1. Perform a Hard Reboot

If your Samsung phone appears stuck in the Airplane Mode and if it’s not responding, you can start by performing a hard reboot. Don’t worry, this will not affect your personal data.  To hard reboot your Samsung phone, press and hold the Power button and the Volume Down button down simultaneously for more than 7 seconds.  Wait for your phone to turn off completely. Now turn it back on by pressing and holding the Power button and see if you can disable Airplane Mode.

2. Prevent Apps From Changing System Settings

Such issues may also arise if you’ve given third-party apps permission to modify system settings on your phone. In that case, a buggy app could repeatedly turn on Airplane Mode without asking. Here’s how you can fix that.

  1. Launch the Settings app on your phone and go to Apps.
  2. Tap on the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner and select Special access.
  3. Tap on Change system settings to view a list of apps that can modify system settings on your phone. Go through this list and use the toggles to prevent third-party apps from changing system settings. Restart your phone after this and see if you can disable Airplane Mode. 

3. Reset Network Settings

Misconfigured network settings can also lead to such issues with your Samsung phone. Rather than going through all the network settings one by one, you can reset them to their default values by following the steps below.

  1. Launch the Settings app and navigate to General Management.
  2. Scroll down to tap on Reset and select Reset network settings from the following screen.
  3. Hit the Reset settings button and follow the on-screen prompts to finish resetting network settings.

4. Try Safe Mode

Safe Mode is a handy utility that can help you troubleshoot most issues with your Android phone. Booting your Samsung phone in Safe Boot disables all the third-party apps and unimportant services. So, if the issue is caused by one of them, you can try disabling Airplane Mode in Safe Mode.

  1. Press and hold the Power button until you see the power menu. 
  2. Long press on the Power off icon and then tap on the green checkmark to boot in Safe Mode. Try disabling Airplane Mode now. Once disabled, your phone should connect to your carrier. Use your phone in Safe Mode for a few minutes and then restart it to exit Safe Mode.

5. Wipe Cache Partition

Just like apps on your phone, Android also creates and saves temporary files to perform certain tasks. These are primarily stored in the system cache partition. However, if that data has become corrupted, your phone may start behaving erratically. In that case, you can wipe the system cache partition to see if that helps. In order to wipe the cache partition on your Samsung Galaxy phone, you’ll have to put your device into Recovery Mode first.

  1. Press and hold the Power button until you see the power menu.
  2. Tap on Power off to turn off your phone. 
  3. Now connect your phone to a PC via USB cable. 
  4. Once connected, press and hold the Power button and Volume Up button simultaneously until the Samsung logo appears. Your phone will boot in Recovery Mode. Note: In the Recovery Mode, your phone’s touch screen will stop working. So, you’ll have to use the volume buttons and the power button to navigate through the menu. 
  5. Use the Volume Down button to navigate to the Wipe cache partition option. Then, press the Power button to select it.
  6. Next, use the Volume Down button to select Yes and press the Power button to confirm. Wait for a few seconds as the system wipes the cache.
  7. Once cleared, highlight the Reboot system now option and press the Power button to confirm. Once your phone reboots, check to see if it is still stuck in the Airplane Mode. 

6. Check for Software Updates

A buggy One UI update can also lead to such issues at times. So, if none of the above solutions work, you can check for any pending software updates by heading over to the Software Update section in the Settings app.

Connected Again

Things can easily get frustrating when your Samsung Galaxy phone gets stuck in Airplane Mode. Working your way through the above-mentioned tips should help fix the issue for good. However, if that isn’t the case, the issue could be hardware-related and you may have to visit a nearby service center to get it fixed.