Force restart or hard reset is necessary when your iPhone is frozen. The iPhone is an excellent smartphone but once in a blue moon, it will freeze on you. Normally, you can hold the right side button to power your iPhone off which is known as a soft reset. If your iPhone is frozen, a soft reset will not always work. That’s where the force restart comes into play. Don’t worry, a force restart won’t erase anything on your iPhone.
In classic Apple fashion, the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X have a different method when it comes to a force restart. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were extremely easy. All you had to do was hold the Volume Up, Volume Down, and Side button for 10 seconds. The newer iPhone model is a bit more complex. Here’s how.
Force restart your iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X
- Quickly press and release the Volume Up button
- Quickly press and release the Volume Down button
- Hold the Side button until your iPhone turns off and the Apple logo appears again
- Release the Side button after the Apple logo appears
I guess Apple wanted to make it extremely difficult to force restart your iPhone. These steps aren’t very intuitive and there is no way you would be able to figure this out on your own. Regardless, this is a great tutorial to know whenever your iPhone is frozen or starts acting up. You should always try to just hold the Side button and do a soft reset. If that doesn’t work, you should go right into the hard reset. The hard reset will not delete anything from your iPhone. If you’re looking to completely wipe your phone to the out of box settings, then you’re going to want to do a factory reset.