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What to do when your iPhone is frozen or unresponsive? Whether you're FaceTime® with friends or scrolling through social media, your iPhone® is the key to keeping you connected.
So, if it suddenly crashes, a large part of your life crashes too, right?
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Rest assured that in this step-by-step guide we will show you how to fix it.
Why is my iPhone frozen?
There are five main reasons why your iPhone may be freezing or unresponsive:
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- Your iPhone needs to be restarted.
- Your battery is low.
- Your iPhone is running out of storage space.
- Some applications are incompatible with your software.
- Your operating system is out of date.
How to Fix a Stuck or Unresponsive iPhone
1. FORCE RESET YOUR IPHONE
This will help eliminate the errors that are causing your iPhone to freeze without erasing your apps or data.
How to force restart an iPhone 8 or later (including iPhone SE 2nd generation):
- Press and quickly release the volume up button.
- Press and quickly release the volume down button and then press and hold the side button.
- When the Apple® logo appears, release the side button.
How to force restart an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus:
Press and hold the volume down button and side button until the Apple logo appears and release the buttons.
How to force restart an iPhone 6s or earlier (including iPhone SE 1st gen):
Press and hold the Home and Side button (or the Home and Top button) until the Apple logo appears, then release the buttons.
2. CHARGE YOUR IPHONE
If your iPhone is frozen and you notice that the battery is running low, recharging may solve the problem.
The most efficient way to do this is to plug your device into an outlet using a Lightning® charging cable and an Apple® power adapter for at least one hour.
When your phone stops working, your life no longer needs to stop either, keep following our content.
3. FREE UP STORAGE SPACE
Try this step if your iPhone is frozen and you're getting alerts that you don't have enough storage.
Tap Settings > General > iPhone Storage. There you should see a list of recommendations for freeing up space – like offloading unused apps or optimizing photos – and a list of apps and how much space they use.
Follow the on-screen instructions to create more storage, or simply tap each app to delete some of your documents and data.
For more information, see our guide on how to free up phone storage space.
4. DELETE PROBLEMATIC APPS
If certain apps are causing your iPhone to freeze, you should remove them to keep your device running smoothly. See how:
- Long press the app you want to delete.
- A menu with a list of options will appear. Select Remove app > Delete app. Then tap Delete to confirm.
5. UPDATE YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM
If your iPhone is still frozen, it may be because your operating system is out of date. Do you need to update it? It's simple. Just follow these steps.
How to update an iPhone on your computer:
On a Mac running macOS® Mojave 10.14 or earlier or on a PC, you'll use iTunes®. See how:
- Open iTunes.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer.
- Click the iPhone icon in the top left corner.
- click in Summary and then click Check update .
- Click in Update .
On a Mac running macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, you'll use the Finder®. Follow these steps:
- Open Finder.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer.
- Click your device under Locations in the left column.
- click in General or settings and click Check update .
- Click in Download and update .
- If prompted, enter your password. The update will begin automatically.
6. FACTORY RESET YOUR IPHONE
If updating the operating system does not resolve the issue, you may need to factory reset your phone.
Since this will wipe all saved data from your device, you should only use it as a last resort and back up your device first.
Then follow the instructions in this guide on how reset your iPhone to factory settings.
If you've already tried these steps and still need a little help, we're here. Schedule a repair at the Smartech store and our certified experts can get your device up and running again the same day.
