Your iPhone will not turn on and you’re looking for help. It’s a problem that can be easy or difficult to fix, depending on the cause. In this article, I’ll help you determine the reason why your iPhone won’t turn on and show you how to fix your iPhone when it isn’t turning on.
Be Careful Of Misinformation About Why iPhones Won’t Turn On
I wrote this article because I’ve seen a lot of other articles that claim to have a solution to the “iPhone won’t turn on” problem, but based on my experience as an Apple tech, the other articles have only one piece of the puzzle — or the information is just plain wrong.
Why Won’t My iPhone Turn On?
Your iPhone won’t turn on because either the software crashed and needs to be reset or restored, or a hardware problem is preventing your iPhone from turning on.
How To Fix An iPhone That Won’t Turn On
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Determine Whether Your iPhone Won’t Turn On Due To A Hardware Or Software Problem
We need to determine is whether a software or hardware problem is preventing your iPhone from turning on. Your iPhone’s software is the easiest to troubleshoot, so that’s where we’ll start. If that doesn’t solve the problem, I’ll discuss the hardware issues that can cause the problem.
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Software Crash
I saw this problem a lot at Apple. Someone would walk in and hand me an iPhone that wouldn’t turn on. I’d do a hard reset and their iPhone would immediately spring back to life. Astonished, they’d ask, “What did you do?”
Cross your fingers and try a hard reset. To hard reset your iPhone on an iPhone 6S or older, press and hold down the Sleep / Wake button (the power button) and the Home button at the same time, for at least 20 seconds or until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
On iPhone 7, simultaneously hold the power button and volume down button instead.
To hard reset an iPhone 8 or newer, quickly press and release the volume up button, then press and release the volume down button, then press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.
Sidenote: Why Can A Hard Reset Fix An iPhone That Won’t Turn On?
If a hard reset fixed your iPhone, your problem was never that your iPhone wouldn’t turn on, because it was on the whole time.
A lot of people think their iPhone won’t turn on when their iPhone is on, but the software has crashed so it’s displaying a black screen and not responding. It’s an easy mistake to make, because an iPhone in that condition is almost indistinguishable from an iPhone that’s turned off.
Fixing A Software Crash
If you’ve determined that your iPhone’s software is the reason your iPhone won’t turn on, I recommend you backup and restore your iPhone. When a software problem is that bad, it’s time to fix the software. You can learn about how to do the deepest type of iPhone restore in my article about how to DFU restore an iPhone.
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Check Your Lightning Cable And Your Charger (Don’t Skip This Step)
If your iPhone won’t turn on, try charging your iPhone with another cable and another charger, or alternatively, try charging someone else’s iPhone with your cable and your charger. If their iPhone charges and yours doesn’t, don’t skip to the next step just yet.A common, less-documented issue is some iPhones will charge when connected to a laptop computer, but not with the wall charger. Even if your friend’s iPhone charges with the same cable and wall charger, it’s possible that your iPhone will not. Without going into a detailed discussion about why this happens, try charging your iPhone using a USB port on your computer if you usually use a wall outlet, and try a wall charger if you usually charge your iPhone with your laptop.
To learn more about how to fix iPhone charging problems that can be related to this issue, I recommend you check out my article called My iPhone Won’t Charge.
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Make Sure It’s Not Just The Display
If your iPhone still won’t turn on, plug your iPhone into your computer and open iTunes (PCs and Macs running macOS 10.14 or older) or Finder (Macs running macOS 10.15 or newer). Does iTunes recognize your iPhone? If it does, back up your iPhone right away. If there’s a serious hardware problem, this might be your last chance to back up your data.If your iPhone shows up in iTunes of Finder and you can successfully back it up, or if it’s making any noises at all, you may need to have your iPhone’s display repaired. My article about what to do if your iPhone screen turns black can help. Scroll to the Repair Options section at the bottom of this article to learn what to do next (and possibly save some money).
If your iPhone doesn’t show up in iTunes or Finder, try doing a hard reset while your iPhone is connected to your computer. Do you see any error messages? If iTunes says you need to restore your iPhone, do it.
If you’ve tried the previous steps and your iPhone still won’t turn on, there’s probably no way to recover the data that’s on your iPhone now unless you have an iTunes, Finder, or iCloud backup. The only other option for recovering data is to use one of the very expensive iPhone data recovery companies you can find with a Google search.
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Check For Physical Or Liquid Damage
For those of us who’ve dropped our iPhones and got away with it, iPhones are tough. For people whose iPhones stopped working after they watched their daughter’s softball game in the rain, iPhones are fragile. Drops and spills can cause damage that stops iPhones from turning on.
Water damage is insidious and unpredictable. A spill from a week ago can cause a problem to occur today for the very first time. A drop of water got in the charging port and your iPhone won’t charge, but your friend spilled a glass of water on his iPhone and it works just fine — we hear stories like this all the time.
Do a visual inspection of the outside of your iPhone — is there any damage? If it’s minor, Apple may ignore it and replace your iPhone under warranty.
Next, check for liquid damage. Your iPhone’s warranty doesn’t cover liquid damage unless your have AppleCare+, and even then, there’s still a deductible. To learn how to check if your iPhone has water damage, check out our comprehensive guide on iPhone liquid damage. -
Repair Options For When An iPhone Won’t Turn On
If you’re under warranty and there’s no physical or liquid damage, Apple will probably cover the repair for no charge. If you’re not, Apple can be expensive—but there are good alternatives.
Now might be a good time to get a new cell phone. iPhone repairs are expensive, and your device may have multiple hardware problems. Repair companies often need to replace every broken component. Those repairs will add up quickly, and your bill may be hundreds of dollars. It may be more economical to upgrade to a newer iPhone. Check out UpPhone’s tool to compare every cell phone on every wireless carrier.
If your iPhone won’t turn on, try charging your iPhone with another cable and another charger, or alternatively, try charging someone else’s iPhone with your cable and your charger. If their iPhone charges and yours doesn’t, don’t skip to the next step just yet.
If your iPhone still won’t turn on, plug your iPhone into your computer and open iTunes (PCs and Macs running macOS 10.14 or older) or Finder (Macs running macOS 10.15 or newer). Does iTunes recognize your iPhone? If it does, back up your iPhone right away. If there’s a serious hardware problem, this might be your last chance to back up your data.
Next, check for liquid damage. Your iPhone’s warranty doesn’t cover liquid damage unless your have AppleCare+, and even then, there’s still a deductible. To learn how to check if your iPhone has water damage, check out our Your iPhone Is Turning On Again: Time To Wrap It Up
By this point, you’ve determined why your iPhone won’t turn on and the next steps to take if your iPhone needs to be repaired. If it helped you, please share it with your friends, especially because so many other articles out there are filled with inaccurate information on this subject. I’m interested to hear about your experience with troubleshooting and how you fixed your iPhone in the comments section below.
I have an iPhone 6s that has been acting up for the past few months. Plugged uncharged to 100%. When I unplug it, it immediately drops to 10%. The battery was replaced 2 years ago. Today, after charging all night, it won’t take a charge. I checked all of my cables, they work with other devices. I’ve plugged the iPhone into an outlet charger, my radio with a USB port and my laptop. Still no charge. I tried a hard reset, nothing. Cleaned the charging port, nothing. Any other suggestions?
Wow thank you. The reset seems to have worked.
my iphone went dead and when i plug it in it will not cut on
My iphone died and now when i try to charge it it will say it’s charging then not charging over and over again and there is no debris in the charging port and I can’t even soft reset.
Have you tried using a different charging cable? You can also try a different adapter (charging brick) and a different outlet.
My iPhone turns off ok but when I try to turn it back on that’s the problem it doesn’t come back on I have to plug it up then it comes back on . I need help with this . Any suggestions thanks in advance
If your iPhone won’t turn on without being plugged in, that sounds to me like there’s an issue with your battery. It’s probably time to upgrade to a new iPhone if you are running anything older than an iPhone 8. I recommend checking out our cell phone comparison tool to help you find a new device that won’t burn a hole in your wallet in the process! You can sort for phones by price, manufacturer, screen size, internal storage, and more so that you can find exactly what you need without paying extra for bells and whistles you’ll never use.
My Iphone 7 was dropped today and although I have seen no physical damage it has been unresponsive since. I have let it charge and have also tried many different ways to try and reset it or restart it. It does not show up in iTunes either. It doesnt respond to anything at all and doesnt make any indications of it still working.
hey mine is stuck on the apple can you help without itunes?
my phone died and it just have a black screen some times it cut on but its just black screen i try every thing but it wont cut on so what do i need to do i have a iphone 6s+
my iphone won’t switch on but says its charging and bottom is kinda broke
my iphone won’t switch on but says its charging
same with me here
same
it didn’t work my iphone 2g wouldnt turn on after i restarded it
Its very helpful… My iPhone SE2 was not turning On… I followed the steps and now my phone is turned On.. Thanks for sharing the tics.
My Phone just does not have any signs of life it was working one day and I wake up in the morning wont show me any signs of life I think its dead 🙁
My phone did the same thing I’m still trying to fix it
So my iphone screen is showing a charger picture and a battery icon with a red bar flashing. It’s been plugged in for over 24 hours and its not charging. Any idea what that would mean or how to fix it? I tried hard restarting it just to see and nothing happened.
try check you battery
how do you do that?
my iphone doest turn on,whenever i charge it overnight,the other day it says theres no battery,and it wont turn on even if i try turning on
Same
it was written that my accessory is not supported then it turned off. what does this mean?
omg same pls tell me what did you do
My iPhone 7plus Cnt be on I HV tried evrything the screen is just black it’s been a week now
i change my battery and then let my iphone 6s charge and when i went to go get it, it wouldnt turn on 🙁
My phone just will not turn on at all. It’s a 6s and I can’t even restart it or get to the screen where it tells you to plug in your phone. It just won’t turn on at all. Any advice on that because I want it to work really bad and it just seems to be gone.
mine is a 7plus tried all the steps and its still not working i dont know what to do
same
same
my iphone 7 wont turn on
My iphone will not turn on even
My iphone will not turn on even with hard reset
my phone wont turn on and i dont have a hme button
me too no home button did it work again? what did u do
My phone was on restore mode when i was try to close restore mode and going to normal boot again, but after the phone off, it wont have any sign of life, i try to plug on power, wall charger and PC but no sign from phone, also i try to power on using Vol – and wake button may times, it fail to boot, is my phone dead cause of software issue or hardware issue? because before i try to exit restore mode, when i try to boot phone is always on recovery mode and not on booting screen,… Read more »
but my home button it is broken ,it doesnt work , any button alternative please ?
me too! and if you go to settings, then accessibility, then turn on touch. and usually its better if your pass code is turned off because assistive touch wont work unless your iphone is unlocked.
It workedddddddd!!!!!!
Thank you so much
my phone says its charging but but it wont turn on it was at 100 percent but just shut off out of no where what should i do i got 6s
Earlier today i was just watching tv and my phone just stopped working it wont turn on and wont charge either but I remember it having some battery left.
me too i was listening to music in the car and we got off at target and it turned it off but i remember it had 30% battery
Happen to me too yesterday, did you solve it?
I dropped my iPhone 6s it won’t stay on now Im scared what shouldi do
BRUH THANK YOU! all the other articles didn’t work. THANK YOU SOO MUCH i was scared lmao
whatd you do? and what kind of iphone do you have
I’m going to throw my 6s away. Told my wife to never use iTunes again since I can’t reset my apple id password without it. It won’t charge, won’t reset, and is not worth any kind of money to fix it.
I will never trust anything from Apple again, and I’m sticking with Android from now on. The devices are so much better.
Sorry to hear about that! To tell you the truth, I’ve been an Android user ever since I had my first smartphone. If you’re looking for a new Android phone, I recommend trying out UpPhone’s cell phone comparison tool. It’s really helpful for finding phones within a certain price point with features that you need. You can also compare them against one another to see which one is better for you. I try not to recommend a particular phone to anyone because everyone has different needs. A single device isn’t the perfect fit for everybody.
Excuse me sir, I’m 15 years old and i just got my first iPhone 6s last year. Yesterday it turned off but when i charged it, it turned back on but turned off again. Now it wont charge and it wont turn back on. I’m really scared because i know that if i tell my parents its broken i wont get another one and that was my only way to talk to my mother and little sisters. We cant afford another one so can you please help me?
Try using a different cable to charge the phone, a different power brick, and maybe even a different outlet. If any one of those three aren’t working, your phone won’t charge. The iPhone 6S is also about 6 years old now, having been released in 2015, so it’s entirely possible that something just simply went wrong after all that time. You can try and sell or trade-in the phone to help you afford a new one, or you can attempt to check out your repair options. Most iPhones cost more than $500. If you do decide to get a new… Read more »
my phone turns on but only stays at the apple sign and doesnt go rather
same for me what did u do ? did it work again?
My iphone has been crashing for the last few weeks and today it’s getting stuck on the startup (apple logo) then going dark again. What can I do ?
Hi, So my IPhone wont turn on even after hours of charging, always showing me the low battery signal and says it is connected to a charger. I tried different charging cables, tried different charging methods but none seemed to work. It happened in the morning where my IPhone showed low battery signal but then immediately showed the apple symbol when i put it to charge. But then after that symbol showed up it just goes back to low battery. What am i to do now.
You should check out our article about what to do when your iPhone won’t charge. That might be able to help.
Me too! my phone has been charging for 15 hours and it’s still completely dead and I’ve tried just about everything (including using 5 different chargers and ports), and it still won’t work.
When I plugged my iPhone 5s into the computer and opened itunes, my phone turned on!
Hi I I have a iPhone 6 or 7 and it won’t turn on I tried to clean out the plug-in part and that’s what usually makes it turn on after because I fixed an iPhone 5 with that and it still won’t turn on so can you help
My iphone 6S randomly stopped letting me open apps. it said low storage, so I deleted some apps, pictures and videos. I then powered it off, hoping that it would work. However when i turned it back on all it has is the black apple logo on the screen, it won’t do anything else. What should i do?
EXACTLY what happened to me!!!!
My iphone X is just showing the black screen with apple sign. Tried hard reset and it still didn’t work. What can I do for now? I have yet to back up all my photos.
My I phone 11 randomly stopped letting me open apps like whatsapp. So I powered it off with hope that it would work when i turned it back on. It has had the black apple screen for just under half an hour now, what should i do?
Omg MeTOOOOO someone help. i went to tmobile they said it had something to do with low storage.
This article I’ve linked may be able to help.
This exact thing has just happened to me. Were you able to fix it?
My iphone6s was totally flat so I connected it to the charger I was charging all of a sudden it went off showing no signs of power nothing not even the charger logo please I need help
Hi, My i phone 7 also shutdown and cant able to turn on.
https://www.payetteforward.com/iphone-wont-charge-but-says-its-charging-fix/ i highly recommend watching their video, it helped me a lot and I have the 6s as well
my phone has a boot loop, can you help me reset or restore it?
my phone has a boot loop, can you help me reset or restore it?
please help me. i think i dropped my iphone 6S, and now it’s totally black and nothing i try will turn it on. my pc doesn’t have itunes, and im not sure what to do.
It makes a slight rattling noise when i shake it, but there is no real physical or liquid damage.
You can get iTunes for your PC here via this link.
Hi, I need help fast. My i-phone 8 is just showing black, it wont turn on at all, and doesn’t even show that my phone is flat. My volume down button is also jammed. How do i fix my hpone?
hi,
i forgot to charge my iphone 6 plus last night. this morning i went to charge and the apple logo came on and off several times then it never came back on. Been charging all day and still wouldn’t come on.
thanks
hiya i have a i phone 6s plus and since end of june my phone hasnt turned on at all i have tryed everyhting help x
The iPhone 6 was first released at the end of 2015, almost 5 years ago. Apple will soon stop supporting the phone and they will classify it as obsolete. I highly recommend that you consider getting a new iPhone. UpPhone’s phone comparison tool can help you find a device that meets your needs. You can filter by price, manufacturer, storage, and more. I highly recommend the iPhone 11. If you can wait, the iPhone 12 is also coming out soon. I hope this helps!
IPhone is extremely expensive though
Not necessarily! You can pick up the iPhone SE 2 for as low as $13 / month fro 30 payments through AT&T, and the price is similar through other carriers. If you’re looking for more value, though, I recommend picking up the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G for as low as $16 a month for 30 payments. Not only are you getting 5G connectivity access, but you’re getting a lot more features and quality than the iPhone SE 2. You can compare them both using the cell phone comparison tool. You don’t need to burn a hole in your wallet for… Read more »
I have my Xs Max and i tried this iOs 14 Beta, after few days while using my phone it suddenly shut down and it wont turn on anymore. Its fully black screen like DEAD. I tried the itunes, the recovery mode and the DFU and still it wont turn on. I recharge my phone incase its drained but when it dies its on 50% of battery and still when charged no wire or charging display on the screen. no matter how I press keys no apple logo, nothing is displayed 🙁 Anyone to help? Or do i need to… Read more »
My iPhone XS Max won’t turn on. the last thing I did was replying my dad messages and plugged it on charge. the moment I checked back my phone it went black.
My iphone XR wont turn on. I did the itunes way and it turned on but then the next day I slightly hit it and it wont turn on again. I think it might have something to do with the glass screen protector. Please help me!!!
Sounds to me like there’s a loose connector underneath the screen that causes this to keep happening. You should probably go make an appointment to get your phone fixed.
My iPhone 6 wont switch on …tried everything? The screen went blue yesterday then just died. .we have tried holding the power button. Thanks
Sounds like your screen is broken ? You’re going to need to check out your repair options. The iPhone 6 is getting very old, so you might find your money is better spent on getting a new device with the latest hardware and software support.