All the ways you can turn your iPhone or iPad off and on to restart it

In this tutorial, we’ll show you all the ways you can shut down your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and power it back on. The steps apply to all models!

Restart iPhone using Siri

Why turn your iPhone or iPad off and on

In 2018, the gyroscope of the Hubble Space Telescope stopped working. NASA fixed this problem by turning off the gyroscope and turning it back on! 

You might also have heard or seen memes for the long-standing IT joke, “Have you tried turning it off and on again.”

The fact is, turning an electronic device off and on can fix several issues. A restart helps refresh the system, clear unnecessary caches and outdated files, helps the operating system rebuild broken processes, and overall improves your device’s performance.

It would be best if you restarted your iPhone and iPad periodically. I personally do it every two to three days.

Note: In this post, we’re talking about turning off your iPhone and turning it back on, which equates to a simple restart. It’s different from a force restart, which can be effective if a simple restart fails to fix the issue.

3 ways to turn off your iPhone or iPad

1. Use the physical buttons

Turn off iPhone with Face ID (iPhone 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, Xs, XR, and iPhone X):

  1. Press & hold the right side button and one of the volume buttons (either volume up or volume down) together until you see the power off slider on the screen.
  2. Drag the power off slider to the right to switch off your iPhone.
Turn off iPhone with Face ID

Turn off iPhone with the Home button (iPhone SE 2nd & 3rd generation, iPhone 8, 7, 6S, and 6):

  1. Press and hold the right side button until you see the power off slider.
  2. Drag the power off slider to the right to switch off your iPhone.
Turn off iPhone with Home button

Turn off iPhone with the top button (iPhone SE 1st generation, iPhone 5S, 5C, 5, 4S, 4, & earlier):

  1. Press and hold the top button until you see the power off slider.
  2. Drag the power off slider to the right.
Turn off iPhone with top button

Turn off iPad with Face ID (iPad Pro 11-inch and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation & later):

  1. Press the top button and one of the volume buttons together until you see the power-off slider on the screen.
  2. Drag the power off slider to the right to switch off your iPad.
Turn off iPad Pro

Turn off iPad with top Touch ID button: Recent non-Pro iPads mimic iPad Pro’s design but lack Face ID. Instead, they have an integrated Touch ID in the top button. These models are iPad Air (4th and 5th generation), iPad mini (6th generation), and iPad (10th generation). Here’s how to switch them off:

  1. Press and hold the top button and one of the volume buttons together until you see the power-off slider.
  2. Drag the power off slider to the right to shut down your iPad.
Turn off iPad with Top Touch ID button

Turn off iPad with front Home button: This applies to all iPads with a circular Home button in the lower chin of the device.

  1. Press and hold the top button until you see the power off slider.
  2. Drag the power off slider to the right to switch it off.
Turn off iPad with Home button

2. Use the Settings app

  1. Open the Settings app and tap General.
  2. Scroll to the end, and tap Shut Down.
  3. Drag the power off slider to the right to turn off your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Shut Down iPhone from Settings

3. Drain the battery completely

Another way to force your iPhone to shut down is by draining its battery entirely! When you do that, your iPhone will automatically turn off.

To quickly drain your battery, turn off automatic brightness and play videos and intensive games at full brightness. You can also set the on-device speakers to full volume. Plus, you can keep your iPhone in sunlight which will force its display to go at the maximum brightness and deplete it quickly.

2 ways to turn on your iPhone or iPad

1. Use the physical buttons

On iPhone: Press and hold the right side button for a few seconds until you see the Apple logo on the screen. If your iPhone has a top button, use that.

On iPad: Press and hold the top button to switch on your iPad.

2. Plug it into charging

Whenever you put your switched-off iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch into charging, it automatically powers on the device. This works for both wired and wireless charging. Plus, the iOS or iPadOS device also switches on when you plug it into a Mac or Windows PC.

4 ways to restart your iPhone or iPad

Turning off and turning on (that we discussed above) means restarting. But that’s two separate actions. You can also perform a restart without individually switching off and on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Ask Siri

  1. Make sure your iPhone or iPad is running iOS 16.1 or iPadOS 16.1 and later.
  2. Invoke Siri and ask it to:
    Reboot
    Reboot iPhone or Reboot iPad
    Reboot this device
    Restart iPhone or Restart iPad
    Restart this device
  3. Tap Restart on the Siri interface to confirm. Your iPhone or iPad will automatically switch off and switch on to complete the restart process.
Ask Siri to restart your iPhone

Fun fact: If you just say ‘Restart,’ Siri will resume playing music!

2. Use AssistiveTouch

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch and turn on the switch for AssistiveTouch.
  2. Tap the virtual button and go to Device > More > Restart > Restart.
Restart using AssistiveTouch on iPhone

3. Install an iOS update

When you update your iPhone or iPad, it automatically restarts during the software installation process. To do that, go to Settings > General > Software Update. From here, tap Download and Install or Install Now.

Note: You won’t see the install button if your device is already on the latest available iOS or iPadOS version.

4. Reset or erase your device

Finally, when you reset your iPhone or iPad settings or perform a full erase, your device automatically restarts.

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