iPhone Stuck On Spinning Wheel? Here’s The Fix!

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• Hey David, I appreciate all that you do in regards to helping people who aren’t tech savvy or who are wanting the most privacy and functionality get the most out of their devices. I’ve watched just about every YouTube video you’ve posted and it’s saved my skin on multiple occasions. I’ve been an iPhone/iOS user since the iPhone 3G and have just recently upgraded to the iPhone 15 from the 13 mini (wish I still had) R.I.P. but I have just recently experienced something that I have never came across in any iPhone or iOS version (public or beta) and would like to know if you would possibly know the potential culprit and if I should be contacting Apple support. I always have location services disabled all the time, I remove just about every preinstalled app, and I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. I had three apps open, the photos app and two more in the background. Well I was going through my photos (getting rid of all the unnecessary and duplicate/triplicate photos) and was just about ready to hit delete, after almost two and a half hours of work, the screen goes completely black then the black/grey screen appears with the little spinning wheel like you have mentioned in this thread and it stayed on for about five seconds before returning to the Home Screen. All three apps were still in the background and I noticed that my signal was gone for the first few seconds before returning back to the good ole LTE I’m unfortunately stuck with because of my horrible carrier. Should I be taking action or is this something that normally happens and I just have never experienced it until now? Thanks David and keep up the great work!

  • @David Lynch

• Thanks bro. jst worked. had no money to replace my iphone 6s plus.

• i have an iphone 8, its the most broken piece of garbage in the world and this problem happens every other month. nothing seems to work or doing anything at all. any more tips that mights help?

• Worked for my iPhone 7. Thanks for posting this fix!

• I have the same issue as others here. The phone restarts, comes to the pin page, input pin and black screen with spinning wheel. I then placed in DFU mode and attempted an update, that failed, I went back into dfu mode to restore but the Mac just hangs on “preparing phone for restore. Can’t update, can’t restore.

• i have done the hard reset and it does bring me back to the screen so i can unlock my phone, but once i unlock my phone it goes right back to the spinning wheel screen.

• My iPhone 7 is stuck with the spinning black screen and my iPhone volume buttons does not work.

  • Are the volume buttons broken?

• Thank you so much, you are a life saver!

  • Happy to help!

• I did the hard reset on an iPhone 11. The phone turns on, but after I insert the PIN the screen flashes to the spinning wheel again.

  • Same here! Either the spinning wheel, or apple logo then back to spinning wheel. When my home screen does appear, I type in my password and straight to spinning wheel again. Let me know if you find a quick fix.

    • Wait for some hours, or maybe wait half a day and it will work.

    • hello, did u find a solution cuz my iphone is doing the same thing

      • did you find out i really need help please

    • I don't know how to fix my iPhone 11 too. It does the same

      • mine is doing the same thing ! Did anyone find a fix ?

    • did it ever turn back on?

    • hey what did you do to fix that because thats the same thing thats wrong with my iphone

• Hi. My iPhone XR is still stuck on the spinning wheel, even when I tried the steps you provided. What should I do now?

  • My phone does too. How am I gonna fix it?

• Worked perfectly. Looked up this resource on my Android for my friend who insists Apple is better. Joke's on her!

• Hi James. My iPhone 6s Plus is stuck with the spinning black screen and my iPhone Home button does not work.

• Hi my phone shows a loading icon after I put in my password. Do you know how to fix it?

• Thank you so much; your article was a lifesaver!

  • You're welcome, happy to hear it helped you fix the problem with your iPhone!

• I tried the volume and power button, but now it's stuck on the apple logo.

  • Hi Bella! A hard reset can take longer than you might expect to initiate. Make sure you hold both buttons down for at least a minute! Hope this helps!

    • Which 2 buttons for 1 minute? Volume up or down, or side button? Sorry.

      • Hi Calem! To hard reset your iPhone, press and hold the Side button and the volume down button. Thanks for reading!

• My iPhone X has been buffering for 2 hours.

  • Did you find out how to fix it?

• iPhone XS is spinning on a blank screen. It vibrates every few seconds.

• how do I fix Bluetooth stuck on spinning wheel(the turn on/off icon is just spinning)

  • Check out our other article on what to do when Bluetooth is not working on an iPhone. Those steps will help you fix the problem!

• Hi I did the troubeshooting and when I hard reset I then get stuck on the Apple logo. This is my 2nd attempt. The first time it looked "fixed" but the moment I opened my phone it went black and then back to the spinning circle again.

  • Joey how did you end up fixing it? This is what mine is doing and I can’t seem to fix it at all.

    • Same with mine. Did you guys learn how to fix it?

      • Hi, did you ever learn how to fix it? Mine is the same.

  • Hi Joey, I'm sorry to hear that! Thanks for checking out our article and giving our troubleshooting tips a shot! Unfortunately, if none of our suggestions have helped your best bet would be to reach out to Apple directly. It's possible you're experiencing a serious hardware or software issue. If that's the case, an Apple Technician should be able to diagnose the issue and give you a quote for repair costs. I'm sorry we couldn't be of more help, best of luck!

• This article has simply saved more lives than you know. Thank you ?

• After the Apple Logo appears then what do you do?

  • Hi Mitchel, once the Apple logo appears during a hard reset, you can just let go of the buttons you're holding! Your iPhone should turn back on on its own from there.

• thank you so much for giving info on trouble shoot. didn't realize that we have to restart according to model till read your article.

• hard reset doesnt work for me :I its get black and after a couple seconds it just comes back :/

  • Have you tried a Hard Reset while plugged into a charger or computer?

    • Hard reset clears everything in your phone… right? So you lose all contacts photos songs etc correct?

• My I phone xr is stuck with the spinning thing on my screen and whatever I do it's not working

  • How did you fix it?

• Did not help. Would not reset, just continued with the spinning wheel.

• its happening to my iphone 6s

• Thanks so much

• hi
  my phone is on spinning wheels and also is vibrating every 5 secondes
  can you help?
  thank you so much in adavnce
  best
  laure

  • Hi Laure, try a hard reset. If that doesn't work, contact Apple for more help. It could be a hardware problem.

• Hard reset worked.

  • We're glad to hear it!

• So glad I found your webpage. This fixed my problem with the spinning wheel in seconds. Thank you!

  • Glad to hear it! Thanks for reading!

• Hi, unfortunately my sleep / wake button doesn’t work anymore, can I just wait for the battery to flat out?

  • If your iPhone is completely unresponsive that might be your best best. Once your iPhone turns back on, I'd recommend turning on AssistiveTouch, which allows you to fully control your iPhone without using any buttons. To do this, open Settings > Accessibility > Touch. Then, tap Assistive Touch and turn on the switch labelled AssistiveTouch.

    Once you turn on AssistiveTouch, tap the white circle that appears on your screen, then tap Device. Here, you can lock your phone by tapping Lock Screen, or turn off your phone by pressing and holding Lock Screen.

• Thank you for your help. This worked. Be safe. God bless.?

• Thaaaaank you!!!! That solved the problem although I do see where you said it may be a temporary fix.

• This tip corrected the problem. Thank you.

• Thanks for this posting. The first time this occurred on my 6S+ I was near an ATT store. I know Apple is trying to force me to upgrade sooner than I want. ? Now to decide which one which one without having to take out a second mortgage.

• My iphone 6+ was keep spinning, thanks for your post, it helped to resolve the issue

• does the hard reset erase photos and contacts on iphone 6s???

  • No, doing a hard reset will never erase your photos and contacts. If you are using an app that is trying to save data to your internal storage and do the hard reset before it finishes, that data might be corrupted. Unless you have to, don't do a hard reset while in the process of saving something. I hope this helps!

• I cant do this because my home button doesn't work ?

• I just bought an SE and have been having the spinning wheel problem. I did hard reset, turned Siri on and off, turned off Bluetooth, closed all apps...and nothing worked. But then I turned off cellular roaming and that seems to have done the trick!

• Apple told me on March 10, 2021 that there is a software glitch on IPhone Se second generation ...using dictation and\or Siri will caude that. Working on it, and will be included in next update. Not thrilked because i cannot use dictation now.

  • Glad to hear that. I bought an Iphone SE 2020 recently and this problem occurred. I tried every possible solution and they only worked temporarily. I am not sure if the problem drains the battery but certainly it is frustrating.

    • Update: Yesterday I received new update from Apple, still the problem exist. All the possible solutions work until I use dictation. I only haven't used DFU Restore method yet. Is DFU restore method is dangerous to phone, or might it cancel the warranty?

      • A DFU restore won't cancel your warranty, it's a method used by Apple technicians at the store.

• My phone is stuck in spinning loading screen. My home button and power button is broken. How can I turn it on?

• I can’t thank you enough for the list of steps you have specified here. The first recommendation worked on my mom’s phone. Simple and quick. For a minute I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to salvage her phone. And since I myself have upgraded to many iPhone iterations, I’ve already forgotten some of the simple steps that each iPhone versions required. And this help page could not have been any simpler. You saved me a trip to the Apple store. Thank you once again!

• Hey my phone is stuck with a spinning wheel n my home button do not work what other way can I do it

  • You can try to reset your iPhone using iTunes. This uses a wired connection to your computer and doesn't require any input on your iPhone.

    • im trying that but iTunes isn’t finding my phone.

      • Have you tried using Finder to backup your iPhone instead?

• omg thank you my phone turned back on!!!

• but my home button isnt working. so how am i gonna do it?

  • You can use Assistive Touch to simulate your home button with your iPhone's touch screen! ?

• I have a 6s and my home button does not currently function. Is there another way I can do a hard reset?

  • You can use Assistive Touch to simulate a home button. ?

• Thanks so much, you just saved me a trip to AT&T. That worked!! Thanks again for taking the time to post this information.

• Thankx. It worked a treat.

• You, great information

• it worked for my iphone 6s+ !! thank you so much

  • me too!

  • I am glad and happy fo ryou