Side button works, but not for restarts.

As the title suggests, every other function the side button is supposed to do perform is fine, but will not restart the phone. Hard reboots and touch assist restart the phone just fine, even Siri comes up when I long press - but it will not progress past that to restart the phone. I very well could have changed something in settings that caused this as I was in there the night before tinkering. Additionally, I have been exploring shortcuts so that may play a roll in this as well. I restored a 2 week old backup with no success and have combed the net with no luck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. iPhone 15 max pro, less than a month old.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17

Posted on Nov 20, 2023 12:51 PM

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7 replies

Nov 20, 2023 12:57 PM in response to Estaffordnw

Pressing the side power button alone does not restart an iPhone. Restart means to power off, then power back on.


To power off the phone press and hold the volume up and side power buttons at the same time to get to the slider to power off. Then hold just the power button to turn it back on.


There is a procedure for Forced Restart, which is as follows:


  • Press and quickly release volume up button
  • Then press and quickly release the volume down button
  • Then press and KEEP HOLDING the side power button and KEEP HOLDING it past the swipe to power off and KEEP HOLDING it until the Apple Logo appears (takes several seconds)

Nov 20, 2023 1:31 PM in response to Estaffordnw

I rarely ask Siri to restart my iPhone, but to test, I just long pressed the side power button on my 15 Pro Max and said....."siri, restart iPhone" and Siri put up two options, one to restart or one to cancel. Are you actually asking Siri to restart your iPhone? Siri won't do anything unless you ask.


Or you can do what I recommended above and press and hold the volume up and side power buttons at the same time to power off your iPhone, then turn it back on.

Nov 20, 2023 1:40 PM in response to lobsterghost1

without prompting, if I held down the power button for more than what is normally expected to just pull up Siri (call it maybe 3 sec vs 2 sec), siri would pop up asking “just to confirm, restart phone”. But now you have me doubting myself. Long time android user making the switch, maybe I’m putting this together all wrong. You might be right. If there aren’t any settings that would allow for this function (restart) to be disabled, I’m likely confusing my chain of events. And everything else words perfectly, vol+power, hard reboot, etc. you’re likely correct and I’m likely confused. Thank you for the help.

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Side button works, but not for restarts.

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