If your Apple iPhone 8 or iPhone X is frozen and won’t turn off, here’s what you can try to force it to shut off.
Power Off
- Press and hold the “Sleep“/”Wake” button on the top of the device for about 10 seconds. See if the red slider eventually appears so that you can shut it off or force quit the offending app by pressing and holding the Home button.
Force Restart
- Quick press “Volume Up“.
- Quick press “Volume Down“.
- Hold Sleep“/”Wake” button until the Apple logo appears.
- If the above steps do not work, press and hold the “Sleep“/”Wake” button and the “Volume Down“ button simultaneously for about 10 to 20 seconds. Hopefully, the Apple logo will appear and the iPhone will finally turn restart.
There have heard a few users report occasions where they’ve had to simply let the battery run all the way down before the device will work again. I’m afraid if the steps above don’t work, that is your last resort.
Jon P says
iPhone 8 stuck trying to power down. Spinning bicycle spokes on a black background. None of these force-stop combo’s worked. Finally had to let the battery run down.
Elizabeth says
Had to have the volume on for it to
Work. Could not be on vibrate
Terence says
This was very helpful. Took 3 tries, and I had to turn the volume on not on vibrate
Cynthia says
Thank you Andrea. Your solution worked!!! I could not disconnect a Face Time call so I needed to shut off the phone. The buttons on the phone didn’t work.
Jen says
Thank you, for the information it didn’t help though.
I think that my option is to let the battery run down. My screen froze first, I couldn’t unlock it with my finger id and the emergency password screen did not come up.
When I tried to power the phone off I got the black screen & it looked like it was loading.
I’m very disappointed I was a loyal Samsung user and this is my first iPhone/Apple product. I wish I had stuck with my Samsung Android platfor
Bonnie says
Oh my Goodness…Andrea, your post was the most helpful of all! My phone would not power off and was frozen thankfully I was able to go to settings, and do the shut down button, thank you so much!
Andrea says
My phone (I have the X) wouldnt shut off with any method. Feared letting the batter run was going to be my option. However, I looked through my settings knowing there had to be some option to shut the phone. Go to settings, general, scroll all the way down, “shut down”. Thank goodness. Did that, red button to slide to shut down appeared.
Jim says
Very helpful – thanks!!! I tried this method but other sites didn’t say to “quick press” the volume button’s – that was the trick for me.
Saroun says
I can’t turn off my iphone off I did try all button still can’t help.
Arts says
the up /down and then power button worked to power off the phone.
thanks so much
Ken says
The quick press volume up and down workedvery well for me thank you! This was for my iPhone X
Dhiraj Khandelwal says
I am not able to start this , going with the instructions it’s land to emergency call
Jenny says
Thank you so much!!!! My phone is working again!
Mike says
Holding the sleep/wake button with the volume down button worked. Thanks!
summer says
IT WORKED, took a couple attempts though
Bobbi says
Unfortunately didn’t work for me. The black apple on a white background is stuck. So I have made an appointment at the Genius Bar for tomorrow. But thanks for the suggestions.
Kent says
Yes it helped It took three attempts before success but thank you!
d says
iPhone 8 unlocked screen was frozen. I was able to lock the phone and scroll through the locked home screen, and I was able to unlock the phone, but nothing from there on worked. Holding volume down and sleep/wake got the phone to restart and it’s working back to normal now. THANK YOU!
Danny Sanz says
Manuel Da Silva, Genius! Thanks,
Nicole Darc says
tried the volume/power button method and it kept setting off a siren sound or bringing me to my medical ID page, but I still couldn’t use the screen or power down. Manual DaSilva’s suggestion to turn on assistive touch via Siri was brilliant. Once I did that I was able to prompt the phone to restart. Thanks!
Brian says
Manuel Da SIlva……… thanks you are a lifesaver thank you for the fix
Tadas says
The same problem with iPhone X, when I turn on Siri, phone stuck (in the display rotates waiting sign and nothing you can’t do that) . The only way Force Restart. My battery was 96% and while I find information how restart, the phone battery go down until 81%. So, now I thinking the phone does not overheat? The phone was warn, I think not hot, probably. I nowhere don’t find information what you can call it hot, what you can call it normal phone temp.
M. Flaherty says
Yes, this post has helped; clicked volume up, down, then power button till logo appeared. I tried a couple other ideas suggested like simultaneously pressing volume down and power button to no avail.
I had never had this happen on my iPhone 6 in 2.5 yrs! Now it has happened 2-3 times already in less than 2 mo on the iPhone 8! Not impressed with that.
Nan Mc says
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Sleep/Wake and Volume down did the trick. <3
Jennell says
i have the same experience. Opened an old app on my phone and phone is completely frozen. I cannot restart, turn off or use siri for anything.
Im thinking of going to my cellular store to see what they can do.
Glauco Lima says
IT WORKED FOR ME!
1. Quick press Volume up.
2. Quick press Volume down.
3. Hold power button until the Apple logo appears.
I had literally the exact same problem. Yesterday night (let the batter run out, luckily was at 15%) and today (battery was at 63% so I got desperate. This post saved me from a lot of stress).
If the next update won’t fix all these bugs, I will finally get an Android after being iOS since the first iPhone.
torrnado says
my phone won’t go to sleep. it turns on just fine and responds to all commands, but i must manually press power to get the screen to go dark.
Peta says
This suggestion worked for me! Thank you!
“Renier Wessels says
October 21, 2017 at 2:04 pm
Figured it out:
1. Quick press Volume up.
2. Quick press Volume down.
3. Hold power button until the Apple logo appears”
torrnado says
running ios 11.0.3, iphone 8 plus won’t go to sleep on its own…must use power button to shut off the screen
H Dawes says
Ive Just purchased an iphone 8 and the same has happened to me 3 times in a week. Had to let battery go to 0% then as soon as plugged in and enough battery all is fine again. Apple need to sort this asap. I use my phone for my business
Manuel Da SIlva says
I had this same problem. What i did was use siri to turn on assistive touch and then restarted the iPhone like that. worked fine afterwards.
Paul says
So literally whatever its frozen on leave it go for a second and you’re literally going to tap volume up (press and release) and then tap volume down (press and release) and then hold down the power button for a hard reset.
Monica says
Up down on the volume worked for me
Thank you
Leigh Morum says
I have the same problem – tried all the usual sequences to power off / soft reset – but nothing works. Will have to wait for the battery to go flat.
Bummed :-(
M. FLaherty says
My new IPhone 8 did this last pm. I tried many times (over 15 min), to press as above mentioned, and finally it unfroze! Not sure if a particular sequence of buttons did it or not! It surprised/disappointed me that this happened– hopefully not again!
vercors says
Same for me. bought the iPhone 8 Plus three weeks ago, got very excited, today I am stuck on a 100% charged device! Iphone froze when I wanted to open app dictionary “word reference”! I tried all the press quick down then up volume then Hold side button…
Now, I must wait until battery is flat to check if it will work again. Very frustrating…. what will I do if it doesn’t work when flat?
Renier Wessels says
Figured it out:
1. Quick press Volume up.
2. Quick press Volume down.
3. Hold power button until the Apple logo appears.
Say thank you!
Renier Wessels says
Nothing helped for me on my iPhone 8 Plus either. I’ll have to let it run down to 0% on the battery. Got it Yesterday. Did a restore and ran an old app, then everything went dead. I’ll be deleting it as soon as my phone is up and running again.
Siri works (she can’t shut down the phone, can’t reset it and cannot close any apps – useless), Notification centre works, Command centre works, Notifications are coming in. But no apps can run and my home screen is not responding to anything I do. Cannot run or close any apps, Holding the Sleep / Wake button does nothing and neither does a Forced / Hard reset.
I’ve been with Apple for 7 years. Not impressed.
Langston Spell says
Nothing helped, and it is still frozen. The first screen will come on, but no app works, including Settiings.