Samsung first announced Maintenace Mode in July this year. The company soon began beta-testing the feature for its flagship models. Some eligible devices picked it up with the Android 13-based One UI 5.0 update. Others are getting it now, including the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Maintenance Mode creates a separate user account on your Galaxy smartphone, with no access to your apps, photos, messages, and other data. It only allows access to core functions and apps, ensuring that technicians can work on the device efficiently. Repair technicians can also download new apps on the phone. But those are automatically uninstalled when exiting Maintenance Mode. The same applies to any new data generated during the repair process, including new photos or documents that technicians may have stored in it. You can enable Maintenance Mode from the “Battery and device care” menu in the Settings app. Once enabled, restart your Galaxy smartphone and you’re good to go. The phone will reboot with a new user account. The device will require you to verify your identity to exit Maintenance Mode.
This is the second software update for the Galaxy S20 series this month
The Galaxy S20 series was Samsung’s first smartphone to receive the December security patch. The rollout began a couple of weeks back. The latest release is its second software update of the month. Some users may have yet to install the first release. If you’re in Europe, make sure to install the update with firmware version G98**XXUFGVL5 to get Maintenance Mode on your Galaxy S20 unit (via). The official changelog doesn’t mention the new feature. It simply says that the update improves the security and “overall stability of functions” on the Galaxy S20 trio. As usual, Samsung will roll out the software release for the Galaxy S20 series in batches. The update is currently limited to a handful of European countries. A wider release in the region should follow soon before the update goes global. Users in the US have yet to pick up the first December update. It remains to be seen whether Maintenance Mode comes bundled with that release or if the company will seed two different updates for the phones stateside. We will let you know as soon as we have more information.
