Summary
- Android devices will now automatically restart after 3 days of inactivity for security.
- After a restart, the phone enters a security mode where data is inaccessible unless you enter the unlock pattern or PIN.
- Google is rolling out this change as part of the Google Play services update.
Got a secondary Android phone or tablet that usually sits idle for days? Don’t be surprised if you find it has restarted on its own the next time you pick it up. This is a part of Google’s new security feature for Android that automatically restarts unused devices if they remain locked for three days.
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Google was first spotted working on the “inactivity reboot” feature in late March. At the time, it appeared like the feature would go live with Android 16 as part of the Advanced Protection Program. However, Google is already rolling out the inactivity reboot behavior with the April 2025 Google Play services update (via 9to5Google).
- [Phone] With this feature, your device automatically restarts if locked for 3 consecutive days.
Once an Android device restarts, it enters a Before First Unlock (BFU) state, where you cannot use the biometrics to unlock it. Plus, all data remains unencrypted and inaccessible in this state. To access the phone, you must unlock it using a pattern or PIN.
Your phone will not restart again after three days of inactivity if it is already in the BFU state.
If you have used GrapheneOS previously, you will be familiar with this feature. It has had this auto-reboot option for a few years now. Unlike Google, you can customize this timer by setting a time limit between 10 minutes and 72 hours.
Google is not the first to offer such a feature. Apple added a similar option to iPhones with iOS 18 in September last year. Initially, the company set the iPhones to restart after seven days of inactivity. However, it reduced the timeframe to three days with iOS 18.1 in October.
Check for a Google Play services update on your phone
New Google Play services builds take a while to roll out fully. You can check if the update is available on your phone from Settings → Security & Privacy → System & updates → Google Play system update.
There doesn’t appear to be any user-facing setting for inactivity reboot, so you might not even realize if it’s already available and active on your device. It’s also unclear if Google is rolling out this security feature to all or selected Android phones.
