This is a 5-step guide to troubleshoot when your iPhone won’t turn on or stuck on the Apple logo.
Your iPhone not turning on is one of the most common iPhone problems. You push the power button, wait a few seconds but nothing happens. So how do you force your iPhone to turn on?
It could be a plethora of things that prevent your iPhone from turning on. The good news is it’s a fixable problem that you can easily solve without taking a trip to the Apple store.
This step-by-step guide will walk you through the steps to fix your iPhone that won’t turn on.
Why won’t my iPhone turn on?
Most of the time a software glitch is what prevents your iOS device from turning on.
If it’s a hardware problem, which is not common, you’re in bad luck. It’s time to make a Genius Bar reservation or to visit the nearest Apple Authorized Service
Sometimes it’s better to buy a new phone instead of repairing a broken one that can cost you more than half the price of a new one. If that’s the case for you, check our guide to buying a new smartphone before making any purchase decision.
Enough of buying advice, let’s fix your unresponsive phone.
1. Charge your iPhone
It’s obvious if your iPhone won’t turn on it may run out of battery. Let’s charge it up for at least 15 mins and see what happens. Follow the appropriate instructions to save battery life on your iPhone.
Use a wireless charger to charge your iPhone faster, of course, if you have one. If after 15-30 mins of charge your iPhone doesn’t power on automatically, try to turn it on manually by holding down the on/off button.
If that doesn’t work either, check the charging cable or power outlet, they might be the culprit. To double-check try charging your iPhone with a different cable or charger.
Sometimes, your “iPhone won’t turn on” issues might relate to charging problems. So read our article on how to fix iPhone charging problems for step-by-step instructions. Fixing your iPhone charging problems might help with the black screen.
2. Restart iPhone
The next step would be to restart your iPhone if charging it didn’t fix the problem.
- For iPhone 8 or earlier: Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button on either the top right corner or upper right side of the device until the slider appears.
- For iPhone X or later: Press and hold either Volume button and the Side-Power button until the slider appears.
If your iPhone was already off it should restart, but if it was on with a black screen, you may see the red slider allowing you to turn it off.
If your iPhone restarts successfully, there you go, you’ve solved the problem. But if your iPhone won’t turn on, a software crash might be to blame. Move on to the next step for the fix.
For detailed instructions, check our “How to restart an iPhone” guide.
3. Software Crash
A software crash may cause your iPhone to become unresponsive. In that case, the best way to fix this problem is to perform a hard reset. A factory reset will erase all the data and settings on your phone. So before you proceed, we strongly recommend you back up and restore your iPhone. Here’s how to perform a hard reset:
- For iPhone 8 and later: Quickly press and release the Volume Up button, then quickly press and release the Volume Down button. Then, press and hold the Power button (iPhone 8 & 8 Plus) or the Side button (iPhone X) until you see the Apple logo.
- For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: P
ress and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo. - For iPhone 6s and
earlie r: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo.
When you see the Apple logo appears on the screen release all buttons so your iPhone can restart on its own.
4. Restore iPhone to Factory Settings
If all the above steps didn’t work, don’t worry there’s still something you can do about it. A damaged Operating system may cause your iPhone to not turn on. In that case, you’ll have to restore it with iTunes.
For that, you’ll need either a Mac or a PC.
Connect your iPhone to a Mac or PC with a lightning cable. If the Operating System was indeed damaged your iPhone should boot into recovery mode with no further steps.
Once your iPhone is in recovery mode, iTunes will inform you that there’s a problem with your device and it needs to be updated or restored. Proceed to restore your device, which will download and install the latest iOS version to your iPhone.
You should note the restore will wipe out everything on your iPhone, but you can recover all your data anytime from an iCloud backup.
5. Force iPhone into DFU Mode
When your iPhone has more difficult software problems, a simple restore won’t fix it, you need to take a different approach. In this case, you’ll force your iPhone into DFU Mode (Device Firmware Update).
Warning: Proceed at your own risk, there’s the potential for something to go wrong with your iPhone. Anyway, your iPhone was already unresponsive. For detailed instructions, see how to put iPhone in DFU mode.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes. Your iPhone does not have to be off before you put it in DFU Mode.
- Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and your Home button (iPhone 6S and below) or the Sleep/Wake button and your Volume Down button (iPhone 7 or 7 Plus) together for around 5 seconds.
For iPhone 8 and later quickly press and release the Volume Up button, then quickly press and release the Volume Down button, and then press and hold the Side button.
- After 8 seconds, release the Sleep/Wake button while holding down the Home button (iPhone 6S and below) or your Volume Down button (iPhone 7 or 7 Plus) until you see the message “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode”.
For iPhone 8 or later press and hold the volume down button while continuing to hold the side button.
- Release the Home button or the Volume Down button as your iPhone’s screen will be completely black which means it has entered DFU mode.
For iPhone 8 or later, after 5 seconds, release the side button while you keep holding the volume down button until your iPhone appears in iTunes. Once it shows up in iTunes, release the volume button. You’ve successfully booted up your iPhone into DFU mode.
Tried Everything. My iPhone still won’t turn on?
After you’ve tried all these steps, if your iPhone still won’t turn, the solution is probably out of your hand. It’s time to take it to the nearest Apple store.
If this guide helped you fix your “iPhone won’t turn on” problem, please share and/or recommend it, so your friends can benefit from it too.
On the contrary, if nothing has worked for you please let us know how it goes when you take it to the geeks.
