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This wikiHow teaches you how to restart an Android phone or tablet. You can generally restart your phone or tablet by pressing and holding the Power button on the side. If your phone or tablet is frozen and unresponsive, you can do a forced shutdown. If the power button on your phone or tablet is broken, you can use an app to remap the Power button to a different button on your phone or tablet.
Steps
Method 1
Method 1 of 3:Performing a Standard Restart
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1Press and hold the power button. It's usually on the right side of your phone or tablet, but you may find it on the top of some models. Press and hold the power button until the Power Menu appears.
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2Tap Restart. It's the green button in the center of the screen. This option will shutdown your Android and immediately restart it.
- Alternatively, you can tap Shut Down to completely turn off your phone or tablet.
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3Tap Restart again. This confirms that you want to reboot your phone or tablet. Your phone or tablet will power off and then power back on.
- If you perform a shutdown instead of restart, press and hold the power button to reboot your Android.
Method 2
Method 2 of 3:Performing a Forced Shutdown
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1Press and hold the Power button and Volume Down button. If your phone or tablet is frozen or non-responsive, you can perform a forced shut down to reboot it. To do so, press and hold the Power button, and the Volume Down button. Hold them for about 5 seconds or so until your Android shuts off completely. The Power button is usually on the right side of the phone or tablet, but you'll find it on the top of some models. on some phones and tablets, it may be on the top-right of the phone or tablet. The Volume buttons are generally on the left side, though on some models they are on the right.
- On Motorola models, press and hold the Power button and Volume Up instead.[1]
- On older model Androids, you can do this by simply removing the battery from the back and reinserting it.
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2Press the Power button. To power your phone or tablet back on again, simply press the power button to restart it.
Method 3
Method 3 of 3:Using Remap Buttons and Gestures
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1Download and install Remap Buttons and Gestures. If your power button is broken, you can use this app to remap another button, such as a volume button, as the power button. Use the following steps to download and install Remap Buttons and Gestures:
- Open the Google Play Store.
- Type "Remap Buttons and Gestures" in the search bar.
- Tap Remap Buttons and Gestures
- Tap Install below the Remap Buttons and Gestures banner.
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2Open Remap Buttons and Gestures. It has a blue icon with a checkmark on it.
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3Tap Ok to open the Accessibility Service Settings menu. The first time you open the app, you will be notified that certain services in the Accessibility menu need to be turned on for the app to work.
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4Tap any of the services that need to be turned on. You don't need to turn on all the services in order to remap the power button, but you should turn on all the services related to your buttons.
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5
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6Tap Allow. This allows the app to have access to the specific service.
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7
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8Activate any additional services. If you still need to enable services, continue to tap the services listed and then tap the toggle switch to activate them. If you don't want to activate any more services, navigate back to the main menu of the Remap Buttons and Gestures app.
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9Tap a button you wish to remap. This can be one of the volume buttons, the fingerprint sensor, the other side button, a gesture, or another button.
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10Tap Customize below "Action". This allows you to select a new action for the button.
- You can also tap Customize below "Action - on-screen lock" to remap the buttons while the lock screen is active.
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11Tap Single tap, Double tap, or Long Press. This selects what type of button tap you want to remap. Select Single tap for one press. Select Double tap to assign an action to double tabs of the button. Select Long Press to assign an action to press and hold.
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12Tap the Settings tab. It's at the top of the screen.
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13Tap Power Menu. This assigns the Power Menu to the button you selected.
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14Press the button you assigned the Power Menu to. It should now display the power menu instead of whatever the previous action was.
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15Tap Restart. It's the green button in the center of the screen. This option will shutdown your Android phone or tablet and immediately restart it.
- Alternatively, you can tap Shut Down to completely turn off your phone or tablet.
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16Tap Restart again. This confirms that you want to reboot your phone or tablet. Your phone or tablet will power off and then power back on.
- If you perform a shutdown instead of restart, press and hold the power button to reboot your phone or tablet.
Community Q&A
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QuestionMy phone won't shut down and the screen is locked. What should I do?
Community AnswerFor Android, press your power button for 20 seconds. For Apple, press the home and power buttons for around 20 seconds. These will initiate emergency shutdown.
About This Article
1. Press and hold the power button.
2. Tap Reboot or Restart.
3. Tap OK.






























































