iPhone Troubleshooting: How to Restart, quit frozen apps and Reset iPhone

I'm starting to think there is some sort of bad luck attached to my iTunes Store account, as tonight I experienced the third iTunes Store song that completely locked up an iPod - only this time it was my iPhone. While listening to 'Again with the Subtleties' from the Yppah album You Are Beautiful At All Times (US iTunes link) in my iPhone's iPod app, the phone completely locked up at the end of the track with an almost-faded out display. What was worse, the iPhone became completely unresponsive - the display wouldn't accept any of my taps, and even the external buttons were ignored. Momentarily wishing I could simply yank the battery to cut the power and reset the phone, I realized Apple must have some sort of a contingency in place for lock-ups like these.

Fortunately, I was right: The iPhone troubleshooting section of Apple's main iPhone support site contains a walkthrough for situations like this, complete with instructions on how to restart the phone, force quit a frozen app or reset the phone in cases like mine where it has completely locked up. Here are these steps in a nutshell:

Restart your iPhone: Most people probably already know how to do this, but just in case, you can simply hold the sleep/wake button on the top for a few seconds to bring up a red slider at the top of the display which allows you to power off the phone.
Quit a frozen iPhone app: I know it's a crazy thought, but it is entirely possible that Apple's wondrous iPhone apps can lock up from time to time. In this case, simply hold the Home button when in the app for about 6 seconds to kill the app. You should be able to jump back into the app without restarting the phone itself.
Reset your iPhone: Note that this is not Restoring your iPhone; that's the button in iTunes that wipes the iPhone and all your information on it. Resetting an iPhone is nothing more than a hard reset or a forced reboot - you're simply cutting the power and making it reboot. To do this, hold the sleep/wake button and Home buttons simultaneously for a few seconds; the display will quickly wipe itself and you should see the black background and white Apple logo, signifying a reset well done.

Fortunately, that reset fixed my problem and I'm jamming again with my iPhone as I write this. Still, you can be sure that I'll ping iTunes support to find out what's going on with these files, as this is the third one I've downloaded from the iTS that's caused an iPod to stop dead in its tracks. Anyone else experience something like this? You know where to sound off.

View Tags

Source: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/troubleshooting/

Categories

Hardware iTS OS Software Troubleshooting iPhone

I'm starting to think there is some sort of bad luck attached to my iTunes Store account, as tonight I experienced the third iTunes Store...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

19 Comments

Filter by:

Chris

3 weeks ago i bought my iphone and it was awesome. I liked all the app, today a couple hours ago my iphone suddenly started to show letters and code like when you restart your computer, i tried to restarted in all ways but still doing it and i can't turn it off.

November 25 2007 at 9:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

superchan

my iPod touch is frozen on the apple logo, I tried resetting but that didn't work, every time I turn it off and on again it just freezes on the apple logo.

November 24 2007 at 2:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

superchan

my iPod touch is frozen on the apple logo, I tried resetting but that didn't work, every time I turn it off and on again it just freezes on the apple logo.

November 24 2007 at 2:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mickydee

Let's see... I bought my phone 3 days after it was released. I've only had one mild freeze in all that time. I'm getting ready to try the hack described on the MacWorld site... (uh oh) ;p

August 30 2007 at 12:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Melanie

i've had my phone almost a month with no problems until tonight when the screen froze up and it won't respond to anything. not even after a reset and all that. what do you recommend? i've gotten so attached...and now i feel so alone.

August 17 2007 at 10:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Abhi

Thanks a lot David!

My phone froze in the middle of a song, when I was trying to turn down the volume and pause, in quick succession.

Your post really helped.

July 31 2007 at 5:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Big Brother

Nothing like a good reboot to fix things up!

July 28 2007 at 11:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shellie

After just one week, and not using itunes, out of the blue, my phone froze for the first time. Frustrated and on my way to see Wicked, there was nothing I could do. So this morning, did a quick google search, found this blog and did a hard reset.
Back to loving my iphone again. Thanks. And keep posting! SAB

July 25 2007 at 11:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

procrastinatr

Wow David. Amazing that you would delete a comment that reads "it's not bad luck, it's bad karma."

For somebody who posts so many "ha ha - gotcha!" entries on TUAW, you sure have a poor sense of humor.

July 18 2007 at 9:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

matt

I wonder if mine's busted. When attempting a reset, I just get the power off slider, just as if I had only held down the sleep/wake button. And if I continue holding the two buttons after the power off slider appears, then the iphone just powers off, no reboot. Weird. I feel so left out. Luckily I haven't had the need to reset.

July 18 2007 at 7:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply