iPhone 5 iOS 8.1 lock screen frozen, cannot shutdown

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Level 1

22 points

iPhone 5 iOS 8.1 lock screen frozen, cannot shutdown

My wife's iPhone 5 phone, since we upgraded to iOS 8 and now iOS 8.1, has been having a multitude of issues. Today, the home screen has now completely LOCKED and the phone cannot be shutdown.

I have hard reset (home/lock button) multiple times and the screen is still locked. I cannot RESTORE the phone because Find My iPhone is turned on and can't be turned off. I can't DFU or put in Recovery mode because the phone will not shut off.

We live over an hour from an Apple store and I am gone the rest of the week traveling so really need a crack on how to get the phone to shut off or have a way to force a restore. Any thoughts? thank you in advance.

Posted on Nov 3, 2014 12:43 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Allan Eckert

Level 9

79,512 points

Nov 3, 2014 12:45 PM in response to MRK99

"I cannot RESTORE the phone because Find My iPhone is turned on and can't be turned off."

Why can't turn off FindMyiPhone?

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Answer 2

MRK99 Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 3, 2014 12:46 PM in response to Allan Eckert

I can't get into the phone because the home screen is frozen and nothing will move on the screen, so i cannot swipe to shutdown, or swipe to open the phone.

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Answer 3

Nov 3, 2014 1:03 PM in response to MRK99

Try iCloud: Remove your device from Find My iPhone

The second step where it say On a Mac which deactivates it from the Mac.

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Answer 4

MRK99 Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 3, 2014 1:32 PM in response to Allan Eckert

Thank you, Allan. Great idea. I am erasing the phone as we speak and will update you.

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Answer 5

MRK99 Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 3, 2014 1:35 PM in response to MRK99

Well, I have erased the phone and the screen is still frozen. Apparently it is a hardware issue, not a software issue... Thanks anyways!

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Answer 6

Nov 3, 2014 1:39 PM in response to MRK99

I was starting to think hardware from everything you had to say but I figure you might as well give this a try just in case.

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Answer 7

Nov 14, 2014 8:35 PM in response to MRK99

If the screen freezes and you can't get the phone to do anything, try restarting it by pushing both the home button and the power button on top at the same time. Hold them both until the screen turns black and you see a white Apple logo in the middle of the screen. Release the buttons and wait until the iPhone comes back on. Your phone should work normally at this point. Restarting your phone solves most minor problems on the first try.

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Answer 8

Nov 24, 2014 6:41 PM in response to Fahim Qasimi

This worked for me.

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Answer 9

Nov 25, 2014 9:43 AM in response to MRK99

My software is current, and am wondering if the software could be the problem.

This just happened to me as well, and thankfully the home/reset worked the first time.

My screen was completely locked-could not use the slider, the battery level showed 53%, and the normal shut down would not work.

No problems before.

Once I did the hard reset, the battery charge appeared accurately, at 100%, and the screens returned to normal.

Hope this is not a continuing problem.

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Answer 10

Dec 30, 2014 11:46 AM in response to MRK99

THe same thing happens to me. I press the lock screen & home button together and sometimes that works or i plug it into the charge leave it for 20mins and unplug it & sometimes that works. This happened after i took it in to apple & they told me theres nothing wrong with my phone

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Answer 11

Jan 8, 2015 6:59 PM in response to MRK99

this happened to my wifes phone today! I am trying everything... nothing is working.

It must be a wife thing

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Answer 12

Jan 8, 2015 7:02 PM in response to Dave031769

did you fix yours ?

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Answer 13

Marree63

Level 1

0 points

Feb 3, 2015 2:03 PM in response to Dave031769

This has been happening a few time since the beginning of the month. In the past I was able to hard shut down, today, it is not working. Any other ideas?

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Answer 14

Mar 17, 2015 2:49 AM in response to MRK99

same issue here.

the hard reset doesn't work. resetting from iCloud doesn't work. iPhone iOS is bricked. very frustrating.

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Answer 15

Mar 17, 2015 3:27 AM in response to photovongsa

so i tried the iCloud Find my iPhone reset and it seemed to work, my iPhone is rebooting from a backup as we speak so the locked up screen issue seems to be resolved. 🙂

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