While it may not look like it, the iPhone is basically a small computer that fits in your palm or your pocket. And though it doesn't look like your desktop or laptop, just like those devices, sometimes it needs to be restarted to fix problems.
When the iPhone crashes, locks up in a way that prevents the iPhone from responding to being turned off, or just isn't working as it should (you'd be surprised at how many problems can be solved by a simple reset) you need to reset the iPhone. Here's how:
- Reset the iPhone by holding the sleep/wake button at the top right of the device and the home button at the bottom center of the face at the same time.
- Hold them both until you see the screen go black. In some cases, you may need to keep holding them even after the red power off slider appears. If it does, just keep holding it.
- Wait until the white Apple logo appears.
- When this happens, you can let go - the iPhone is rebooting.
An iPhone reset will not normally remove or delete any data or settings. However, the term reset is also sometimes used to mean deleting all content from the iPhone and/or restoring from a backup.
Affected iPhones
This reset process works on the:
For More Help
Restore to Factory Settings: If you want to wipe all the data from your iPhone and start from scratch (this can solve some tough bugs and is good if you're going to sell your iPhone), try resetting it to factory settings.
Recovery Mode: If your iPhone is stuck in a reboot loop, or won't boot past the Apple logo, try recovery mode.
