Android Won't Boot? Loop, Logo, Restart

This page is for someone holding an Android phone that will not settle down: it comes back up on its own, or it parks on the maker's logo and stays there. By the end you should be able to name the fault in front of you, work the order built for it, and stop at the ceiling of what a phone with no computer attached can do. It does not cover a forgotten password or an account you cannot sign back into.

Charging faults, swollen batteries, repair prices and backup apps have their own guides here, and nothing in this post is worth installing. What follows is diagnosis first, because a boot fault is read off what the phone shows you and how it behaves, not off what a stranger promises.

1. Which stuck are you: loop, logo or random restart

Google's own restart guidance splits this problem three ways, and the split is the whole trick, because the three have different repairs and different limits. Put your phone in one row before you try anything.

What you see	What it is	Start at
It reaches the wallpaper, an app or the lock screen, then restarts on its own, over and over	Startup is finishing and something knocks it back	Section 2
It never moves past the maker's logo, however long you leave it	Startup is not finishing at all	Section 3
It runs fine, then shuts down and comes back on its own during the day	Not startup. Read Section 5 first.	Section 5

One test separates the first two rows. A looping phone shows you something other than the logo before it goes again. A logo phone shows you nothing else. The wider order of Android fixes sits in our problems fix guide.

2. The loop ladder: force restart, then Safe Mode

Start with the hold that costs nothing. Hold Power and Volume Down together until the screen goes and then comes back, which takes 10 to 20 seconds, and it is how Samsung documents a forced restart on both its Power-button and Side-button phones. Nothing is erased.

1. Charge it first. Samsung's logo-screen troubleshooter says a battery under 5% may not bring the phone up after a restart, and a fully drained one needs at least 15 minutes on a Samsung charger.
2. Start the phone in Safe Mode, which boots with your downloaded apps switched off.
3. If Safe Mode behaves, remove the app you installed just before the loop began. Google and Samsung prescribe the same method: uninstall one at a time, restart normally after each, then put the innocent ones back. That is also the moment a malicious app gets caught, which is what our malware guide is for.
4. If Safe Mode misbehaves too, the loop is not an app. Go to Section 3.

Safe Mode has a catch on a phone that will not boot, and most guides skip it. The usual route runs through the power menu: open it, touch and hold Power off, then confirm. That needs a screen that responds. When the loop starts before the screen is usable, search your exact model plus safe mode, because Google states plainly that restarting into Safe Mode varies by phone and sends you to the manufacturer.

3. Frozen on the logo: the inspection ladder

A logo phone is not looping, it is stopped, so hardware inspection comes before software. Samsung's logo-screen troubleshooter, last updated 8 December 2025, is the most careful public checklist for this and it starts with the handset in your hand.

1. Look at the phone. Cracks, a round patch of dead pixels, and bent or corroded connectors in the charging port all point at hardware.
2. Check the liquid damage indicator. On newer Galaxy phones it sits inside the SIM tray slot. Pull the tray out with the ejector tool and look. White, or white with pink or purple crosses, is normal. Solid pink, purple or red means it has been wet, and you should stop and read our water damage guide instead.
3. Reseat the SIM. Line the card up with the smaller cutout, push it flush, slide the tray back in and power on.
4. Charge to at least 5%, then hold Volume Down with Power or Side for about 10 seconds and keep holding until the logo comes back.
5. If a Maintenance mode screen appears instead of the home screen, use the volume buttons to pick Normal Boot, then press Power or Side.

Still parked after that, Samsung's page goes to the manufacturer's own computer tool: install Smart Switch on a Mac or Windows PC, connect with the USB cable from the box, and use its Update option if one is offered. That is the ceiling for a fix with no computer. Past it the honest answer is a service centre.

4. The cache step exists on some phones and not others

Almost every version of this advice carries wipe the cache partition as a routine rung. On a lot of phones it is genuinely there. On current Galaxy flagships it is not, and the help page telling you to use it has not caught up.

Specialist press reported in February 2026 that on updated Galaxy S25-series handsets and the Z Fold 7, the Android recovery menu offers three entries and no more: Reboot system now, Wipe data or factory reset, and Power off. The reported reason is Android's A/B update system, which the S25 series brought to Samsung in full. A new build is written to the partition that is not running rather than over the live one, so the update itself does the housekeeping a manual cache wipe used to do. Samsung's own community carries threads titled Wipe cache partition gone from the recovery menu.

Your phone	What to expect on the recovery menu
Updated Galaxy S25 series, or Z Fold 7	Three entries only, no cache option. Stop looking for it.
Other Galaxy models	Samsung UK's own page still documents the option. Read your menu, not the help page.
Tecno, Infinix, Xiaomi, Pixel and most other brands	The option is normally still present. Menu contents move between builds, so confirm it on the handset.

How to reach recovery where the option does exist. Samsung UK's cache page, updated 5 June 2026, splits the hold by model family. A phone with a physical Home button, such as the S6 or S7, takes Volume Up, Home and Power together, releasing Power when you feel it vibrate. A phone with a separate Power button and no Home button, such as the S8, S9 or S10, takes Volume Up, Bixby and Power. A phone with neither, such as the Note 10, Fold or Z Flip, takes Volume Up and Side. Let go once it vibrates and the logo appears, then use the volume keys to select Wipe cache partition and press Power to confirm. On any other brand, search your model plus recovery mode for the exact hold.

A cache wipe clears temporary system files and leaves your photos, chats and installed apps alone. That makes it the cheapest rung here, which is why it is worth taking early whenever your menu still offers it.

5. Restarts at random are usually not a boot fault

A phone that runs for hours and then restarts for no reason has not failed to start. It started cleanly and something switched it off afterwards. Google treats that as its own case, and its causes are the three dull ones.

• Storage. Google's page says it outright: your phone can start having issues when less than 10% of storage is free. Our storage guide shows how to get under that ceiling.
• Accessories. Google tells you to take the case or any external battery pack off while you troubleshoot, and to make sure nothing covers a sensor or presses a button. A case wedged against a power key will restart a phone all day.
• Battery and heat. A worn battery or a hot phone shuts down and comes back on its own. Read the overheating guide and the battery guide first.

One warning from Google that saves money: if a downloaded app caused the fault, reinstalling that app brings it back. Leave the apps you removed off until the phone has behaved for several days.

6. Two dead ends worth naming

ClockworkMod recovery is not on your phone

The page ranking first for this question is an HONOR guide published 17 February 2025, and its fourth method is titled Fix Android Boot Loop with CWM Recovery. ClockworkMod is a third-party custom recovery that you flash onto a handset with a computer, replacing the stock one. It is not part of Android and it has never shipped on a phone. Android's own developer documentation says most devices leave the factory with a locked bootloader, meaning the user cannot flash partitions, and that reaching the bootloader tools needs Developer options enabled from a phone that boots. A phone stuck in a boot loop can do none of that. ClockworkMod's website now lists three unrelated products and no recovery, its project page points at an archived repository, and the newest ClockworkMod Recovery build in the XDA archive is version 6.0.5.1, posted 28 October 2015. Use the stock recovery menu your own phone already has.

Do not buy a boot loop repair

Paid boot loop fixer apps, one-click repair tools and rooting utilities all need something the same broken phone does not have: a booted system with Developer options on, an unlocked bootloader, or a working USB debugging session. The ceiling for a phone on its own is the stock recovery menu, the manufacturer's own computer tool where one exists, and after that a service centre.

7. Reset last, and only once the backup is real

Wipe data or factory reset is the last rung because it is the only one that costs you everything on the handset. Google's reset page sets the conditions before the steps.

• Know the Google Account username and password on the phone, and prove you can sign in to that account from another device first.
• Charge the phone to at least 70%. Google says a factory reset can take up to an hour.
• If you changed your Google password recently, wait 24 hours before resetting the phone. Google publishes that wait, and ignoring it locks you out of your own backup.
• Back up before you start, then confirm the backup by opening it. An unverified backup is not a backup.

Google also states the limit plainly: a reset replaces software. It does not repair a charging port, a battery that will not hold charge, a display that is going, or water inside the phone. If it restarts cleanly and then dies again on a full charge with the case off, no reset will reach it.

8. What is documented here, and what is not

Every step above comes from a first-party page, named with its date in the section that uses it, so you can check it against the phone in your hand: Google's Android Help for restarts, storage, Safe Mode and reset, and Samsung's own support pages for the logo inspection ladder and the recovery button holds.

Two things are deliberately missing. No loop was reproduced here, because a healthy handset cannot demonstrate a boot loop, so the button holds and menu contents come from vendor documentation rather than from watching a broken phone. And this site tests on one device, a Tecno Spark 40 running HiOS on Android 15, which makes the Tecno rows model guidance rather than a screenshot from that handset. HiOS builds move menus between versions, so if your recovery menu looks different from anything described here, your handset is the authority.

9. Questions readers ask

Will a factory reset fix a boot loop caused by hardware?

No. It replaces the software and leaves the hardware alone. A failing charging port, a battery that will not hold charge, water inside the phone or a damaged display are all still there afterwards, and you will have lost your data for nothing.

Where did wipe cache partition go on my Samsung?

On updated Galaxy S25-series handsets and the Z Fold 7 it has been reported missing since the February 2026 patch, while Samsung UK's help page, updated 5 June 2026, still tells readers to use it. Read your recovery menu rather than the help page. When the option is absent, the reset is what remains.

My phone keeps restarting after an update. Wait, or wipe?

If it boots and is only slow, wait it out, which our post-update guide covers. If it restarts before it settles at all, that is a loop and this page applies. Slowness and looping look alike on day one and have different repairs.