How to reboot iPhone if the lock button does not work

The iPhone lock (power on) button does not work. The Anatomy of a Failure

Hi. It’s time to tell you my iPhone lock button failure story. You’ll laugh, but I still have an old iPhone 4S, brought back by a coworker from Canada. My iPhone has been in service for 4 years and is still working without problems.

True there was one case where simply stuck (ceased to press) the POWER button and I could not normally use the phone. Today I will tell you how to overcome this fairly common disease. This is a happy ending story so read the article to the end.

I was not the first and will not be the last iPhone user to encounter malfunctioning iPhone buttons. There are cases of failure as a lock button (power on) and the volume buttons (plus or minus). And it is worth noting that the buttons are broken on all models of iPhone.

What leads to their failure? The answer is hard to give It could be a fall on one of the buttons, or a heavy pressure, or maybe just a defect or a poorly made component of the iPhone.

Being in a situation when one of the most strategic buttons of the iPhone stops working I decided to get to the bottom of the problem and fix the lock button myself. Or at least try to fix it on that in the next paragraph.

How to reboot iPhone if it is frozen (forced reboot)

In case your iPhone hangs and does not respond to taps, Apple provided a way to forcely reboot iPhone, all the data will remain in place, no need to worry about that. Use the following steps to reboot the iPhone 12, iPhone 11, iPhone XS, XR, iPhone X, iPhone 8 and SE second generation:

• Press and quickly release the volume up button.
• Press and release volume down button.
• Press and hold the screen off button until the Apple logo appears, then release it.

After performing the above steps the iPhone will restart.

Note: the steps described above do not always work the first time, if it did not work right away, just try to perform the same steps a few more times, eventually everything should work.

The steps are slightly different for older models:

• On your iPhone 7, press and hold the volume down and screen off button until the apple logo appears.
• On first-generation iPhone 6s and SE, you should hold down the screen off and home buttons simultaneously.

How to reboot iPhone without lock button

Normal and forced reboot are performed by pressing the regular buttons. How to reboot iPhone if the power button does not work? If the power/lock or home button is broken, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to operate the device. Nevertheless, it is still possible to reboot an iPhone with a broken lock button.

• Go to “Settings. Basic. Universal access”;
• Activate the “Assistive Touch” function;
• Press the program button that appears on the screen;
• Select the item “Device”;
• Press and hold “Lock screen” in the menu that opens;
• “Swipe to the right the “Power off” button (similar to a normal reboot).

After this the smartphone will switch off. To turn it on again, connect the charger.

All this agony with a software reset without a button is not justified. Not being able to use your smartphone normally is a big disadvantage. Therefore we recommend you to apply to the nearest service center for repair. Service specialists will open your smartphone, replace the power / lock button, assemble the device and return it in working order. After that you will be able to use your smartphone normally and reboot it as needed in normal mode.

Another twisted way to send your iPhone to restart is to wait for the battery to fully discharge. At a certain stage, when the battery is not enough to work properly, the iPhone will shut down. This method is working, but we strongly recommend that you go to the service center and repair the broken button. The more that such repairs are not too expensive.

If your smartphone is under warranty, and you are sure that the button broke on its own, and not as a result of careless user actions, you can return the smartphone to the store, in order to further transfer for warranty repair in an authorized service center.

Reboot without Power button

You can use this method if the power button does not work. To do this we need to turn on the “AssistiveTouch” function.

Go to Settings Basic Universal Access AssistiveTouch and activate the switch.

A button will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. Click on it:

In the menu that appears press Apparatus

Next, press and hold your finger on the Lock screen item

As in method 1, you will see the “Power off” button.

Or go to Apparatus → Restart. The system prompts you to restart your iPhone. Accept and done.

Forced restart of iPhone

If your iPhone isn’t responding and you can’t turn it off and on, try a forced restart.

Note. The procedure for forcing the iPhone to restart depends on the iPhone model. To find out the model of your iPhone see “Asset Management”. Apple Support article Identifying iPhone models.

If these steps don’t reset your iPhone, see “Resetting your iPhone” on page 3. Apple iPhone, iPad or iPod touch does not turn on or freezes. If iPhone does not work properly after restarting, see. Iphone support website.

Forced reset of iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone 11 or iPhone 12

Press and immediately release the volume up button, press and immediately release the volume down button, then press and hold the side button. When the Apple logo appears, release the button.

How to forcibly restart iPhone?

In case if iPhone hangs up dead and does not respond to a touch the people of Cupertino have a Hard Reset mechanism.

Experts recommend not using a “hard” reset unless absolutely necessary. This procedure may result in, for example, a complete loss of data.

Hard Reset is done like this:

Press the “Home” and “Power” buttons simultaneously and hold them for about 10 seconds.

Release the buttons and you will see the Apple logo on the screen. If there is no “apple”, press the “Power” button as with the standard power on.

Hard Reset helps not only to cope with freezes, but also to solve a number of other problems. For example, this is the recommended procedure if your iPhone runs out of power unnaturally fast.

Rebooting iPhone in normal mode

If the device is working perfectly normally and you want to reboot it urgently. There is a “Power” key for this purpose, holding it will offer to turn off the device.

Clicking on the “Turn off” item will turn off the device. After that, you can use the same button to reboot the device.

Questions & Answers

What is the difference between reboot and reset? Restarting your iPhone is simply turning the device off and then turning it back on. Resetting your device will delete apps and files and return your phone to its default settings.

How to reset your iPhone? Go to Settings General Reset all contents and settings. Enter your password, read the warning, then select Erase. Depending on the model of your iPhone, the reset process may be different.

Is resetting your iPhone dangerous? No! As long as you have something important backed up or otherwise available, there are no dangers associated with rebooting your iPhone. In fact, some problems can even be solved with a reset.