If you’re one of the millions of Verizon customers whose phones are currently stuck in “SOS mode,” there’s good news and bad news. The good news: Getting your phone out of SOS mode is just a few steps away. The bad news: Fixing the underlying Verizon outage and getting your phone service back up and running is a different story.

First, some things. This should only affect iPhone 14 and up users or Android users with Satellite SOS. It’s a bug in the SOS feature, where once you’ve activated SOS (and yes, I know you probably haven’t, which makes this more painful), the SOS won’t go away until the phone finds service again. Since the service is disabled, it’s a tricky situation.

First, think about it: do you really want to solve the problem? As long as the problem persists, you can use the SOS mode to call the emergency services if you need them. However, it won't help if you have to call your boss.

Even after Verizon restores service, it may take a few taps for your phone to boot back up. The following steps may help fix the problem.