How to turn on a cell phone WITHOUT the power button

There are several ways to turn on a cell phone without the power button. And also multiple solutions to be able to turn the screen on and off without this button, and generally live without it.

An Android cell phone can be turned on by the computer, with a specific combination of buttons or even by command line. Once on, you can set the volume button as a replacement for the power button, and use apps to control the screen on and off.

How to turn on a cell phone without the power button

Press the INTERNAL power button

If the button itself is missing or has fallen off, you can probably turn the phone on simply by inserting a toothpick into the hole in the hole (VERY CAREFULLY). It is inside where the real button is. If for some reason you do not have access, you can also try to disassemble the cell phone. On the website ifixit.com They have excellent step-by-step teardown guides.

Power on with PC

Connect the cell phone to the computer with the USB cable. Some devices can be turned on in this way.

If it does not turn on by itself, while you connect it to the PC, press and hold the volume down button until you see a boot menu that allows you to turn it on. In other models it can work by holding the volume down and home button. In the case of modern Samsung Galaxy cell phones, use the volume up button and the Bixby button, How do you tell us on this page?.

Start from recovery or fastboot

Try to enter recovery or fastboot mode (or download mode on Samsung devices). These are special boot modes of the cell phone, from where you can select the option to restart the phone.

Entering any of these modes requires pressing a specific button combination (including the power button). However, in some cell phones it is possible to access it without using the power button. You can find out in Google how to access these modes on your cell phone. A page that also offers this information is hardreset.info.

Command line restart

An Android cell phone can also be restarted without the power button, by sending a text command from the PC. However, it is usually required that the mobile is turned on or in the fastboot mode indicated above. In the first case, the command adb reboot, and in the second case fastboot reboot. This is done from the ADB and Fastboot program.

How to live without the power button

Once you have managed to turn on the cell phone, check if it has a “Scheduled power on” option and activate it. This option will automatically turn on the cell phone at a certain time, in case it is accidentally turned off. You just have to make sure that the cell phone is charged when that time comes.

A more effective solution is to remap the volume button to function as a power button. Basically you have to modify a file of the Android system where this operation is established. The disadvantage of this method is that you must have root permissions on the cell phone to be able to do it. You can read exactly how it’s done in this XDA forum.

For the day to day, that is, for turn the screen on and off without button, you can use an app. There are several to control this automatically, every time you drink or stop using the cell phone. One of the best and most complete is Gravity Screen. A simpler alternative is Screebl. You can also try other apps that handle screen shutdown and lock using a shortcut.