How to Shut off Your iPhone

By default, an iPhone is configured to go to sleep after a certain period of inactivity. However, even though the phone conserves its battery life when it's sleeping, there may be circumstances when you want to completely turn off the iPhone.

Turning your phone off is especially helpful if the battery is critically low but you know you'll need your phone later. Another reason to shut a phone off is if it's performing strangely; rebooting is often a fix, similar to computer issues.

Shutting down an iPhone is also a foolproof way to disable all alerts and phone calls.

Note: If you already know how to turn off your phone but none of these methods are working, check out our guide on what to do if your iPhone won't turn off.

How to Turn off Your iPhone

No matter your reason for doing it, below are the steps for shutting off an iPhone. This technique applies to every iPhone model, from the original to the latest version.

1. Hold down the sleep/wake button for a few seconds, until you see a message appear on the screen. This button is located at the top right-hand corner of the phone (it's either on the top or the side depending on your version of the iPhone).
2. A power button will appear, and read slide to power off. Move the slider all the way to the right to shut off the phone.
3. A progress wheel will appear in the center of the screen. The iPhone will turn off a few seconds later.

Note: If you wait too long to slide the button over, your phone will cancel the shutdown automatically. If you want to cancel it yourself, tap Cancel.

The Hard Reset Option

There are some instances in which the steps above just won't work, especially when your iPhone is locked up. In that case, you should try a technique called a hard reset.

This should only be used when other attempts have failed, but sometimes it's just what you need:

1. At the same time, hold down both the sleep/wake button and the home button for 10 seconds or more, until the screen goes black and the Apple logo appears. Note: The standard home button stopped being used as of the iPhone 7, so you have to instead hold down the volume down button.
2. When you see the logo, stop holding both buttons and let the phone start up normally.

Important: The hard reset feature is not the same thing as restoring your phone to its factory default settings. The word "restore" is sometimes called "reset" but has nothing to do with restarting your phone.

Turning the Phone on Again

When you're ready to use it again, here's how to boot up the iPhone:

1. Hold down the sleep/wake button until the Apple icon appears on the screen, then you can let go.
2. There aren't any other buttons you need to press. Just wait for the phone to start up from this point.