After paying hundreds of dollars for the tiny computer in your pocket, it can be nerve-wracking to find that it won’t turn on—especially if it’s no longer under warranty. After all, it’s hard to be without a working phone in this day and age. However, as tempting as it may be to declare the device dead and panic-buy a new one, we think you should hold off. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can go through to see if your iPhone or Android device still lives.
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1. Check for Any Physical Damage
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Did you recently drop your phone, and now it isn’t turning on? Give the device a good once-over to determine if there is any noticeable damage:
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Is the screen cracked or damaged? Even if it isn’t, a recent fall could have dislodged something internally to break the screen.
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Has the battery become swollen? If so, take it straight to a repair shop or local e-waste facility.
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Can you find any water damage? You can check by looking inside the SIM card slot on both the iPhone and many Android devices.
If you find something physically wrong with the phone, you may need to take it in for repair or be ready to do the fixing yourself.
2. Try to Turn on Your Phone
If you’ve found no obvious damage, try turning the phone on again. It won’t work, but right now we need to figure out why. Hold down the power button and see if you feel a vibration. You can also try invoking Siri, Google Assistant, or Bixby if you use a voice assistant. If you feel a vibration or hear sounds but the screen is blank, the phone’s internal components may be in working order, but the screen needs to be replaced.
3. Try Charging the Battery
Top to bottom: iPhone 15 Pro Max with USB-C, iPhone 14 Pro Max with Lightning (Credit: Eric Zeman)
If there’s no obvious issue with your phone, it’s possible it’s just out of battery. Try charging the device. If it’s truly drained, the device won’t necessarily light up right away, so leave it plugged in for a few minutes before trying to turn it on again. A working phone will vibrate when plugged in or show a visual indication that it’s charging, even if the battery is dead.
If nothing happened, it’s possible you could have a damaged charger (or the cable was disconnected from the wall plug). Try another cable, if you have one. You might also want to try another wall outlet or power strip, just to be sure. Check the charging port on the phone itself, too—lint or dirt can get caught in there and prevent the pins from making contact. A toothpick can help dislodge any debris that may have accumulated in the port, at which point you can try charging again.
4. Do a Force Restart
(Credit: Apple)
Maybe a software malfunction has turned the screen black but the phone is otherwise still on—we’ve found several ways to crash your phone over the years. If you find the device is frozen, perform a force restart to hopefully get the device working again.
How to Restart an iPhone
If you have an iPhone running iOS 16 or higher, there is now a singular way to force restart your phone. Press and release the Volume Up button, press and release the Volume Down button, and then hold down the Side button until the Apple logo appears. If you have an older OS version, your method will come down to what iPhone model you own:
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iPhone 8, X, 11, 12, 13, SE (2nd Gen and later) models: Press and release the Volume Up button, press and release the Volume Down button, and then hold down the Side button until the Apple logo appears.
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iPhone 7: Hold down the Volume Down and Sleep/Wake button at the same time until the Apple logo appears.
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iPhone 6, iPhone SE (1st Gen): Hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears.
How to Restart an Android Phone
Most Android phone manufacturers use the same reset method across all their phones:
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Samsung Galaxy: Hold down the Power button and Volume Down button simultaneously for more than seven seconds.
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Google Pixel: Hold down the Power button for 30 seconds until the Google logo appears.
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Motorola Moto: Hold down the Power key for 10-20 seconds.
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OnePlus: Hold down the Power button and Volume Up button for 10 seconds.
If you have an older phone with a removable battery, you can also try pulling it out, waiting a few seconds, then putting the battery back in before turning the phone on normally. Refer to your device’s manual, or search for reset instructions online, if you have trouble.
5. Restore Your Phone to Factory Settings
If your phone turns on but the screen is blank, there’s a chance it could be a software issue. To fix this, you may need to wipe the device and then restore it from a backup. How you do this varies between manufacturers, but we can point you in the right direction.
Factory Reset an iPhone
(Credit: PCMag / Apple)
Plug your iPhone in to your computer and open Finder (iTunes if you’re using Windows or an older version of macOS). Hopefully, the phone icon shows up in the toolbar along the top; if not, perform the hard reset steps listed above while the device is plugged in to put it in Recovery Mode. If the phone icon appears, click on it and select Restore iPhone to wipe it clean. You can then restore your phone from the backup that you definitely already have.
Factory Reset an Android Device
If you have an Android phone, you’ll need to boot into Recovery Mode, which can vary from phone to phone. With a Samsung device, plug it into your computer, then hold Power (or the Bixby button) and Volume Up until you feel a vibration. Once in Recovery Mode, use the Volume buttons to scroll to Wipe Data/Factory Reset, and use the power button to select it. Do a web search for your phone model if you can’t find this option. Once the phone is reset, you can restore it from back up.
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6. Re-Flash the Firmware From Scratch
(Credit: Whitson Gordon)
If you can’t get Recovery Mode to work using the above instructions, you may need to enter a lower-level mode to flash the firmware from scratch. Be warned, this can be very complex, so if you aren’t comfortable performing these steps, it’s probably best to bring your phone into a repair shop for some professional help.
On an iPhone, this is called DFU mode. Plug your phone into your computer, open iTunes/Finder, and enter a slightly more complex series of button presses. It varies from by phone, so check this iFixIt support page for your model to see what you need to do. Ideally, the computer should then prompt you to restore the iPhone.
Flashing firmware on Android phones, again, varies too much from phone to phone for us to include all the instructions here. On Pixel phones, you can install the Android Debug Bridge on your PC, then download the firmware from Google and follow the instructions on that page. Other phones may require their own specialized tools, and you’ll have to search how to flash new firmware from scratch to your specific device.
7. How to Get Your iPhone or Android Device Repaired
(Credit: Apple)
Apple makes it fairly straightforward to find help for your specific issue. If the problem is a broken screen, prepare to pay anywhere between $379 (for an iPhone 16 Pro Max) and $129 (for an iPhone SE or iPhone 6) for Apple’s repair costs. However, if you are paying for AppleCare+, it only costs $29 for a screen repair and $99 for other accidental damage.
Would you prefer to fix the phone yourself? Since Apple has been known to disable features in phones repaired with third-party parts, we recommend only using genuine parts. Apple’s Self Service Repair Store sells repair kits for certain iPhone models, though iFixit also has parts and guides for your iPhone model.
If you need to get your Android device fixed, rates will vary by manufacturer. Samsung, Google, Motorola, and OnePlus each offer their own repair services. If you prefer to do things yourself, check out iFixit for in-depth instructions and replacement parts for Samsung, Google, Motorola, and OnePlus phones. (Note that iFixit stopped partnering with Samsung on repair parts and guides)
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About Whitson Gordon
Contributing Writer
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Senior Editor, Help & How To
