My wife’s iPhone 16 Pro is not turning on. Several times I have had to push the top volume, bottom volume and then hold the right power button until the Apple came on. And it took much longer than 10 seconds and instead of it coming on by itself, the Apple would show only after I held and released the power button. Did she get a lemon or are others having this problem? She gets a new phone every year so this is not an operator error.
iPhone 16 Pro
Everyone is most certainly not having this issue. Force Restart your iPhone, which will likely solve this:
This morning, my iPhone 16 pro would not turn back on after being charged overnight. I turned it off to not be disturbed. I did the steps of up and down buttons then held the right button. As I read many posts, I retried the steps but held the right button for more than 15 seconds and then it turned on. Thanks everybody but it seems to be a problem regardless. Apple, please create a fix!
So this happened to me. I got the phone a month ago and I started having issues with the screen freezing a week in. Last week, it turned off and didn’t turn back on for several hours. This past Monday, it turned off and never turned back on. Luckily, I was under a limited warranty with Apple so I brought it in. They said the battery was completely swelled up and melting the hardware! Luckily, they replaced it without any hassle. I am hoping the problem does not reoccur. I would recommend booking an appointment with apple because it’s most likely just faulty hardware. If you don’t have a warranty, sign up for AppleCare+.
Thanks for this, Mark. The piece that worked for me was the "quick" volume up, then down. After two quicks on the left side of the device, the right side button hold down produced the Apple logo in about 6 seconds.
I did. BUT , my second IPHONE 16 has same issue!!! For starters, on both my IPHONES 16's it takes 6 to 20 Seconds to start regularly. This is slower than any iPhone I have ever had in the past. In addition, after being TURNED OFF and Recharged overnite, this morning I could not turn on no matter how long I held down the Power button.
I finally did the 1second Volume Up and Volume Down button and then got it to start up after about 12 seconds.
Apple clearly has a problem and they seem to be ignoring it. Mine started in September.
Apple itself recommends Turning your phone off at night and restarting in AM as a way to get rid of any programs meant to take over your phone.
This is something that is very annoying to anyone this is happening to and should be seriously addressed by Apple!!!!! All on this forum have had iPhones for years, we KNOW how to start our phones. It never before required hitting the Volume up and down and then pressing Power button for 10 - 20 seconds!!!!
I own iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max and never once has either phone shut down unexpectedly. Are you updated to iOS 18.2? Many reported their shutdown issues stopped with the most recent update. Are you powering your phone off to charge it? If yes, it's not necessary to do that.
Apple almost never admits there is an issue. For the vast majority of people there isn't one. but if there is one, they work behind the scenes to resolve things and when updates are rolled out, while a specific issue may not be reference, they almost always say bug fixes. So make sure to keep your iPhone updates when new updates are released.
I have made 3 reports to apple support about this. Today was the first time they said they could replace my device for $32.77 (Canadian) but had no assurance this wouldn’t happen again. Their direct response:
“There is no known issues with any model iPhones in regards to the issue you are experiencing. If this issue was to arise again then it would be escalated to a senior advisor via phone support and they will be to offer you further options.”
So I declined replacement since I don’t want to potentially pay the fee and get another defective device.
I strongly recommend anyone with this issue to download the Apple Support app/make a Genius Bar appointment and report the issue every time to Apple. The more people that report it, the more likely they may recognize it as a “known issue” and either fix it or replace your phone for free.
These forums are unofficial so it doesn’t help to just post here to complain.
I am on 18.2.1 for the record and it has happened before and after I updated it.
good luck!
Hey, Heardy123…Apple won’t see your post in this user to user forum
Apple’s formal support can be reached several ways
For personalized support
Best way:
Other options:
(Note that both of the above have options to receive a callback or chat)
JMODC wrote:
This morning, my iPhone 16 pro would not turn back on after being charged overnight. I turned it off to not be disturbed. I did the steps of up and down buttons then held the right button. As I read many posts, I retried the steps but held the right button for more than 15 seconds and then it turned on. Thanks everybody but it seems to be a problem regardless. Apple, please create a fix!
There is no reason to need to turn your phone off at night in order to not be disturbed and it will charge just fine, and backup while it's charging too.
Enable a Do Not Disturb focus on your phone, to not be disturbed while you sleep. My phone automatically goes on this at 11 PM and off at 7:00 AM. Here is how to create a scheduled Do Not Disturb Focus --> Turn on or schedule a Focus on iPhone - Apple Support
Mine was not shut off or close to dead nor was it even charging. I fell asleep with it on my side table and it was fully charged when I fell asleep. Woke up and it wouldn’t turn on even when I plugged it in. I had to do the hard reset to get it to turn on while it was plugged in or it didn’t work. When it turned on, battery was 80%, the max I charge it to. I literally did nothing different than any other night. It definitely didn’t update because it wasn’t plugged in.
Update: I finally visited T-Mobile, and the salesperson there followed the same steps suggested in this thread. They clicked the up volume button, then the down volume button (in quick succession), and finally held down the button on the other side for approximately 30 seconds. As a result, the phone started up. However, this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. We should have had the phone available and turned it on, especially considering that we were expecting an important call.
Same thing just happened to me and I have only had my iPhone Pro Max for a week. I used the up down volume and power button method and now it started up. The phone was also prompting me to install the latest update so perhaps that had something to do with it. I did plug it in and shut it down overnight but I have done that before and have not had this issue. Sounds like a bug that needs to be addressed.
If this were a cheap garden variety phone, those percentages might have some meaning. However Apple [supposedly] makes premium products- or used to, and they charge a very premium price for them. Clearly their quality is going downhill. I would rather not even know about AI, but just have a phone that works just like all my previous ones have. I've noticed that their published 'fix" is seemingly just a generic restart fix, and not specifically only related to the thread problem. After reading and pondering, I suspect it is a manufacturing defect regarding the power ON button and/or its related circuitry. It happened to me, but not my wife this am, less than 18 hours after purhasing the 16 e phones at an Apple Store. After contacting a helpful CSR, I'm returning the phone to same Apple Store, where a replacement is waiting. And, for the first time in my "Apple lifetime" (since 1986), I will purchase the extra Apple warranty, and set my car's "autopilot" to the Apple Store.
I updated our iphone 16s to 18.2 and charged them to 100% then turned them off overnight. This morning both of them started up as they should. I've tested this for 2 nights now with the same results.
This happened again to my wife's iPhone 16 Pro. She could never get it to start. I tried 3 or 4 times with the force restart and it again would not start. I then plugged it in as a last resort, did the force restart a few time and finally it started. The battery was at 100%. It took quite a long time holding the start button after the volume up and down buttons for it to finally start. I will do a force restart on my iPhone occasionally and it never takes that long. She has had almost every iPhone since the 3G, so this is definitely not operator error.
I am responding here in hopes that it gets pushed to the top of iPhone questions in hopes that others may either respond that they too are having this issue and what the resolution is.
So it has been a while since my wife's iPhone 16 pro has needed the forced reset, so I thought that maybe IOS 18.0.1 or 18.1 had fixed the issue. But that was until yesterday when once again it took over 30 tries to force restart and it finally worked when instead of it not being connected to anything that I plugged it into my iMac M1 and was able to get it to force restart after 3 times. Then today, the same thing happened. Normally my wife will unplug it and try to start it. When all fails, she brings it to me. So today we went to the Apple Store without an appointment. They gave us an appointment for about an hour later. After running several diagnostics that did not fail, we again discussed how and when it fails. The common denominator is that when it fails to start, it has been on optimum charge all night and is at 100% when we finally get it to force restart. Apple went into a long dissertation about why the phone should not be charged all night and that it should be LEFT ON, NOT OFF. They also turned off optimize charging to so that it would charge faster when needed to be charged. We will give this a try, but on the one hand, I think this is just fast talking, I have not had the issue with my iPhone 16 Pro received the same day, but I also do not turn my phone off but maybe every week or so and then turn it back on. Unfortunately I do not believe that Apple reads these posts, but if there is any merit to what we were told at the Apple Store, then they should certainly put out a bulletin on how iPhone settings should be, and whether or not it is recommended to be turned off at night. This is just my 2 cents, but since I started this thread, maybe it is worth an extra 5 cents :+)
iPhone 16 Pro not turning on
