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When an Android device locks up, and does not respond to holding down the power button, is there anything you can do to reboot the device besides removing the battery?

What do you do if the battery is not removable?

Although it does not always work, Windows has the three finger salute (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) which helps get around this situation. Is there anything similar in Android?

I did find this question, but it does not refer to a device that is frozen.

Community
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End Anti-Semitic Hate
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  • If your device is frozen by a software glitch, and unresponsive to any button presses, and the battery cannot be removed, all you can do is wait for the battery to exhaust. This will release the lock when the device dies for lack of power. Plug in and power up the battery to restart. – wbogacz Jun 07 '15 at 00:33
  • @wbogacz Wow! It's amazing how many devices don't have removable batteries. With the screen off, the battery can stay charged for days, sometimes even over a week. Not being able to use the device as one waits for the battery to discharge is really bad design. I generally tell people to avoid buying any device without a removable battery. Based on your comment, I think it would be good if that advice was more widespread. – End Anti-Semitic Hate Jun 07 '15 at 00:46
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    if the device has enabled Wifi, but you are aware of a wifi that it has not connected to, you might hurry the battery to exhaustion by having it scan Wifi repeatedly in that new area. In my house, I can guarantee mine will try to scan and connect to my neighbor's protected wifi, if I place it on that side of the house. – wbogacz Jun 07 '15 at 00:51

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Different Android devices may have different force-reboot methods, so you should refer to your device’s documentation. To reboot frozen device you should usually press and hold the Power button + Volume Down button (or Volume Up button - it depends on device) for at least 7~10 seconds and stop holding those buttons once it’s started the reboot process. You could try to press and hold just the Power button itself for at least 30~45 seconds.

jis
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If you want to reboot your system without using the power button (the power button hold down trick doesn't work on some devices) then you can use Alt + Print Screen and type REISUB on a USB keyboard (connected with OTG cable / converter) since Android uses the Linux kernel. This should work if you Android has not kernel panicked

Connect USB keyboard via OTG (I could not test a Bluetooth keyboard)

Press down the ALT and Print Screen keys on the keyboard

Type REISUB. Your phone / tablet should reboot

Tested on Nexus 9 running Marshmallow (should work on phones too)

Suici Doga
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Try holding Power + Volume up button.. might help

MindingMyBusiness
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