Platform behavior

restart_app uses different mechanisms because Flutter targets do not expose the same restart primitives.

Platform	Mechanism	Limitations
Android	Relaunches the main activity through `PackageManager`. Supports Android TV and Fire TV through a leanback launcher fallback. `RestartMode.process` and `forceKill: true` kill the process after launch for a clean cold start.	None
iOS	Recommended: opt-in Flutter engine restart that creates a new `FlutterEngine`, runs Dart again, re-registers plugins, and replaces the root `FlutterViewController` in the same iOS process. Legacy: local notification, `exit(0)`, and user tap.	iOS has no public API for automatic full process restart. Engine restart is not a process restart and cannot reset native singleton state. Legacy fallback requires notification permission and user action.
Web	Reloads the page using `window.location`.	None
macOS	Launches a new instance through `NSWorkspace` and terminates the current process.	Sandboxed Mac App Store builds cannot launch new instances of themselves. The package returns a failed result in this case.
Linux	Replaces the current process through `execv`.	None
Windows	Launches a new instance through `CreateProcess` and terminates the current process.	MSIX-packaged Microsoft Store apps cannot be relaunched through `CreateProcess`.

Choose a mode

Use RestartMode.platformDefault unless your app has a reason to request a specific behavior.

await Restart.restartApp(mode: RestartMode.platformDefault);

Use RestartMode.process when you explicitly want a full process relaunch on platforms that support it. Use RestartMode.flutterEngine on iOS when the host app has configured engine restart. Use RestartMode.notificationFallback only when the iOS user-tap relaunch tradeoff is acceptable.

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Product

Reference

Choose a mode

​Choose a mode

Choose a mode