iPhone Won’t Restart or Force Restart Not Working? How to Fix

Restart iPhone, which means a soft restart. Restarting iPhone is at the software level to reboot some iPhone network settings and close all app processes. And turn iPhone off then on. It won’t delete any data on your iPhone. This way can fix some basic issues, like iPhone acting sluggish, network errors, home screen layout or location & privacy problems.

Usually, when your iPhone is launching sluggish and become so unresponsive, you may need to turn it off and on again. While sometimes, it may be refusing to turn on after turning off. Then what to do when your iPhone won’t restart? First, retry restart and if it’s still not working, you can check some methods in this post.

Part 1: Try to Force Restart iPhone

Firstly, the best solution to fix iPhone won’t restart may enable force-restart, also known as a hard reset. Just as the above mentioned, restart/reboot iPhone is at the software level to refresh the device. While force restarting is a hardware level restart, so it can work when your iPhone is frozen or black or somehow malfunctioning. If your iPhone won’t restart for many times, follow the steps below to try to force restart it:

For iPhone 8/SE 2, iPhone X and later models:

1. Quickly press and release the Volume Up button.
2. And press and release the Volume Down button.
3. Then press and hold the Side button. Release the Side button when the Apple logo appears.

For iPhone 7 series:

1. Press and hold the Volume Up/Down button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.
2. Release the buttons when the Apple logo appears.

For iPhone 6 and earlier models:

1. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time.
2. Release the buttons when the Apple logo appears.

Part 2: What to Do if Hard Reset/Force Restart Not Working

Method 1: Fix with One-stop Solution

No matter iPhone won’t restart or force restart, there is a one-stop solution that can help you out the dilemmas. This solution is named as AnyFix. It’s a software that designed to help iOS/iPadOS/tvOS users completely and professionally. You can check its main features below to get what you need:

• Fix 130+ iPhone/iPad/iPod touch system problems, including iPhone won’t restart, iPhone keeps restarting, etc. Apple TV is also supported.
• Three repair modes are provided, letting you fix system problems with the highest success rate.
• Besides, if you got error messages when using iTunes, AnyFix is here to solve 200+ common or complicated iTunes errors.
• What’s more, it provides you two ways to reset iPhone and allows you to enter/exit recovery mode easily.

Now, feel free to get the latest version of AnyFix and follow the steps to fix iPhone won’t restart or force restart not working:

Step 1. Launch AnyFix and choose System Repair from the homepage.

Step 2. Choose iPhone Problems. The system issues are listed here, you can have a quick glance at them to find what the tool can help you to solve. Then tap Start Now button.

Step 3. Next, you need to select a repair mode according to your situation. Normally, Standard Repair supports the most common system issues and without data loss.

Step 4. Then you need to tap Download button to add a matching firmware on your computer. Once the downloading finished, click Fix Now. Then AnyFix will start the repairing process. (If your iPhone didn’t enter recovery mode, you need to put it into recovery mode before repairing.)

Method 2: Restore iPhone with iTunes

If you’d like to reset iPhone to fix it won’t force restart, iTunes can always help you.

Open iTunes > Tap the phone icon > Choose Restore iPhone > Then follow the steps to continue.

Method 3: Reset iPhone in Recovery Mode

There is a final way you can try if force restarting is either not working. That is put your iPhone into recovery mode and reset it with iTunes. This is a final method you can try since iPhone data will be erased after reset. You can follow the steps below to reset the won’t restart iPhone to factory settings.

Step 1. First, check if there is an available update on iTunes. If yes, just download and install it on your computer.

Step 2. Put your iPhone into recovery mode and connect it to the computer.

Step 3. iTunes will detect that your iPhone is in recovery mode. Just tap Restore button.

Step 4. After restoring to factory settings, your device will restart and you can proceed to set it up as new.

The Bottom Line

If your iPhone frozen and won’t restart, you can try force restart first. Or force restarting is not working at all, you may need to repair it with AnyFix. Also restoring iPhone is another way when you already created an iPhone backup or you don’t worry about data loss. And if you got any other ideas, feel free to share them with us.