Download mode is a similar environment to the recovery mode where you boot the device out of normal mode and prepare the OS for using the Samsung Galaxy J7 in a different manner. Samsung keeps the names simple so you can easily understand them. Recovery mode is the mode to put your device in when you want to recover the device. The Android OS lets you do that by either applying an update, wiping the cache partition or taking a factory reset. All three of those tasks can recover your device depending on the problem. The download mode on your device is the mode to put your device in before flashing files using the Odin flashing tool or other tools. The simple way of looking at it is if you are downloading a file and having to flash that file, you will need to get your device into download mode first. The only exception is if you are just downloading a file to your computer and transferring that file to your SD card to flash later through recovery mode. For all those times with transferring files to the SD card, you do not need download mode.

BEFORE WE BEGIN

• If you are entering the download mode on Samsung Galaxy J7 smartphones for flashing a custom recovery, getting root access or applying official updates, you should backup the device data before doing those tasks. You can use the Helium app from the Google Play Store to help backing up your device. Common data found on your devices which you might like to back up include your phone contacts, SMS and MMS text messages, pictures, videos and music files. You don’t often lose this data automatically; however, you will lose that data if you want to apply a factory reset to recovery your device. Needing to recovery the Samsung galaxy J7 smartphone is always a possibility when you are tinkering with the operating system which is why we recommend you take the backup now.
• Those of you connecting to a computer and using the Odin flashing tool for flashing files will also need to enable the USB Debugging Mode. In short, the USB Debugging Mode is a special mode you can turn on and off from your settings. With it off your device cannot communicate properly with programs via USB cable and connected to the computer. To fix that just head over to the Menu > Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging Mode.

HOW TO BOOT INTO DOWNLOAD MODE ON SAMSUNG GALAXY J7

• Turn off your Galaxy J7 device — do that by pressing the Power key once and then selecting the “Switch Off” option from the display. Alternatively, you can long-press the Power key and wait until it switches off. Just make sure it is all the way off and not sleeping or else the next step will not work.
• Reboot the J7 by holding the Power + Volume Down + Home keys.
• Keep holding those three keys until the screen changes and you see some yellow text with a yellow warning triangle beneath the text.
• Now press the Volume Up button from that screen and your device will boot into the download mode ready to connect to the PC.