Q: My iphone 5 suddenly died.

RJM provides a fix that works.  Once you have your iPhone up and running, remember to close out all open apps occassionally.  If you maintain too many open apps it can carsh the system (suddenly dies and cannot turn it back on).   Do this often to avoid crashing the OS!

Thank you so much rjm it really worked

It would have worked without toggling the mute switch also

thank you so much! it worked and my phone is now back to normal

Mine dies today in mid conversation.  It was at 21% battery and plugged in.  I keep my open apps at a minimaI and I have had it plugged up to 3 different cords and sources and nothing is bringing it back to life.  Sigh..  Have appointment tomorrow with genius bar..  It is 3 months old..

Thanks to RJM and Lawrence Finch for the fix. My iPhone 5 also just died. Before finding this thread I tried just holding down the power button on its own for a while, which did nothing. I then tried holding down the home button, also nothing. It would have taken me a while to think of holding down both at the same time

Thanks, RJM- your fix worked perfectly!  Was a little scared there for a moment!

RJM thanks worked for me. Did not try reboot without toggling the silent button so I don't know if that would have also worked.

Sudden death brought back to life with the vibrate/ring toggle and the it just spontaneously turned on.  Fantastic save techique.

RJM,

THANK YOU!  Your suggestion fixed my phone. 

SM

Thx!! This worked!!

Thanks, it solved my iPhone 5 problem as well!

Thanks for your help, just happened to me.

I had the same issue this morning - My phone was chareged last night - I woke up and it was unresponsive. I plugged it into the computer, and then the wall, would not charge.

The solution I found was to hold down the 'Home' and 'Power' button until it reset (You'll see the Apple logo).

Once it restarted, it worked as normal.

Hope that helps.

Yes, standard procedure, prominently described in the manual. Which no one reads. When in doubt, reboot.