How, When and Why should you force restart you iPhone?

For the most part, iPhones tend to be fairly reliable and stable devices, but as several people have eventually discovered they can still freeze up and become unresponsive at times. Luckily, Apple has provided a way to “Force Restart” a frozen iPhone with just a few button presses.

While this procedure doesn’t work 100% of the time, the occasions when it doesn’t are extremely rare. If you run into a weird glitch on your iPhone maybe the sound won't work, or apps keep crashing, or you can't make calls your first step should be to perform a quick restart.

This will refresh the software on your iPhone and likely fix whatever's gone wrong. And if your iPhone is so bugged that you can't even restart it, a force restart works just as well. This method "forces" your iPhone to turn off, even if it's frozen.

Depending on what model you have well give you a steps on how to reboot your device easily and quickly. Just follow the steps below that apply to the model you have.

iPhone 8 or newer:

1. Press and then quickly release the Volume Up button.

2. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button.

3. Press and hold the Side button (the button on the right side of the phone) until the Apple logo appears, then release the button.

iPhone 7:

1. Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.

2. Release both buttons after the Apple logo appears.

iPhone 6s or iPhone SE (1st generation):

1. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time.

2. Release both buttons after the Apple logo appears.

That’s all there is to it. Your iPhone should now be in the process of restarting.

If for some reason the above procedure doesn’t work, that’s likely an indication that your phone has a serious issue that needs to be addressed either by contacting Apple Support or by taking your device to a trusted phone repair company.