How to Turn Off Your Android Phone

If your Android phone is slowing down or completely frozen, restarting it can help restore proper functionality. Turning off a phone used to be as easy as pressing and holding the power button, but with recent updates – notably the release of Android 12 – that has changed slightly.

Here are five ways to turn off your Android phone using the hardware keys, system settings, and ADB commands.

Method 1: Turn off your phone using the power button

On older Android models, pressing and holding the power button opens the power off menu. Then just tap Switch off to turn off your phone.

However, starting with Android 12, pressing and holding the power button no longer opens the power off menu. Instead, either Google Assistant or Bixby Voice will be activated on Samsung devices.

To turn off your phone with the power button instead, you need to long-press both power wrench and the volume down Key to access the power menu.

Note: You can also use the hardware buttons to hard reset your phone in an emergency. To do this, press and hold the power button, volume down button and volume up button for a few seconds to put your phone into recovery mode. Choose from there Delete data / Factory settings reset Use the volume keys and make your selection with the power key.

Method 2: Turn off your Android phone using quick settings

Using the quick settings menu is another easy way to turn off or restart your Android device:

1. Swipe down once from the top of your home screen to access quick settings. You need to swipe down twice when you have your phone unlocked.
2. Press the power icon.

3. Beat Switch off.

Method 3: Shut down your Android using voice commands

If you have a Samsung device like a Samsung Galaxy, you can use Bixby to turn it off. First you need to set up Bixby Voice. Then press and hold the Bixby button (the old power button), wait for Bixby to wake up, say “Turn off phone,” and confirm your choice.

Apparently, Google Assistant will soon be able to turn off your phone via voice commands. However, it’s not clear if this will be exclusive to Google Pixel phones.

Method 4: Turn off your Android from the Accessibility menu

Designed for users with physical disabilities, the Accessibility or Assistants menu (on Samsung) provides a way to access hardware buttons with assistive touch options.

How to activate the assistant menu on a Samsung phone:

1. Open settings.
2. Scroll down and tap Accessibility.

3. Beat interaction and dexterity.

4. Turn those on assistant Menu.

On the home screen, tap the floating wizard icon, swipe left, and select Switch off Menu.

To enable the accessibility menu on a non-Samsung phone:

1. Go to settings.
2. Find Accessibility. Depending on the model, this can be found in one of the two Additional settings or system.

3. Tap the Accessibility Menu and turn it on.

You can then tap and select the floating accessibility icon Switch off Button.

Method 5: Turn off your Android using ADB commands

The Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a command line tool that developers can use to perform various functions. It is the most complicated method to turn off your phone, but it is a useful method when your phone suddenly becomes unresponsive.

Enable developer options and USB debugging

You need to enable developer options and USB debugging for your computer to recognize your Android device.

In addition:

1. Open settings.
2. Beat Via phone (You can find these under system on some models).

3. Beat software information.

4. Find build number and tap it seven times. Enter your PIN code when prompted. You should see a message that says “You are now a developer.”

5. go back to settings and scroll to the bottom of the page.
6. Beat developer options.

7. Switch USB debugging.

8. Press OK.

Setup ADB

The next step is to download the SDK Platform Tools. This command line software allows you to interact with your Android device. Once downloaded, extract the platform-tools folder from the archive using a file archiver such as WinRAR or 7-Zip File Manager.

When the SDK Platform tools are ready to use, follow these steps to turn off your phone:

1. Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable.
2. Open command prompt by pressing the Win Press and search for “Command Prompt”. If you are an Apple Mac user, use Terminal instead.

3. Next, you should change the Command Prompt directory to be in the same folder as the ADB program. To do this, you need to use the “cd” command followed by the location of the folder. For example:

cd C:\Users\WORK\Downloads\platform-tools

4. Type “adb devices” and press Enter to check if the ADB program has detected your Android device. If recognized, it will display your Android’s serial number. If not, try reconnecting the charger.

5. Type “adb shell reboot -p” and press Enter. For Terminal, type “.\adb shell reboot -p” and press Enter.

6. You should see a message that says “Done.”

Note: If your hardware keys don’t work, you won’t be able to turn on your phone with ADB commands after it’s turned off. Instead, use the “adb reboot” command to make sure it restarts.

fire it up again

After you have successfully shut down your phone, you can turn it back on by pressing and holding the Power button. Remember that if the power button doesn’t work, it’s impossible to turn your phone back on. In this case, you should restart your phone instead of turning it off.