“Force Restart” Is (Probably) All You Need to Fix an Unresponsive Phone
Whether you have an iPhone or Android, your smartphone is essentially a tiny computer that can fit in your pocket. And like all computers, your phone is prone to software bugs and glitches. This won’t happen all the time, but once in a while you might accidentally trigger one of these quirks and your phone will respond – or not respond – in kind.
It’s possible that your phone won’t turn on even after it’s been on the charger all night. Maybe it’s stuck in the app and you can’t get out of it no matter how much you swipe. Before you schedule an appointment with tech support or waste time driving to an Apple Store, know that there’s probably a simple solution to your problems: a forced restart.
Forced Restart is a feature built into your phone that does exactly what it sounds like: whether the phone answers or freezes, it instantly shuts down and restarts. It’s like a power outage on a desktop computer – no matter what happens, the device should shut down.
So a forced reboot should not be your way of rebooting your phone. It bypasses the normal, discreet shutdown protocols that a device goes through when you would normally tell it to turn off. Use forced restart only when necessary. But when you need it, it’s your best friend.
How to Force Restart iPhone
While the force restart command on the iPhone used to be quite different, Apple combined them into one: quickly press and release the volume up button, quickly press and release the volume down button, then hold the side button until you see the Apple icon. logo.
If you have an older iPhone that can’t update to iOS 16, your force restart command could be one or the other. If so, check out this guide to see the force restart command for your specific device.
How to Force Restart an Android Phone
Unlike Apple’s iPhone, Android smartphones are made by many different companies, each with their own ideas for hardware commands and the like. However, most Android phones should respond to this: hold down the power button for about 20 seconds and your phone should reboot.
There may be other forced restart commands on your particular smartphone. Samsung users can hold the volume down button and the power button at the same time for seven seconds to force restart. Search for your specific model to see if it has a dedicated command.
For those of you who have a phone with a removable battery ( which is a rarity these days ), you can, of course, pull out the battery to turn the phone off instantly.