a port of Samsung’s TouchWiz: the launcher that is featured on the Android powerhouse Samsung Galaxy S. The port, courtesy of xda-developer’s member rolle3k, is mainly intended for the Nexus One, although it worked fine on my HTC Desire as well. I loved the look of the icons in the app drawer – they were as stylish as in the hands-on videos of the Galaxy S that I’ve seen, but other than that I saw no reason to stop using LauncherPro.

A few days later, I tried another TouchWiz port available at the xda-developers – this time one that was made specifically for the HTC Desire. I won’t link to it here, because that .apk caused my very first Force Close Loop. A ‘force close loop’ is when an unstable application is involuntary closed by the system, and then it’s automatically launched again, then closed, and this goes on and on, and prevents you from accessing any of Android’s menus to kill the loop.

In my case, even rebooting my HTC Desire didn’t help, since the TouchWiz port was launched every time the phone was started. That’s when I turned to Google and learned about Android’s Safe Mode.

How to Start Your Android Phone in Safe Mode / How to Get Out of a Force Close Loop

HTC devices with hardware buttons:

• Turn off your Android device. Even though you’re stuck in a force close loop, you should be able to do it the normal way – if not, just remove the battery.
• Hold down the hardware Menu button on your phone.
• While pressing the Menu button, turn on your phone and keep holding down the Menu button until your phone has fully started.
• You should now see “Safe Mode” printed in the lower-left corner of your screen. When you’re in safe mode, no third-party apps are loaded, and you can easily uninstall the app that caused the force close loop by going to Settings > Applications > Manage applications.

Nexus One:

• Turn off your Nexus One. Remove the battery if you have to.
• Press the power button to start your phone, and just when the logo appears, press and hold the trackball. You should also be able to hold down the touch sensitive Menu button at this point, if you prefer that.
• Keep pressing until you see the lock screen, and you should now be in safe mode.

Motorola Droid:

• Turn off your Droid and slide open the hardware keyboard.
• Press both the power button and the Menu button on the keyboard at the same time.
• Keep holding the Menu key until you see the “Droid Eye”, and you feel your phone vibrate.
• Your Droid should start and say “Safe Mode” in the lower-left corner of the screen.