To turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21, you have three different ways: with side buttons, with the Notifications Center, and using the Bixby voice assistant. Each method makes the same – turning off your Samsung Galaxy S21. Also, you may need to turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21 when it’s frozen.
How to turn off Samsung Galaxy S21
One thing I hate, given that I change my devices very often is that sometimes they start to glitch. It’s not even that it glitches or malfunctions, that’s okay (yes, we don’t live in a perfect world), but that when you have a new device, you don’t know how to fix it.
Of course, the most basic thing you can do is reboot or shut down your Samsung Galaxy S21. Yes, that sounds like too simple a solution, but it works. So if you turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21 – this might solve your problem if your smartphone is frozen and unresponsive. One catch – many people don’t know how to do this, so read about it below.
How different are the Samsung Galaxy S21 shutdown methods for different sub-models
That’s a widespread myth that different submodels (those made for different regions or telecom companies) have different ways to reboot or turn off the Samsung Galaxy S21. However, that isn’t so.
For example, Galaxy S21 has submodels like S21+ or S21 Ultra, and the reboot methods for Galaxy S21 described below apply to all varieties of this model.
The method applies to standard Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and S21 Ultra. The functions by which you can reset, turn on, and of these phones are common to all of them.
How to power off Samsung Galaxy S21
I wrote about issues with the device, but there may be one more occasion when you need to turn your Samsung Galaxy S21 off.
Sometimes, when you visit some places with special visiting rules or want your phone not to distract us from your work, you need to turn it off. As with any other device, that’s so easy to do.
And there’s one significant change you should know – if previously you need just to press and held the ‘power off’ (the lock) button to get to the power off and other functions, like reboot and menu, in Samsung Galaxy S21, this button will activate Bixby by default.
By the way, you can change these buttons in your settings, but firstly let’s talk about how to turn off Samsung Galaxy S21 by default.
Actually, there are two different ways to do so: hardware and software.
How to turn off Samsung Galaxy S21 with hardware buttons
The first, and by the way, beloved for me, way to turn off Samsung Galaxy S21 is with hardware buttons. Frankly, I see it as the best and most native and easy-to-do way to power off your Galaxy S21.
To turn off the Samsung Galaxy S21 with the combination of buttons, you need:
- First, find the side key on the right side of the phone. Usually, you use it as the lock button.
- Secondly, find the volume down button. It’s located above the power off (lock) button.
- Press and hold them for 2 to 5 seconds. This will bring up the shutdown menu with some options.
- After that, the following functions appear on the screen: power off Galaxy S21, restart/reboot Galaxy S21, lockdown Galaxy S21, Turn on Emergency mode and quick access to side key settings below, and select power off.
After that, your phone will turn off. However, there are other ways to turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21 with Bixby assistant or software.
How to turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21 by asking Bixby
Actually, I’m not a voice assistants fan. They may be useful sometimes, but I see them as a way to create ‘do less by not doing less.’ I mean, what’s the problem with pressing and holding 2 buttons to power off your phone? Why do you need Bixby for this? No, really, that’s the thing where a voice assistant isn’t so good.
However, there’s still a way to do so with Bixby, so here’s how:
- Press and hold the power off button for 2-5 seconds to activate the Bixby voice assistant.
- Wait for the Bixby animation to appear at the bottom of your Galaxy S21’s screen.
- Say, ‘Bixby, turn off the phone’ or ‘Bixby, turn off my Galaxy.’
- Release the button and let your phone turn off.
Now, Bixby would power off your Samsung Galaxy S21. However, you can’t turn on your phone with Bixby; the only way is to use hardware buttons.
How to turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21 via the software menu (from the Notifications Center)
To be fair, I didn’t even think about that, but one of our readers asked me: “How can I power off my Samsung Galaxy S21 if my lock button isn’t working?”. And that’s really interesting, I think.
The good news is that Samsung can turn off your Galaxy S21 without hardware buttons. Here’s what you should do:
- Swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Notifications Center.
- Swipe down the second time to make the Notifications Center full-screen (I also don’t like such a mechanic).
- Tap the power button in the upper right corner to open the functions menu (the same as with the hardware method).
- Choose restart or power off, depending on what you want to get.
Well, now your Samsung Galaxy S21 will be turned off.
However, there’s one more thing you need to know and maybe even already faced – your Samsung Galaxy S21 is frozen and isn’t responding. In this case, you obviously can’t use Bixby or Notifications Center. The only way to turn off or restart your Galaxy S21 is with the hardware buttons.
However, holding the volume down + power button for 2-5 seconds isn’t working in this case (as usual, sometimes it may still work). So what to do? Actually, that’s easy than you may think.
How to turn off Samsung Galaxy S21 using the long-press side button
If you are the same “not a fan” of voice assistants as I am, then I have prepared for you another surprising way you can turn off your Samsung Galaxy S21 and at the same time get rid of the problem of accidentally waking up Bixby.
You can set a long press on the side button to call the power menu instead of activating Bixby. To do this, you need to:
- First, go to Settings. To do this, open the Notifications Center and click on the gear icon or simply open the Settings menu using the icon on the home screen.
- In Settings, scroll down and select Advanced Features.
- Here you will see a button called Side Key; select it.
- In the Side Key menu, you need to find the item Press and hold and check the Power off menu under it.
Then press and hold the side button of your Samsung Galaxy S21 for a few seconds, and you’ll see the power menu, where you can turn off your smartphone with one touch. Also, now this button will no longer be responsible for starting Bixby, which is very convenient if you never use it.
How to turn off or restart your frozen Samsung Galaxy S21
Well, your Samsung Galaxy S21 said ‘Goodbye’ and became frozen. Sad, yeah. And what makes things even worthwhile – you are holding power off + volume down for 2-5 seconds, but nothing happens.
However, all you need to do to fix this and restart your phone is hold these 2 buttons for 15-20 seconds (until something happens). Now, your phone will restart, and the issue that caused Galaxy to be frozen will be fixed.
However, sometimes the phone may just turn off, so you must turn it on manually.
If you want to turn it on, read below about how to turn it back on.
Note, if the battery is almost empty, the Galaxy S21 will turn off automatically. In that case, you will need to charge the battery to turn the Galaxy S21 back on (I also recommend waiting for a while before turning it on to let the phone charge at least 20%).
How to power on Samsung Galaxy S21
In order to turn on the Samsung Galaxy S21 you need to:
- Just like to turn it off, find the side key.
- Make sure you had charged your phone battery. If you hadn’t charged it 100 percents, then check out if it charged at least more than on 10 percent.
- In case you have enough charge, press the side button on the right side for at least 2 and maximum 5 seconds.
After that, your phone should turn on. If the battery is low, you will see a sign on the screen indicating this.
How to reboot your Samsung Galaxy S21
To reboot the Galaxy S21, there are several ways. The first is to reboot through the shutdown menu. This method is good because if you use it, all open apps will be closed correctly, and you won’t lose unsaved data. To use it, you need:
- Press and hold the side buttons (power off and volume down) for 2 to 5 seconds.
- When the shutdown menu appears, select the “Reboot” (restart) function.
- Wait for the process to complete.
Whatever the reason may cause you to reboot the phone after this, most likely it will be solved.
How to reboot your Samsung Galaxy S21 if your phone don’t react to your actions
If your phone is frozen and you cannot access the shutdown menu, although this is rare, do the following:
- Press and hold the side buttons (power off and volume down) on the right side for more than 15 seconds. If you do this, then your phone will reboot.
- In case the method above doesn’t work, press and hold the side lock button and the volume down button at the same time for more than 15 seconds.
This method of shutting down is bad because your apps won’t shut down correctly, and you will likely lose any unsaved data. However, if your phone is hopelessly frozen and there is nothing else you can do, this is your best way to restart the system and clear the error. If all the ways above don’t work and your phone won’t turn on even after it’s charged, and you’ve recharged it, contact a Samsung service center. They will be able to help you.
What’s the difference between Samsung Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra?
There are three different submodels of the Samsung Galaxy S21. The first one is the standard Galaxy S21, which has a 6.2-inch screen. Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus has a 6.7-inch screen and the S21 Ultra has a 6.8-inch screen. S21 Plus also has a bigger battery capacity (in other matters they’re identical).
However, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a better camera, more internal storage space, and more RAM.
How to take screenshots on Samsung Galaxy S21
To take a screenshot, you need to press Power + Volume Down, but don’t hold them to avoid triggering the power off the menu. You can also trigger Bixby and ask to take a screenshot.
How to reset Samsung Galaxy S21
In case you need to reset your Samsung Galaxy S21:
- Open Settings.
- Go to General Management.
- Tap on Reset.
- Choose Factory Data Reset.
- Choose Delete All.
- Choose Wipe data/Factory reset on Android Recovery screen.
If you do this, all your data on your phone would be erased, so be careful with that.
