Your iPhone has stopped doing anything. No screen, no vibration, no response to the buttons. Before you assume it is broken: an iPhone that has frozen looks exactly like an iPhone that is dead, and the first is far more common. So start with a force restart.
Step 1: the force restart
This is not an ordinary restart and it works even when the screen stays completely black. Which combination you need depends on your model:
- iPhone 8 and everything after it (including the Face ID models and the recent SE models): press and release the volume up button, press and release volume down, then hold the side button until the Apple logo appears. That can take ten to twenty seconds — do not let go too soon.
- iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: hold volume down and the side button together until the logo appears.
- iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and the first SE: hold the home button and the side or top button together until the logo appears.
If the Apple logo appears, nothing is broken and your phone had frozen. That happens after a failed update, for instance, or because an app has hung the system.
Step 2: charge it for half an hour
A completely flat battery sometimes responds to nothing for a long while. Connect it to a charger you know works and leave it for a full half hour. If a battery symbol or a charging screen appears after a few minutes, there is little wrong and it was simply empty.
Nothing at all happening? Then try another cable and another adapter, and shine a light into the charging port to see whether there is lint in it. An iPhone that will not charge looks exactly like an iPhone that will not turn on. We have a separate article about that with all the tests set out.
Step 3: check whether the screen is the problem
An iPhone can be working completely while the screen stays black. Call it from another phone: if you hear it ring or feel it vibrate, the phone is running and it is the screen or the backlight. If it responds to charging sounds or the silent switch, you know the same thing. That is good news, because it makes the repair predictable.
Step 4: connect it to a computer
Connect the iPhone to a computer and see whether it is recognised. If it is, power is arriving and the phone is starting up to some degree, even if you can see nothing. You can then try recovery mode: do your model's button combination as above, but keep holding the side button past the Apple logo until you see the recovery screen. Then choose update rather than restore — update leaves your data in place, restore erases the phone.
What it usually turns out to be
- A frozen system. The force restart fixes this and it costs you nothing.
- A worn-out battery. It can no longer deliver the peak current needed to start up, so the phone cuts out or gets no further than the logo. Often noticeable in the cold first.
- The screen or the backlight. The phone works, you just cannot see it.
- The charging port. It went flat and was never topped up again.
- Something on the board. Usually after a drop or after liquid. This is the most serious category and also the reason we repair at component level: your own board stays in the phone, and with it, usually, your photos.
When to stop trying
If your iPhone has been in water or something has been spilled on it, charging on is the worst thing you can do. Switch it off, do not charge it to see whether it still works, and bring it in as soon as you can. Corrosion keeps working as long as there is voltage on the board, and rice removes nothing. With water damage, speed genuinely determines the outcome.
In short
Force restart, then half an hour on a charger you trust, then check whether it might be running with a dark screen. If that gets you no further, we establish it for free at Blue Apple in Amsterdam Zuid and you hear the price before we do anything. You will find us at Rijnstraat 76-H, or look at the prices per iPhone model first.
