At times your iPhone or iPad may start to act funny, such as running slow or freezing up. If this ever happens to you, there’s an easy solution that usually takes care of the problem right away: perform a hard reset on your iPhone or iPad. Here we show you how to hard reset your iPhone or iPad with or without a Home button.
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What It Means to Hard Reset Your iPhone or iPad
Before we jump to the steps, it’s important to know what a hard reset is. Basically, there are three types of resets on an iPhone: soft reset (or restart), hard reset, and factory reset.
Typically, when one of your electronic gadgets stops working, including an iPhone or iPad, you restart it. Simply turn the Power button off and on, and in some cases reinsert the battery.
A soft reboot essentially requires touching the screen. In cases where your device’s touch screen starts acting up, gets frozen and cannot be restarted using the soft reset method or isn’t working properly after a soft reset, you’ll need to resort to something more drastic. That’s where hard resetting an iPhone or iPad comes into the picture.
In a hard reset, you need to use at least one more button along with the Power button. It can be one of the Volume buttons or the Home button. A hard reset, therefore, is just another way to restart your iPhone or iPad by using the physical buttons when the normal method doesn’t work. It’s like force restarting your device. You don’t need a computer to hard reset unless and until your phone is stuck or you are unable to hard reset it simply using the iPhone.
Looking at the third reset option, when you factory reset your iPhone or iPad, it completely erases all the content and personal data from your iPhone if it isn’t backed up. Furthermore, all iPhone settings will be restored to their original values.
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What Happens When You Hard Reset Your iPhone or iPad?
Hard resetting your iPhone or iPad is not the same as restoring it to a previous backup or resetting it to factory settings. Hard resetting will not delete any of your personal files or data from your device. It won’t even reset any settings. It will also not remove or delete iCloud or lock your account on your iPhone or iPad.
Furthermore, a hard reset will not have any impact on your current operating system. That is, it will not remove recent software updates. If your iPhone is on iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, it will remain on that.
Hard resetting your iPhone or iPad will fix any minor issues or bugs on your iPhone or iPad. It will also have a slight impact on your iPhone’s battery life. All apps will be restarted, and if any app was affecting battery life negatively, a reset would help that.
A hard reset will also make your phone faster temporarily. But if your phone is getting slower due to a lack of storage or any other reason, a hard reset will not help.
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How to Hard Reset iPhone
Follow the steps below to hard reset your iPhone. Do note that the steps will vary depending on the model you have.
How to Hard Reset an iPhone With a Home Button (iPhone 6/7, SE 1st Gen)
- Press and hold the Power and Home buttons simultaneously until you see a black screen. This method will work on iPhone 6s and SE.
- The device will automatically reboot. Ignore the “Slide to power off” slider if it appears on the screen.
- For iPhone 7, press and hold the Volume Down and Power buttons until your device restarts automatically.
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How to Hard Reset Newer iPhones Without a Home Button (iPhone 8 and above)
For newer iPhone models with Face ID that lack a Home button (iPhone 8 series, iPhone X series, iPhone 11-14 series, and iPhone SE 2nd Gen), follow these steps:
- Press the Volume Up button once.
- Press the Volume Down button once.
- Press and hold the Power button until you see the Apple logo or the screen turn black, which could take up to 20 seconds. Do not release the Power button if you see the “Power off” slider. Keep holding it until the Apple logo appears.
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How to Hard Reset an iPad
Similar to iPhones, there are two ways you can hard reset your iPad, as explained below.
How to Hard Reset iPad Models With a Home Button
If your iPad comes with a Home button, press and hold the Power and Home buttons simultaneously until you see the Apple logo on the screen.
How to Hard Reset iPad Models Without a Home Button
- Press the Volume Up button once.
- Quickly press the Volume Down button once.
- Quickly press and hold the Power/Top button until the Apple logo appears on the screen, then let go of the Power button.
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How to Fix an iPhone that Won’t Force Restart
If you are unable to force restart your iPhone after following the above methods, or if it’s stuck on a red or blue screen during startup, you should try to force restart it by connecting it to a computer. Please note that this method will not delete your data.
- Connect the iPhone to your computer (Windows or macOS) using its charging cable.
- Open iTunes (Windows and earlier versions of macOS) or the Finder app (macOS Catalina and above) on your computer.
- Locate your iPhone in the iTunes or Finder app. In the Finder app, click on your iPhone’s name in the left sidebar. In the iTunes app, click on the phone icon in the top bar.
- After you select your device, put it in recovery mode. Follow the steps mentioned below according to your phone model.
- For iPhone 8 series and newer (iPhone 8 series, iPhone X series, iPhone 11-14 series, and iPhone SE 2nd Gen): press the Volume Up button once then the Volume Down button. Press and hold the Side/Power button until you see the Recovery mode screen.
- For iPhone 7 series: press and hold the Side/Power and Volume Down buttons together until the Recovery screen shows up.
- For iPhone 6s series or earlier: press and hold the Side/Power and Home buttons at the same time until you’re greeted by the Recovery mode screen.
- A pop-up message will appear in the Finder or iTunes app on your computer. Click on “Update.” Doing so will force restart your iPhone and repair iOS without affecting your data.
- If the software doesn’t successfully download within 15 minutes, your iPhone will exit the Recovery mode automatically. You can repeat all the steps one more time to force restart your iPhone using your computer.
- If the update is unsuccessful, select “Restore” instead of “Update” in step #5. Please note that choosing Restore will erase all the data on your iPhone, so make sure to only use this as the last resort.
Also read: How to Customize Your iPhone or iPad Lock Screen
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need a passcode for a hard reset?
It depends. Once your device restarts, you will be asked for your passcode if you do not use Face ID or Touch ID. If you forget your passcode, hard resetting will not help. You will have to unlock your iPhone or iPad using other methods.
Is a hard reset bad for an iPhone or iPad?
Hard resetting the device will not harm it in any way. However, you should always soft reset the device first. Only when that doesn’t work should you hard reset it.
How do I soft reset my iPhone?
Press and hold the Power button, then drag the “Slide to power off” slider to the right side to turn the device off. To turn the device on, press and hold the Power button until the Apple logo appears on the screen. Alternatively, soft reset your phone by going to “Settings -> General -> Shut down” and dragging the slider to the right side.
Image credit: shyam mishra via Pexels. All screenshots and images by Mehvish Mushtaq.
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