A force restart is a special way of rebooting your iPhone 16 when it becomes unresponsive. Think of it as a “hard reset” that clears temporary glitches but doesn’t erase your apps, data, or personal information. It’s like pressing a reset button on a stubborn gadget—helpful without being destructive.
Steps to Force Restart Your iPhone 16
To force restart an iPhone 16, follow these steps:
- Quickly press and release the Volume Up button located on the left side of the phone.
- Quickly press and release the Volume Down button next.
- Press and hold the Side button (power button) on the right side of the phone.
- Keep holding the Side button until the screen goes completely black and then the Apple logo appears.
- Release the Side button once the Apple logo shows.
This process forces the device to restart, which helps resolve software issues without deleting any data.
Avoid sliding to power off; just keep holding the Side button until the restart happens.
Make sure to do this without connecting the iPhone to a charging cable, as that could trigger recovery or DFU mode instead.
This method works on all iPhone 16 models including the standard, Plus, Pro, and Pro Max versions.
Jasmine Knox at September 02, 2025 at 5:12pm CDT
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