• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Technipages

Tutorials and fixes for smartphone, gadget, and computer problems

  • Topics
    • Android
    • Gaming
    • Hardware
    • Internet
    • iOS
    • MacOS
    • Office
    • Software
    • Windows
    • Definitions
  • Product Reviews
  • Downloads
  • About Technipages
iPhone 8 or X Won’t Turn Off

iPhone 8 or X Won’t Turn Off

By Mitch Bartlett 51 Comments

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

  1. Quick press “Volume Up“.
  2. Quick press “Volume Down“.
  3. 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.

You Might Also Like

  • iPhone: How to Turn Off VPN
    iPhone: How to Turn Off VPN
  • Fix - iPhone or iPad Won't Turn On
    Fix - iPhone or iPad Won't Turn On
  • iPhone: How to Turn Off Mobile Data
    iPhone: How to Turn Off Mobile Data
  • iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch: How to Turn Off Radio
    iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch: How to Turn Off Radio
  • Fix "This iPhone is already activated. You may disconnect this iPhone now."
    Fix "This iPhone is already activated. You may disconnect…
  • How to Reset iPhone X & 8
    How to Reset iPhone X & 8
  • How to Connect iPhone X to TV
    How to Connect iPhone X to TV
  • What Android Can Do That an iPhone Can’t?
    What Android Can Do That an iPhone Can’t?
  • How To AirDrop From Mac To iPhone
    How To AirDrop From Mac To iPhone

Filed Under: iOS Tagged With: iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone X

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cherry Blue says

    December 12, 2021 at 11:13 pm

    I really hope this method will work. I am tired of finding ways online I really need to fix it or my battery will get drain. I also wanted to try Acethinker Fone Keeper a tool suggested by many. This tool is works really well in fixing system problem on iPhone.

  2. Swapna says

    August 4, 2021 at 12:44 pm

    My apple 8+ is showing apple logo and black screen since this evening, I tried a lot for force restart but nothing works till . Noww I am afraid of loosing my data… help

  3. rhea m says

    April 10, 2021 at 11:24 am

    i have an iphone 8 and im not able to click or open any of the apps, the switch off button isnt appearing as well
    when clicking. I tried the above solutions , nothing helped. Any suggestions?

  4. David says

    March 6, 2021 at 9:16 am

    Thanks to your suggestions I was able to power down my iPhone X, restart and my phone is working again. I used the Force Restart directions. Thank you for developing this website.

  5. lawrence says

    January 12, 2021 at 12:19 am

    iPhone won’t turn off is a common issue and there are several ways to solve it. Firstly, force restart the iPhone. Just press the Side and Volume buttons until the slider appears. Secondly, restoring iPhone via iTunes can deal with a few iPhone problems including the iPhone X/8 won’t turn off, but this will cause data loss. I met with this issue several months ago and I was told to use professional ios repair tools such as TunesKit iOS System Recovery to fix my iPhone X won’t turn off completely and there was no data loss.

  6. kate dahiaya says

    December 3, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    nooooo…….

  7. Mia Fridenberger says

    October 26, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    I had a problem on my iphone xr where none of the apps would turn on and I couldnt power off my phone I did this little trick and after I powered it bck on it worked again.

  8. Kathryn Morris says

    September 30, 2020 at 12:22 am

    This was the worst but the quick volume up, down and power finally worked!

  9. daphne says

    September 23, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    Just had to keep trying with the volume button pressing, finally worked after 1oth try! Fingers crossed 🤞 it will turn on!!

  10. Susan Shikowski says

    March 12, 2020 at 10:59 am

    my IPhone 8 Plus wouldn’t respond to finger swipes left or right therefore unable to turn off my phone. I combined a few hints given and what finally worked was hitting & quickly releasing “power up” then same with “power down” then I pressed the “sleep/wake” button and held it for several seconds. My screen went black and then without doing anything the Apple logo appeared. Took longer than usual for the Apple logo to convert to the screen to enter my 4 digit code. Once entered my phone works perfect again. ?

  11. Melissa says

    February 14, 2020 at 7:46 am

    This finally worked to get my phone back to working order! Thank you kindly!

  12. Kim says

    January 15, 2020 at 12:37 am

    Thank you!!
    It Took many attempts but finally the apple logo came up and the iPhone 8 restarted. I held down the wake/sleep button and pressed the volume buttons up and down simultaneously for about a minute. It probabaly would have worked sooner if I would have done it for a longer period of time at the first attempt.

  13. Jon P says

    October 20, 2019 at 10:46 am

    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.

  14. Elizabeth says

    July 5, 2019 at 1:39 am

    Had to have the volume on for it to
    Work. Could not be on vibrate

  15. Terence says

    November 15, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    This was very helpful. Took 3 tries, and I had to turn the volume on not on vibrate

  16. Cynthia says

    September 15, 2018 at 6:00 pm

    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.

  17. Jen says

    July 24, 2018 at 9:27 am

    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

  18. Bonnie says

    July 13, 2018 at 11:26 am

    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!

  19. Andrea says

    June 22, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    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.

  20. Jim says

    May 7, 2018 at 9:56 pm

    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.

  21. Saroun says

    May 3, 2018 at 4:47 am

    I can’t turn off my iphone off I did try all button still can’t help.

  22. Arts says

    April 30, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    the up /down and then power button worked to power off the phone.
    thanks so much

  23. Ken says

    April 21, 2018 at 10:06 am

    The quick press volume up and down workedvery well for me thank you! This was for my iPhone X

  24. Dhiraj Khandelwal says

    December 20, 2017 at 11:54 am

    I am not able to start this , going with the instructions it’s land to emergency call

  25. Jenny says

    December 12, 2017 at 12:55 pm

    Thank you so much!!!! My phone is working again!

  26. Mike says

    December 12, 2017 at 9:19 am

    Holding the sleep/wake button with the volume down button worked. Thanks!

  27. summer says

    December 11, 2017 at 2:57 pm

    IT WORKED, took a couple attempts though

  28. Bobbi says

    December 9, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    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.

  29. Kent says

    December 1, 2017 at 12:18 pm

    Yes it helped It took three attempts before success but thank you!

  30. d says

    November 28, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    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!

  31. Danny Sanz says

    November 23, 2017 at 12:33 pm

    Manuel Da Silva, Genius! Thanks,

  32. Nicole Darc says

    November 12, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    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!

  33. Brian says

    November 10, 2017 at 3:19 pm

    Manuel Da SIlva……… thanks you are a lifesaver thank you for the fix

  34. Tadas says

    November 6, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    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.

  35. M. Flaherty says

    November 4, 2017 at 9:06 am

    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.

  36. Nan Mc says

    November 1, 2017 at 3:54 am

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. Sleep/Wake and Volume down did the trick. <3

  37. Jennell says

    October 30, 2017 at 10:55 am

    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.

  38. Glauco Lima says

    October 30, 2017 at 9:51 am

    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.

  39. torrnado says

    October 30, 2017 at 8:43 am

    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.

  40. Peta says

    October 29, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    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”

  41. torrnado says

    October 29, 2017 at 9:58 am

    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

  42. H Dawes says

    October 28, 2017 at 10:58 am

    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

  43. Manuel Da SIlva says

    October 26, 2017 at 10:52 am

    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.

  44. Paul says

    October 25, 2017 at 12:05 am

    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.

  45. Monica says

    October 23, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    Up down on the volume worked for me
    Thank you

  46. Leigh Morum says

    October 23, 2017 at 2:51 pm

    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 :-(

  47. M. FLaherty says

    October 23, 2017 at 6:44 am

    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!

  48. vercors says

    October 22, 2017 at 9:02 am

    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?

  49. 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.

    Say thank you!

  50. Renier Wessels says

    October 21, 2017 at 12:00 pm

    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.

  51. Langston Spell says

    October 17, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    Nothing helped, and it is still frozen. The first screen will come on, but no app works, including Settiings.

Did this help? Let us know!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • How to Enable Dark Mode in Firefox
  • Windows 11: How to Add Clocks with Different Time Zones
  • Google Assistant: How to Never Miss a Birthday
  • Windows 11: How to Disable Notifications and Ads
  • How to Use Oculus Quest 2 Air Link
  • How to Create an Avatar in the Oculus Quest 2
  • 5 Free and Fun Math Apps for Kids
  • Windows 11: How to Discover What Graphics Card You’re Using

Who’s Behind Technipages?

Baby and Daddy My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

© Copyright 2022 Technipages · All Rights Reserved · Privacy