How to Boot Into Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Recovery Mode

A recovery is a separate bootable partition on your Android device that you can use to install system updates and repair (factory reset) your device. A lot more can be done using a custom recovery, but the stock recovery that comes pre-installed on your Android device is limited to these features only. And FYI, these features are integrated into the Android OS as well — when you chose to factory reset your device from device settings or install an OTA update, your device reboots and boots into the stock recovery to finish the job.

The stock recovery that comes pre-installed on your device doesn’t support touchscreen mechanism. You’ll have to use the Power and Volume buttons available on your device to select and navigate between options in the recovery.

There are multiple methods to boot your Galaxy S4 Mini in recovery mode. The most handy (and hardware coded) method is about pressing a combination of keys for a few seconds on your Galaxy S4 Mini. Others are software based, let’s have a look them below:

1) Boot into Galaxy S4 Mini Recovery Mode Using HARDWARE BUTTONS

This method is a fail-proof method that’ll always work for you, unless you’ve broken one of hardware keys. In such a case you’d be left with only the other two methods discussed below.

How to Boot Samsung Galaxy Devices to Recovery Mode

  • Power off your device and wait for 5-10 seconds until the device is fully switched off.
    └ This is completely optional. You can choose to keep the device switched On if you wish to
  • Press and hold  ‘Volume Up + Home + Power’ buttons together and release them as soon as you see the Galaxy S4 Mini logo on your phone’s screen.
  • Your phone will boot into recovery mode. Use Volume buttons to navigate Up and Down between options and use Power button to select an option in recovery.
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2) Boot into Galaxy S4 Mini Recovery Mode Using ADB

ADB stands for Android Debug Bridge, a tool used to send terminal commands to a Android device via a PC command line. ADB requires a bit of setup, but it gets the job done with much lesser effort than hardware buttons, so pretty useful in cases when you’ve to boot in recovery mode frequently. Also, if (for some reason) your hardware buttons aren’t working than this is a very good alternative to boot into recovery mode.

First off, DOWNLOAD ADB FILES →

And make sure you’ve proper drivers installed for your device. You can download driver from this page →

  • Extract the file (ADB files.zip) you downloaded from the link above to a separate folder on your computer
  • Prepare your phone
    • Enable developer options: Go to your phone’s Settings » select About phone » Scroll to the bottom and tap on “Build number” seven times to enable developer options
    • Enable USB Debugging: Open phone’s Settings » select Developer options » Tick the “USB debugging” checkbox (under Debugging section)
  • Connect your phone to PC with a USB cable and if/when a pop-up screen shows up on Phone asking you to ‘Allow USB debugging?‘ for the computer, make sure you tick the checkbox and tap OK
    Allow USB Debugging
  • Open the folder where you extracted the files and double-click/run the ‘Boot into Recovery Mode.bat‘ file to reboot your device into recovery mode
    └ If the script shows any error than that means either your device is not connected or you don’t have proper driver for your device installed on your PC. For help with driver, check this page →

FYI, the ‘Boot into Recovery Mode.bat‘ script file that we used above to boot your device into recovery mode just uses one line of command:

adb reboot recovery

If you already have ADB setup on your computer and you know how to use it, then you may just use the command given above to boot into recovery mode.

3) Boot into Galaxy S4 Mini Recovery Mode Using Quick Boot (Reboot) APP

Yes! There’s an app for rebooting your phone into recovery mode, and it’s the most easier of the methods we discussed above. But it won’t work unless you’ve root access on your device, and since not everyone roos their device, we’ve put this as the last method here.

ROOT ACCESS REQUIRED

  • Install the Quick Boot (Reboot) app from Play Store on your Galaxy S4 Mini  |  Play store link →
  • Open the app and grant Root Access
  • Select ‘Recovery‘ from the list of options and it’ll boot your device into recovery mode

That’s all.

Let us know in the comments below if you need any other help, we’d be happy to help.

Posted by
Shivam

Shivam is our resident designer and web developer who also enjoys writing. He loves to meditate, drive on the freeways and hunt for snipers during his Call Of Duty playtime. Email: shivam@theandroidsoul.com

16 Comments

  1. Replaced front screen and digitiser for a friends s4 mini gt19195 and phone won’t boot past splash screen. Tried the first option above and blue text of ‘recovery booting…’ appears top left corner of screen but it doesn’t progress past this stage.

    What would you recommend to fix this issue?

    1. Pls ignore I’ve sorted it.

    2. How did you solve it please

  2. Replaced front screen and digitiser for a friends s4 mini gt19195 and phone won’t boot past splash screen. Tried the first option above and blue text of ‘recovery booting…’ appears top left corner of screen but it doesn’t progress past this stage.

    What would you recommend to fix this issue?

    1. Pls ignore I’ve sorted it.

      1. bahaaforever@yahoo.com

        How did you solve it please

  3. Replaced front screen and digitiser for a friends s4 mini gt19195 and phone won’t boot past splash screen. Tried the first option above and blue text of ‘recovery booting…’ appears top left corner of screen but it doesn’t progress past this stage.

    What would you recommend to fix this issue?

    1. Pls ignore I’ve sorted it.

  4. You have missed an important point in Hardware keys recovery mode, we should release the power button but we shouldn’t release the home and volume up button until we see the recovery screen.

  5. You have missed an important point in Hardware keys recovery mode, we should release the power button but we shouldn’t release the home and volume up button until we see the recovery screen.

  6. You have missed an important point in Hardware keys recovery mode, we should release the power button but we shouldn’t release the home and volume up button until we see the recovery screen.

  7. every time i select recovery it goes to the screen wth command lines, and after that it just goes to a screen where all the pixels are in random colours

    please help

  8. every time i select recovery it goes to the screen wth command lines, and after that it just goes to a screen where all the pixels are in random colours

    please help

  9. every time i select recovery it goes to the screen wth command lines, and after that it just goes to a screen where all the pixels are in random colours

    please help

  10. Tried the recovery reboot & phone won’t do anything. It won’t even show the starting up screen.

  11. Tried the recovery reboot & phone won’t do anything. It won’t even show the starting up screen.

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