Galaxy S10 stuck in safe mode

Tbone Johnson · Feb 11, 2020

My mom has an S10 that was having issues (kept rebooting itself) so she took it to an ATT store. They told here they don't work on them anymore and to go to Best Buy. Best buy then told her to go to one of these (you break it we fix it) type places. That guy then proceeded to do what I am guessing is a factory restore. So when he did this it got to the part where she needed to log into her Gmail linked account to which she doesn't have the password for anymore. So now the phone is stuck on the "Let's Go" start page in safe mode and won't get passed anything until the password for the Gmail account is entered. We are currently waiting for Google to get back to use regarding retrieving the password but not sure how long that will take. In the meantime she had an old S6 that I put the sim in and she's good. My question is this: is there any way to get this phone out of this mode in order for me to just get the photos off of it so I can then maybe do a complete factory restore wiping everything out? Or is there a way to get the photos off in the mode it is currently in? I can't see where it is possible short of rooting it and that is something I would rather not get in to.

James L · Feb 11, 2020

Tbone Johnson said:
My mom has an S10 that was having issues (kept rebooting itself) so she took it to an ATT store. They told here they don't work on them anymore and to go to Best Buy. Best buy then told her to go to one of these (you break it we fix it) type places. That guy then proceeded to do what I am guessing is a factory restore. So when he did this it got to the part where she needed to log into her Gmail linked account to which she doesn't have the password for anymore. So now the phone is stuck on the "Let's Go" start page in safe mode and won't get passed anything until the password for the Gmail account is entered. We are currently waiting for Google to get back to use regarding retrieving the password but not sure how long that will take. In the meantime she had an old S6 that I put the sim in and she's good. My question is this: is there any way to get this phone out of this mode in order for me to just get the photos off of it so I can then maybe do a complete factory restore wiping everything out? Or is there a way to get the photos off in the mode it is currently in? I can't see where it is possible short of rooting it and that is something I would rather not get in to.

Did you use Google photos?

Tbone Johnson · Feb 11, 2020

James L said:
Did you use Google photos?

No she did not as she barely knows how to use the phone.

James L · Feb 11, 2020

Tbone Johnson said:
No she did not as she barely knows how to use the phone.

Unless the pictures were backed up to a cloud such as Google photos or a micro SD card i would think the chances of recovering pictures are slim.

Samsung may have some kind of a photo backup, not sure.

James L · Feb 11, 2020

Sounds like the tech flashed firmware. Ask him/ her which CSC file they used if they did a firmware flash if it wasn't the home csc file everything has been wiped.

svim · Feb 11, 2020

There's some clarification that would help determining just what state this phone is stuck in. If this service guy did a Factory Reset, and he didn't back up her data first, than it her stuff has been wiped. If he flashed a clean, stock Samsung ROM however, that would have installed a fresh install of the Android operating system but should have left her data as is.
In any case he didn't do you any favors without a) backing up your data or confirming that you had a good backup and b) making sure he knew info like the account password before he did one or the other. It's after the fact at this point but call that service shop back, ask to speak to the owner/manager, and file a complaint.
But whether it is stuck in Safe Mode (which normally you should just restart the phone normally to get out of) or its regular boot up state, it sounds like you just need to wait until you get that password issue resolved.

... and just for your future reference, her Samsung devices can be rebooted into different modes for varying maintenance tasks (the button combinations are pretty much the same across the entire line so this applies to her S6 too).
Safe Mode
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-s10-plus-exynos/safe-mode/
Recovery Mode
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-s10-plus-exynos/recovery-mode/
Download Mode
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-s10-plus-exynos/download-mode/

svim · Feb 11, 2020

Also, since it appears as if you're Mom's de facto tech support, install Samsung's Smart Switch utility on a computer. It's a catch-all utility for maintenance tasks and one of its functions is to do phone backups. Use it to do full backups of her phones on a regular basis, it will make doing a restore a lot less of a hassle if a situation like this should occur again. Basically, backups are important.
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/app/smart-switch

Tbone Johnson · Feb 12, 2020

I appreciate all of your replies. This morning Google actually emailed me and allowed for a password reset for the Gmail account. I have since done so and have been able to log in and proceed. It is now restoring everything so I think we're good. I had initially posted here for ideas on a plan b in case Google did not come through. Thank you all again for the replies.

Galaxy S10 stuck in safe mode

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