My iPhone 4s won't shut off, it just restarts itself after a second

I have a 4S, 1yr 2mos old, with IOS 6.0.1 (10A523). This problem just started for me a week or so ago, quite some time after my upgrade to 6.0.1 (so I don't think that's it); somehow I don't think that upgrading to 6.1.1 will help so I'll hold off, because any software upgrade has its risks.

I just did a very thorough cleaning using, in this order: soft (paint) brush, compressed air, soft toothbrush (gently, to be sure not to damage delicate contacts), compressed air, tuner cleaner (my miracle worker), more compressed air. Examination at each stage using a 60x microscope, until everything was pristine and shiny.

Nuttin.

Next, I tried turning off notifications, per lorddisick's suggestion. I turned off many more notifications than I had before the problem (no change). Then I turned off more, including some I thought suspect (so I wanted to turn them off individually). Nuttin.

I take VERY good care of my phone, using a protective gel case, plus a hip case when necessary. It never gets wet, and I keep it out of dirty environments. Any "shocks" (drops) were minimal (tabletop, not floor), and few between.

The battery is good. I've taken proper care, using recommended conditionning, charging procedures, etc. (there may have been some degradation, i.e. quicker discharge, since the last iOS upgrade, but nothing like what's being reported).

I've tried turing off while plugged in, and not.

Having exhausted everything I've seen here (aside from the wiping and upgrade, which I'll save as a last resort), I thought I'd post my situation for others before I move onto other forums. I wish you/us all luck, and hope to see a solution which works for me soon; I'll certainly come back here and post if I find one!

Salutations,

-MontrealPaul

Brilliant! Thanks for the great answer Brad805. You may not need a toothbrush - I used the edge of a sheet of paper. I found a big piece of fluff in the power port, cleaned it, short circuit gone! I'm guessing it may also resolve my recent battery-life problem. Thanks again.

Update: after an iOS update (to 6.1.2), which had no effect on this issue, I finally bit the bullet and did a complete reset of the phone. Wiped it out completely, restored to zero...

Nuttin; No effect on the issue, which shows it's got to be hardware, not software.

(side note: restore went 100% smoothly, thankfully!)

As I said previously, I meticulously cleaned the docking port, as well as blew compressed into the headphone jack, fwiw, so I'm down to opening it, which I won't attempt (been there, done that, failed catastrophically, with a previous phone).

All moot, at this point, because as a happy coincidence my company is changing providers, which means new phones for everyone (iPhone 5, here I come!).

Just thought I'd make this last post, FYI.

i have the same problem! I lost my iPhone 4s in water and now i have the same problem! Someone with a fix for it? Sorry for my bad english, im from Norway.

Tried all solutions above. None worked. Heavy brushing of charging port with clean/dry toothbrush. Nothing worked.

Grabbed a magnifying glass and a light. Found small piece of crud deep at the base of contacts. Worked on this with the sharp edge of a needle.

Had to scrape hard enough to free the crud, but not so hard as to rip out contacts.

Everything working normal.

This is my wife's phone. I believe the cause here is carrying acound charging cord in her purse. My guess is plug picked up one of the normal biohazards occupying the bottom of her purse, then stuffed into the charging socket of phone.

Good Luck.

JUst wanted to let you all know that I too was facing these problems .. Phone would not shut down, no sound bar on music , usage and standby time were almost identical, for weeks I tried everything, restored phone as new, turned this off ,turned that off...ran around in circles while rubbing my tummy.. You name it,I tried it. Went to the apple store and they told me I had corrosion in my dock connector .. But could not fix it and tried to sell me a new iphone 5. I took my phone to a cell repair place and for 30 bucks they replaced my dock connector... And bingo it works perfect now! Save herself the frustration of trying this and that.. If these are your issues.. You need to replace the connector

My phone won't switch off when i press the switch and slide it off.The battery seems to go down quickly.Why????😕

What are your usage and standby times.. If they are almost the same, you have a dirty or damaged dock connector

i thought this was a long shot solution, but cleaning the dock port solved both of the following problems:

- iphone wouldn't shut down ... it would shut down and start right back up.

- NO SOUND

Solution: I folded a thick piece of paper stock and used it to scoop out dust & grime from the port at the bottom of the device. took a little effort to get the offending dust bunnies (which were kinda packed in there), but as soon as I cleaned it out, everything started working like a charm.

I cleaned the port VERY well and it finally works normal again...!

I cleaned my 4s port with a soft hair brush pretty thoroughly and found a lot of gunk and dust in there. After it looked clean, I still had the problem of it restarting itself after turning it off. I tried restoring from a back up. That didn't work. Another solution I found online was to replace the dock port with a new one. I slept on that solution, and finally came back to this thread again to see if I missed something. Good thing I did because I decided to take a final close look at the port, and I noticed the side walls of the port still looked dusty and cluttered. I took a soft hair brush and concentrated on the side walls and edges, and cleaned the pins again as well.......and FINALLY my 4s works like normal again. Hope the battery drain issue also gets fixed, but wanted to post this immediately after I fixed the shut down problem. Good luck!

Was also having the issue of not being able to shut off the 4s. After reading through this thread I tried the cleaning out of the 30 pin charge port with a pin and a toothbrush and success. It now shuts down and stays that way. Not sure if it also improved battery life but that would just be an added bonus at this point. Main issue I was having = solved. Thanks for the help everyone!!

The tooth brush work for me :)

It worked for me. Used a brand new toothbrush on my 5 and it turned off immediately afterward.

My son pointed me to this discussion as I was having the same problem. A thourough cleaning and some compressed air also did the trick for me. Thanks to all!

Thanks for the infor here fella's. My wifes 4s is having every issue described, poor battery life, will trun itself back on, and the loss of control of the volume for music and ringer. I will try the cleaning trick and see what I get. Sounds like it takes a bit to get it good and clean!

If not I will see what a repair place will charge to replace the charging connector.