What Is Repair Mode on Pixel Phones and How Does It Work?
After a long wait, Google finally introduced Repair Mode in Pixels with the2023 December Feature Drop. If you’ve given your phone for repair in the past, you may have been concerned about the repair technicians misusing your data, and that’s exactly what Repair Mode in Pixels aims to solve. In this guide, let’s talk in detail about what is Repair Mode on Pixels and how it works.
What is Repair Mode on Pixels?
Repair Mode is anAndroid 14 featurethat, when enabled, reboots your phone to a factory state, without any essential, sensitive apps like Messages or Banking apps. It’s also like Safe Mode on Android but you can neither see sensitive system apps nor installed apps.
Repair Mode is currently Pixel-exclusive and requires at least 2GB of free storage for you to be able to activate it. Also, if you own a supported Pixel device, you should have installed the December 2023 feature drop for the feature to show up.
How Does Repair Mode Work?
Repair Mode uses Android’s Dynamic System Updates. It creates a new partition on your device and uses it to boot into the system using the existing system image. Any changes made while in the Repair Mode like downloading files won’t be saved, and exiting the same will essentially delete the fresh partition and revert your Pixel to how it was.
If you didn’t get it, Repair Mode essentially “simulates” a factory reset, where the amount of internal storage is just enough for the system to boot. It’s like guest mode on Windows OS where the admin can control what apps a guest can use, whereas in this case, they’re pre-defined.
Points to Remember About Pixel’s Repair Mode
Pixel Devices with Repair Mode
As of now, Repair Mode is available on the following Pixel smartphones:
How to Enable Repair Mode on Pixel
How to Disable Repair Mode
All in all, Repair Mode is a great addition to Pixels because it gives users peace of mind when handing over their devices for repair, either in official or unofficial service places. What are your thoughts about Repair Mode on Google Pixel devices? Let us know in the comments section below.
Abubakar Mohammed
Abubakar covers Tech on Beebom. Hailing from a Computer Science background, the start of his love for Tech dates back to 2011, when he was gifted a Dell Inspiron 5100. When he’s not covering Tech, you’ll find him binge-watching anime and Tech content on YouTube, hunting heads in competitive FPS games, or exploring Teyvat in Genshin Impact. He has previously worked for leading publications such as Fossbytes, How-To Geek, and Android Police.
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