Top 7 Ways to Fix iPhone Won't Turn Off (iOS 16 Supported)

User Concern

“I've tried holding the sleep/wake button + home button down to turn it off but with no luck. Nothing happens. Any idea on how I can move forward?”

There are times when you have the need to turn off your iPhone like attending a meeting or taking an exam. However, many iPhone users have found that their iPhone won't turn off after long-pressing the power button, which can be quite embarrassed.

If it's happening to you and you don't know why, don't worry, here we'll explain why your iPhone won't turn off and how you can fix this problem.

Why Won't My iPhone Turn Off

Here are the most possible reasons why your iPhone won't turn off:

• The power button is not responsive or broken.
• The iPhone screen gets frozen for software or hardware issue.
• The iPhone is stuck on black screen and won't turn off.

To turn off your iPhone with the standard procedures, press and hold the Power button and then slide to power off the device. For newer iPhone models, press and holde the Side butoon and the Volume Down button together until the slider appears, then drag it to turn off the device.

You can also go to iPhone Settings > General > Shut Down to turn off the device.

What To Do if iPhone Won't Turn Off

If you iPhone's screen gets frozen and it won't turn off, try the solutions below.

1. Hard Reset Your iPhone

The next solution is performing a hard reset. You can force reboot the iPhone to get the device out of the frozen issue. You can refer to the steps below to turn off your iPhone.

• For iPhone 7/7 Plus: Hold down the Volume down and Power button, then the slider to turn off the device will appear on the iPhone screen. Just power off the device now.
• For iPhone 8 and later: Hold and quickly release the volume up button, then hold and release the volume down button. Finally, press the side button to turn off the device.

After your iPhone is restarted, it should work normally. Now re-follow the standard steps to check if the iPhone can be turned off.

2. Turn Off iPhone via AssistiveTouch

The method above will be workable when the physical buttons are still useful. If one of these buttons are broken, such as the Power button, Side button, Volume Up button and Volume Down button, Assistive Touch shall come in handy for you. With Assistive Touch, you can simply turn off your iPhone without physical buttons. Here is how:

• Open [Settings] on your iPhone, and then click [General].
• Click on [Accessibility], then turn on [Assistive Touch], and then there will be white dots on your screen.

• Click on Assistive Touch and you will see many quick tabs. Select the Device option and keep holding the option of Lock Screen and move the slider that appears on the screen to turn off the device.

3. Restore iPhone with iTunes

If you've tried hard reset and AssistiveTouch but your iPhone still won't run off, it's time to restore your iPhone with iTunes. Doing this will delete all of the existing data and settings from the device, so make sure that you have already made a full backup of your iPhone with iTunes or iCloud.

• Connect your frozen iPhone to a computer that have the latest version of iTunes installed, then launch iTunes.
• Once iTunes has detected your iPhone, click on the device icon and go to the Summary tab, then tap on "Restore iPhone".
• iTunes will provide you the option to create a backup of your iPhone. Once it is done, click on "Restore".

When the new iTunes backup is restored to the device, the iPhone won't turn off problem will be resolved.

4. Restore iPhone in DFU Mode

Though this method may be effective, it’s not that recommended since all the device data will be erased. Here are the steps:

• Run iTunes on computer and connect your iPhone to computer.
• Keep pressing the Power button and the volume - button (for iPhone 7 and newer models of iPhone) or the home button (for iPhone 6 and models).

• After 8 seconds, release the Power button while keep pressing the volume or home button until iTunes recognizes that your iPhone is in Recovery Mode.
• Release the volume or home button when the iPhone screen goes black.
• Then Click on ‘Restore’ in iTunes and click on OK.

5. Reset All Settings on iPhone

When you reset all settings on your iPhone, passwords and preferences saved on iPhone will be erased, but the data like photos, contacts and audio will not be retained.

• Go to iPhone Settings and General.
• Click on ‘Reset’ from the bottom of the screen and tap on ‘Reset All Settings’.
• Then click on ‘Reset All Settings’ again to reset the device.

6. Fix iPhone Won't Turn Off without Data Loss

Nobody would want to suffer from data loss after fixing the problem of iPhone won't turn off. Take it easy. We are here to introduce FoneGeek iOS System Recovery that is developed to fix any iOS issues to you. And the issue of iPhone won't turn off could also be cured by this repair toolkit.

FoneGeek iOS System Recovery: Fix iPhone System Issues without Data Loss

• Fix various system issues like iPhone stuck in white Apple logo, black screen, recovery mode, DFU mode, etc. with simple steps.
• Many famous sites have recommended this tool, such as, CNET, Software.Informer, Filehorse, GetDroidTips, Lera Blog, etc.
• Fully compatible with all iOS versions and iPhone models, even the newest iOS 16 and iPhone 14/13/12.

The procedures below will get your out of iPhone won't turn off issue without data loss:

Step 1. After downloading and installing FoneGeek iOS Repair tool on your computer, launch it and choose "Standard Mode" to proceed.

Step 2. Then, your iPhone should be connected to the computer with an USB cable. Wait for the program to detect the deivce. If not, follow the on-screen instructions to put it into DFU/Recovery mode.

Step 3. Once your iPhone is detected, click on "Download" button and the toolkit will start to download the firmware for your device.

Step 4. After downloading the firmware package, click on "Fix Now" to fix the iPhone frozen and won't turn off issue.

7. Repair iPhone in Apple Store

This problem may be more serious if all above solutions don't solve it. The physical components of your iPhone may be damaged and stop working. In this situation, it is not suggested to repair this problem by yourself at home. You'd better ask for the Apple experts for help. Get support from Apple Store will possibly have this problem fixed.

Conclusion

We hope that this post gives you a slight idea of fixing the issue of iPhone frozen and won't turn off. Go through each solution one by one and enjoy using your iPhone after reading this article.