Some IPhone 17 Models Do Not Turn on After the Battery Is Discharged.
I firmly believe that the most sought-after feature in a smartphone is longer battery life. After all, these are mobile devices, meaning they’re meant to be used on the go. The longer you can wait between charges, the more mobile your phone is. But no matter how big the battery, it will eventually run out of juice. The problem is, what happens if it won’t turn on, even after you’ve left it charging?
Some iPhone 17s won’t turn on.
I was unaware of these claims until I came across Benjamin Mayo’s post on 9to5Mac . In his post on Monday, Mayo explained that his iPhone Air had run out of battery, so he plugged the device into a power source, expecting to see the Apple logo as usual. However, according to Mayo, nothing happened, even after leaving his iPhone connected to a power source for several minutes. It was as if the phone wasn’t connected at all. Mayo even tried a hard reset, which involves quickly pressing the volume up button, then quickly pressing the volume down button, and then holding the side button. This usually restores a malfunctioning iPhone to working order, but it didn’t help either.
Mayo discovered that his story isn’t unique. In his article, he cited several forum threads where users complained about iPhone 17 models failing to turn on after a completely drained battery. Particularly alarming is the number of user comments describing similar experiences. At the time of writing, this thread has 144 comments , and most of them confirm that they or someone they know has experienced the problem. This doesn’t necessarily indicate a widespread issue, but it does indicate that something is wrong with the iPhone 17 battery.
To be honest, I’ve been using an iPhone 17 Pro Max since the end of last year, and this is the first time I’ve heard of such issues. In the months I’ve owned this iPhone, I’ve never encountered any of the issues described here. (I was annoyed by the slow Face ID, but that’s another story.) That said, I’m not sure I’ve ever completely drained my iPhone’s battery in all my time using it—and I’m not eager to do so now.
How to turn on iPhone 17 again after the battery is dead.
Fortunately, this problem is solvable, and there are several workarounds. Mayo’s case is particularly interesting: he said he couldn’t turn on his iPhone until he switched from wired to wireless charging. After placing his Air on a MagSafe charger, he was able to restart the phone as if the problem had never occurred.
Some users on the forums linked above have successfully accomplished this by leaving their iPhones plugged in for extended periods. One said 30 minutes was enough, while another claimed it took two to three hours of continuous connection for the iPhone to turn on. This iFixit user was able to force the iPhone into DFU mode , which involves the same button combination as a hard reset but requires connecting the iPhone to a Mac or PC. Perhaps something in DFU mode causes the iPhone to respond in a way that a simple hard reset doesn’t.
We don’t know much at this point, but I’m hopeful this is a software bug rather than a hardware issue. The forum posts span several months, suggesting the issue isn’t specific to a specific iOS version. However, if the culprit is an iOS bug that persists through every iOS 26 update, Apple may address the issue in the next update. If the issue directly affects the iPhone 17 hardware or the A19 chip built into each device, then it’s clearly a more serious problem. However, judging by the many different workarounds users have found, I still suspect the issue is software-related rather than hardware-related.