At least once, every owner of an iPhone or any other iOS device has encountered software glitches when the device stops responding to touching the screen and pressing the mechanical control buttons (Home and Power). What to do if your iPhone freezes and refuses to obey basic commands? In today's instructions, we will introduce you, dear readers, to 3 ways to reboot your iPhone from any state.
Standard reboot
iPhone owners are firmly convinced that their gadgets will never freeze or break. It becomes unclear why they are looking for instructions on how to reboot their smartphones. To restart your computer, just click on the “Reset” button. But it is not available on smartphones. On iPhones, the reboot procedure is performed by turning off and then turning on. To do this, use the “Power” button.
Rebooting the iPhone, if it has shut down but continues to respond to pressing the power button, proceeds as follows:
- Press and hold “Power” until a slider appears with the word “Shutdown” written on it.
- Swipe the slider to the right and wait until the device turns off.
- Press the power button again and wait for the operating system to load.
Done - the iPhone has rebooted and you can use it. The procedure does not cause difficulties even for inexperienced users. It is used in case of minor freezes that do not lead to a complete failure of functionality. For example, when some application does not work or the execution of any operations has slowed down (processes freeze).
Natural wear and tear of the battery
Any battery is a consumable item. This means that batteries are short-lived and require replacement periodically. After a certain period of use, they tend to lose capacity and using the device without a cord becomes almost impossible. In the case of a battery, the symptoms are immediately clear.
But what is the connection between battery wear and iPhone freezing? It's simple. Recently, the Apple company revealed the secret of freezing devices. The iPhone OS itself has a built-in special system for protecting motherboard elements from internal microdamage. It sounds complicated, but it's actually simple. When a battery is used for a long time, it gradually loses its capacity, and the current supplied to it flows less and less evenly. And when the battery has already accumulated a large number of charge-discharge cycles, the OS independently and specifically slows down the processor frequency in order to reduce power consumption. This helps keep the board in good condition and protects it from micro-short circuits, but has the side effect of freezes and glitches.
But I strongly advise against trying to change the battery yourself! It’s better to contact a service center, where they will quickly and efficiently fix the problem, so that you don’t have to come back later with more serious, expensive damage. (One of the most frequent requests for service is after attempting to repair it yourself. Before you try to repair it yourself, think about whether you are ready are you getting a negative result...?)
Forced reboot during hard freeze
A hard reboot of the iPhone is performed when the device does not respond to operations with the touch screen and with all its appearance shows that it refuses to work further. The standard procedure of pressing the power button does not work, causing users to panic. Don't worry - we'll try to force reboot the device. If you have an iPhone 5 or 6 or some other model with a mechanical “Home” button, hold it together with “Power”.
When you release the buttons, a bitten apple should appear on the display. If this is not the case, click on "Power". Next, the operating system will begin loading - all glitches and failures should disappear.
Please note that this reboot method may lead to the deletion of data stored in the iPhone's memory.
Why is this happening
“Black Screen of Death” is a relatively new concept for iPhone users; we have rarely encountered such system failures before.
Most often this was solved by a simple reboot or firmware update. Now almost every user of Apple technology has observed similar failures on their device or on a friend’s device. A black screen may appear on most models, regardless of the iOS version.
There are several main reasons for this strange glitch:
1. Mechanical failure
A black screen often appears on devices that have been in water. Even the new iPhone 7 with moisture protection suffers from this. You don't have to heat your smartphone to do this. It is enough to actively use it in a humid environment, in the rain, or splash the device several times.
No service center will be able to establish 100% that a black screen began to appear on the device after getting wet. However, taking “water procedures” with a smartphone will be another reason to think about the reasons for such glitches.
2. Problematic software
Every year iOS becomes more open; developers can embed their modules into many standard programs. This may affect iOS operation.
Any system update may bring a piece of code that does not fit well with existing applications or settings.
Only completely cleaning the device and restoring the firmware can minimize the chance of a black screen appearing, but not everyone can take such measures. Not everyone wants to turn their 50 thousand iPhone into a testing ground.
3. Battery problems
Service center technicians note that battery problems can often be the cause of a black screen. An old, worn-out battery can cause this.
On new gadgets, a black screen is often caused by an overheated battery. This can happen even on a fully functional device when connected to the charger for a long time.
Reboot via Assistive Touch
You already know how to restart your iPhone using a button combination. Now we will give instructions on how to reboot the device via Assistive Touch:
- We activate Assistive Touch - go to “Settings - General - Universal Access” and turn on the function we need with the switch.
- Click on the round button that appears on the screen and wait for the menu to appear;
- Select the “Device” item, on the next screen press the “Screen Lock” button and hold it for 4 minutes.
A standard reboot occurs, not a hard one. If the phone is frozen so that it does not respond to screen presses, use the instructions using a combination of buttons.
If the button doesn't work
If the forced shutdown button does not work, then there are other ways to restart your smartphone.
Through settings
How to turn off iPhone through settings? Follow a simple algorithm:
- In the settings, go to the “ Basic ” tab.
- Go to the very bottom of the page and click on the “ Turn off ” button.
- A window with a slider will appear on the screen; drag the slider to the right side and the phone will turn off.
In a minute, the device will reboot and work as before.
In AssistiveTouch
You can also reboot when AssistiveTouch is activated. By clicking on this button, a menu will open with a list of actions - among them will be a reboot:
- Go to Settings - Accessibility .
- On the page that opens, select Touch.
- Next, select AssistiveTouch .
- After activating the function, a list with actions in a black circle will open. Click on the Restart .
Note! Reboot is not included in the list of basic AssistiveTouch commands, so the user adds it himself.
You can add a reset key yourself. To do this, open the function, go to the list of commands, and select any free or already occupied cell. Then in the list that opens, select “ Restart ” from the actions and add it. Now, when you activate this feature, you will be able to reboot.
From the SOS menu
Pressing the volume up/down button and the lock key at the same time brings up the emergency call menu on devices with Face ID. Here you can not only call the rescue service, but also restart the device.
We recommend: Enabling and setting up Okay Google on your phone
Reloading new models
To reboot smartphones from the latest model lines, use the following instructions - press the “Volume up” and “Volume down” buttons successively (with a push-up), then press and hold “Power”. After the “apple” appears on the screen, enter the password - the device will reboot.
Older iPhone models have mechanical Home buttons. New models such as the iPhone 7, 8 and 10 are equipped with sensors. Therefore, check out the following method for sending smartphones to reboot. It consists of simultaneously pressing the Volume Down and Power buttons. The line “Swipe the screen to turn off” will appear - do as required, enter the password if necessary and wait until the device reboots.
Method 3 DFU
DFU stands for Device Firmware Update and is the deepest recovery mode available for iPhones or any iOS device. It will completely destroy the information on your iPhone, but after that it will work as if it came out of the box. The device will stop freezing, will work faster and crashes or errors in applications will disappear.
The first step is to launch iTunes and connect your phone. For iPhone 6S, hold down the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons simultaneously for about 8 seconds. For 7ki and newer versions, also hold these buttons together with “Volume Down” for 8 seconds. After 8 seconds, release the Sleep button but continue to hold the Home or Volume Down buttons, depending on your model. Your iPhone screen will be dark for a while and then the device will enter DFU mode. Release all buttons and select "Restore iPhone". This solution is used by professionals and it helps when the iPhone is frozen on iTunes and also in other situations.
Read this article: How to Enter iPhone into DFU Mode to Restore iPhone
Degrees of screen damage
The occurrence of problems with the iPhone is divided into several categories. In some cases, the entire display area may fail, and in some situations only a small part of the screen stops working:
- Category 1 – failure of the entire working area of the sensor;
- Category 2 – the presence of a reaction to touch only in certain areas of the touchscreen (for example, the top or bottom of the screen);
- Category 3 – incorrect page scrolling in the browser;
- Category 4 – phantom clicks (commands are executed even when the screen was not touched).
If software malfunctions occur frequently, it is recommended to completely reboot the device, which will make it possible to rid the RAM of excess and reduce the load on the processor. To do this, you should hold down the “Home” button and the lock key for 20 seconds. After a reboot, the device will start working faster and problems with the sensor will be eliminated. It is also worth clearing the RAM of unlicensed programs. Often such software runs with code containing errors. This causes the device to slow down and the screen to freeze. The salvation in this situation is to return the firmware to the factory version.
To avoid problems with your favorite smartphone, do not download unknown software that harms the operating system
In cases where the iPhone’s screen stops functioning normally and the device is under warranty, the easiest way is to take the device to a service center. Specialists will help restore the functionality of the sensor in a short period of time. However, in this case, the user will have to prove that the display or buttons were not damaged deliberately or due to improper use of the smartphone. If there is no evidence, the service center will carry out repairs only for a certain amount, which will include payment for services and the cost of new spare parts.
In other cases, you can try to reboot or turn off the phone yourself, which should help restore the display functionality.
Reset all information
The most radical method is to erase all data. If you cannot guess for sure which file, application or something else caused the freeze, then it is better to clean the device. You can always download data from a backup. We recommend restoring not the latest version, since several backups are usually stored in memory. In any case, at least partial data loss cannot be avoided.
If your iPhone is frozen and does not respond to finger gestures, you will have to connect the device to your computer and use iTunes. Do the following:
- After the gadget is connected to the PC via a USB cable, iTunes should launch automatically. If this does not happen, run the utility manually. If the application does not recognize your device, perform a forced reboot (the procedure is described above, there is no need to disconnect the device from the computer);
- Select the connected device and switch it to DFU mode (how to do this is also written above);
- Next, find the “Overview” tab and select the “Restore (gadget model)” action;
- Confirm the action by selecting "Restore" again. Wait for the action to complete;
- Once the device has been reset to factory settings, it will begin to reboot. The iPhone will offer to restore the backup (we remind you that it is better not to select the most recent one from the list) or create a new Apple ID account, setting up the device as new.
Applications to optimize iPhone performance
It happens that the built-in iPhone tools are not enough to speed up the interface. But there is a way out in this case too. After all, the App Store has a large number of applications for optimizing work.
Here are some of them:
- iOptimizer;
- DU Battery Saver;
- Battery Doctor.
These programs not only optimize iOS, but also make your iPhone work longer. So even if you do not experience problems with the functioning of the gadget, it makes sense to download iOptimizer or Battery Doctor.
