Google plans to bring repair mode to all Android devices: details

Samsung recently introduced a new feature called Maintenance Mode for its Galaxy devices. This mode can be used by the owner of the device and is activated before handing over the device to a service technician at a service center. Samsung’s Maintenance Mode basically creates a new user profile, with the main user’s data being locked once the mode is activated. Samsung came up with this feature so that users don’t have to backup and reset their smartphones when handing them over for service. This also reduces the need to log in to a new device and set everything up again. According to a recent reportGoogle is also working on such a mode for its Pixel devices. But now it seems that Google is also working on adding the feature natively to all of its Android smartphones.

The code, dubbed “Repair Mode,” was discovered by Mishaal Rahman which claims that it works natively and can be activated and deactivated using the preferred authentication method set by the user. According to Rahman, Google’s system works very differently from Samsung’s maintenance mode.

While Samsung Maintenance Mode creating a new user profile, Google’s approach to this essentially simulates a factory reset. This is achieved using a mechanism called Dynamic System Updates (DSU), which was introduced in Android 10. DSU essentially makes it possible to boot without overwriting the existing installation, preserving the user’s data.

The swap happens on the next reboot, when the original system is replaced with the new data image. This was only true until Android 14, when it was possible to swap just the data partition (similar to a factory reset), leaving the original data intact. And this is likely what happens when a user enters Repair Mode on a Pixel device.

According to Rahman, once Google enables the new Repair Mode in the source, smartphone makers will be able to decide whether to use their own version of Repair Mode instead of Google’s soon-to-be native Repair Mode. As for the user who hands their phone in for service, the technician fixing the phone will essentially see a factory reset, which can then be used to test hardware during a service. Google is expected to first release Repair Mode as a feature in the December Pixel feature drop.