How to Hard Reset an iPhone 12
If you’re unable to shut down or restart your iPhone 12 using standard methods, you can try a forced restart (sometimes called a “hard reset”), which won’t affect your data. Here’s how to do it with three buttons on your iPhone 12.
What is a forced restart?
If your iPhone has stopped responding, it may not respond to screen taps and may not shut down as usual. But not all hope is lost. To fix this, you can try a force reboot, which avoids most of the usual software-assisted iPhone shutdown routines and performs a lower-level hardware reboot.
It’s important to note that a forced reboot should be a rare occurrence, reserved only for emergencies. Most of the time, you want to shut down your iPhone normally. Also, a forced reboot should not be confused with a factory reset. The forced restart you are about to perform will not delete any data stored on your iPhone.
How to force restart an iPhone 12
To perform a force restart on your iPhone 12, you need to press three buttons on the side of your device in quick succession. On the last press, hold down the button.
Here’s how it works: Hold your iPhone 12 in your hand. Briefly press and release the volume up button, briefly press the volume down button, and then press and hold the side button (on the right edge of the device). Press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
As soon as you see the Apple logo, you’ll know you’ve pressed the Sequence property. If you didn’t get it right the first time, keep trying. Try to press each key (1, 2, 3) evenly but quickly.
After you receive it, your iPhone may take longer time to start than usual. That’s because the operating system needs to be completely restarted and cleaned up for use. After a few moments, you should see the lock screen. You can then use your iPhone 12 as usual.
TIED TOGETHER: How to force restart an iPhone or iPad
More troubleshooting tips
If you’ve performed the hard reset and are still having problems, you may need to put your iPhone into recovery mode and use iTunes (on Windows) or Finder (on Mac) to update or factory reset it. Unfortunately, all data stored on the iPhone will be lost when doing a factory reset. In the future, make regular backups to keep your iPhone data safe.
If your iPhone 12 is stuck, freezing or has frequent errors, try updating your iPhone to the latest version of iOS operating system. It might fix errors you have. If you’re still having trouble after this, contact Apple Customer Service and ask for advice on repairing or replacing your iPhone. Stay safe out there!