My iphone will not turn off and i think i know why

iPhone 4s.

iOS 5.1.1

When USP charging cable is connected to both the live wall charger and iphone,

the iPhone will succesfully 'Slide to Power Off'.

When the USB cable is not connected the following:

1. Hold down power button until "Slide to power off appears".

2. Slide the slider.

3. Iphone gets the spinny wheel.

4. Screen goes dark for a second.

5. Apple logo then appears and the iphone eventually turns back on.

6. No Apps are installed on this 4S.

7. Restored on iTunes several times, No change.

8. Changed USB Cable, No change.

9. Cleaned Connector port w/ brand new, Clean, soft tootbrush, No change.

10. Blown clean air into the connetor, No change.

Any New developments / suggestions?????????????

The phone does shut down when plugged in but reboots itself if not.

The battery seems to drain quite quickly

I called Apple support as I have the same problem, the agent took me through a restore but this did not solve the problem. He then advised me to take the phone to an apple store for repair/replacement. I have seen on some forums that this could be a problem caused by the phone getting wet, this is not the case with my phone as both indicators are white.

It appears to be a hardware fault rather than software. I will post an update after I have taken the phone to the store, if things are a little clearer.

I had the same problem back in February. I took the phone in, and they replaced it. It's happening again now, so I have an appointment this morning. Ugh, what a pain!

I recently had the same problem with the same symptoms. The battery started draining faster and phone wouldn't turn off, just rebooted after sliding the shutoff on screen slider. An apple store tech said to do a full restore from iTunes and if still no luck bring it in. He thought it sounded software related. I did the restore (after a backup) to factory settings then tried to shut the phone off. It did shut off on the first try but on 2nd and subsequent tries it again just rebooted. I had tried blowing out the charging connector port on the phone as suggested in several Internet posts so tried that again, still no luck.

As a last resort, just to make sure the contacts were clean I used a small plastic " gum" brand toothpick, the kind with the soft tapered green pointed (and kind of sticky material, or at least it feels kind of sticky) flexible very short bristle end on it. It is very thin, pointed and fit perfectly around the contacts. I was surprised at how much lint material came out with each careful sweep around the contacts even though I had already blown it out. I did several sweeps, being careful not to put any pressure on the contacts, until it came out clean.

Next time I shut the phone off I was surprised that it stayed off. I kept turning it on and off and every time I slid the shut off slider the circle came on and the phone shut down and stayed off. I then downloaded several apps including Battery Doctor+. I used it and topped up the charge. I shut the phone off for the night and turned it back on this morning. I have randomly turned it on and off successfully but otherwise not used it. The charge when I turned it on this morning was 100% and 8 hours later it is at 95%, big change from the 50% I was getting before under the same time frame and unused.

I can't really tell if it was the restore, the more thorough cleaning of the phones charging port, or a comibination of both, but it seems to have worked for me.

I've never posted before but this problem -- the iPhone that refuses to turn off -- is driving me crazy. can't get through the morning, let alone the afternoon -- on a charge. I've looked at every posting, forum, website, tried restoring, rebooting, hard restarts, soft restarts, even got a new toothbrush and a toothpick in to pick the lint out of the charging slot. Nothing. Well, plenty of dirty fuzz but nothing to solve the problem like the last lucky poster.

It sounds off-the-wall but it is the most convincing explanation yet: free, fuzzy pocket lint getting into the slot is causing a €500 phone to malfunction. Although it's not malfunctioning in official speak, we have an "power-off issue" caused by the wrong kind of pocket lint. Solution: get new pockets. Or lint. Or no pockets. A third party supplier will sell you an iPhone holder with a suction cup to attach to your forehead to prevent it "power-off issue" that no one in Apple appears to have considered. Big wide slot going into big fuzzy pocket. All those design degrees and no common sense...

ust to update my issue, I took the phone it to the APple store and the technical engineer said he had only seen this once before and did not know what was causing it, he replaced the phone and it seems fine now.

Hi, I had the same problem with my iPhone 4: it won't turn off. The only way it woud turnd off was when it was pluged in. The problem was with the Dock Connector. I've disassembled it and cleaned the pins carefuly with a needle and put it back again. Now it works. I'm afraid you have the same problem, so the only way to solve it, is to change your Dock Connector with a new one, or try to clean it. Hope this was helpfull.

Having suffered the ignominy of retrieving my iphone from a toilet (not my toilet, lets just say it was a taxpayer funded toilet and leave it at that) my phone developed similar problems to what is described in this post. The headphone jack water indicator is silver and the dock water indicator is red. When connected to power the phone will turn off and stay off but not otherwise and the power drains quite rapidly. Using the classic "dry toothbrush method" combined with vigorous dry blowing with pursed lips, I have quite effectively cleaned my dock connector from the offending particles of fluff and I'm happy to report that the hole shebang is honkydorey once more. So chapeau to whomever it was that suggested the dry toothbrush technique, ingenious.

Had this problem for 2 months. Tried all the fixes, no help. Then I took a cross country trip and used my grandson's ipad power cable to recharge phone while driving. Problem solved itself. Try swapping cables (or just take a cross country trip).

My wife's phone got wet around the dock area (quarter full cup of tea)

Been having the unable to switch off issue for two months, then this morning, after a full nights charge I did this...

Fully charged - disconnect cable

Home/power button held down

KEEP HOLDING

If the apple logo comes on - KEEP HOLDING THE BUTTONS

if it restarts and the logo comes back on - you guessed it - KEEP HOLDING!

This happened to me 2 or 3 times and then finally it shut down

Released the home and power buttons

Turned phone back on

Phone can now be powered off

I've also noticed the battery seems to be lasting longer - though I have not tested scientifically.

Hope it works for you

Bro ! You rocked and it really did work you just release me from tenstion 🙂

Thanks alot 🙂 take care bye.

Hey all. I found something that worked for me. I tried everything else out there, including all posts in here, with out any success. I could have had a fluke success but here it goes:

1. Fresh install of iPhone
2. Dry Toothbrush to charge port, headset port, and power button
3. 70% rubbing alcohol on the same toothbrush to all the above locations
4. Used a plain wooden toothpick soaked with alcohol. Inserted point in into the charging port and turned the toothpick clockwise which naturally moved it across the charging terminals. Repeated several times. The toothpick did splinter/wear but it did not seem to leave anything in there.
5. Use other end of toothpick to move point in and out along each terminal.
6. Cleaned all metal contacts in the charging port with another toothpick soaked in alcohol. This got up significant debri that the toothbrush did not get. Mostly black grime, possibly oils. Not dust.
7. Used the same toothbrush with rubbing alcohol to clean all the usb charging cables I had.
8. Then, while the cables were still a little wet with the alcohol, connect and disconnect them each several times.
9. Hard reset.
10. Power down and stayed off!

Hope this helps. Ask questions if needed. I hope it was clear enough.

Thank you ever so much for taking the time to post this solution.

I, as others had done, had dropped my iPhone 4 in the (clean) toilet. It still worked fine, but had the issue with battery running down fast and not turning off. I was pretty sure that it must have been from water damage.It happened not long before my phone was off warranty, but I was sure that Apple wouldn't honor it because of the water damage. Even though it's been going on for months, as I was off of work for a shoulder injury for the past 8 months, it wasn't really a big issue. I just went back to work and I keep my phone in my locker at work. I live in SF so I generally rely on taxis to get back and forth to work.

This is when it became a problem. After 8 hours of work, my phone was dead, or nearly dead. I had no way to turn it off to save the battery life. The phone wasn't under warranty any longer, and although I didn't really want to tear it apart, I thought I was going to just have to break down and do it.

As soon as I started to research this problem, I knew that it wasn't something that I wanted to deal with Apple on. All the things that they told people that didn't work, I've been through before. And guess what, they didn't work for any of the other 2 problems I've had with other iPhones. Both of them had to end up being replaced.

So when I came across your solution, it made some sense, and sounded reasonable.

I do think that does have something to do with being dropped in water, however. I think that the lint, which seems to be the ultimate culprit, gets wet and then gets in between the connections. When it dries, the lint is more trapped in there, having, with the assistance of the water, formed more to the shape of the connectors.

When I first tried it, it worked. Great! But then I tried it again about 5 min later. And it didn't work. I couldn't see anything else in there, but what I ended up doing was to take some cotton swabs, pulled some so that it was hanging off of the end, but not tearing it off. This was so I could use that part that was sticking out, along with alcohol, to clean the connectors. They were dirty, too.

I did that, made sure it was dry, then turned it off. I tried it about 5 or 6 more times and voila, it worked every time.

Thanks again and I hope this added information helps someone as well..

The best way to repay a favor is pass it on!

Some useful Info in this old thread - thanks for all the previous posters. I had this problem too....my iPhone 4S would shut down when plugged in but reboots itself if not.

The biggest issue I was having was that the battery also drains quite quickly. I am a very light user, but could often not make it through the day

Occasionally the volume buttons would not work.... It would display the sound icon when pressed, but without the volume bar.

Settings / general / usage showed that under 'time since last charge' usage was always roughly 95% of standby time - even if I had not used it at all ( all apps closed by double tapping home button and swiping them up).

After reading the above posts, instead of trying to clean the dock connector I simply bought a replacement dock connector module (£3 from an online auction site). I followed a you tube video to replace the module myself. So far, all symptoms have vanished! Thanks guys!