iPhone 7 plus stuck on black screen with spinning wheel

THANK YOU for posting your resolution, @regina_m!! I'm on call for work tonight and was starting to panic, but your advice saved the day! Did Apple Support happen to mention why this is happening to so many iPhone 7 users? I've been an iPhone user fpr 9 years and this has never occurred. NOT COOL! Anyway, just wanted to say thank you! 😀

I went to swipe a notification on my iphone7 today, and my screen went black with the spinning wheel. It sat like that for 45-60 mins, until I could get to my laptop. This worked on the first try, a true lifesaver. I was ready to turn yet another phone in, due to a "corrupted software" issue, merely 3 months after the first one! I'm backing everything up, just in case I have anymore issues. Let's hope not.

Thank you, thank you!!!

Thanks for such a comprehensive post. I had the same problem with a brand new iphone7 (had it for less than 10 hours). I had been installing apps from fresh rather than doing a back up from my old phone. It froze after I tested one app and would not respond. I did a forced shutdown (home+power buttons). This is when it got stuck on the black screen with the spinning circle. It stayed that way over night for 7.5 hours until I found your post.

Your solution worked and I am very relieved! I just remain concerned that a brand new phone could crash so badly and it leaves me uneasy with my new purchace.

Thanks again for sharing your solution.

I followed the same advice with my ipad and it turned on by step 3. what a relief it was. Now my iPhone 7 plus did the same and I was like "It better work." I was remembering the joke where a man fell on his bum with an iPhone 7 plus in his back pocket and upon hearing something cracking he thought "My God. I hope it's a bone."

Well, as it happened I need not have bothered with my iPhone. It turned back on without any assistance on from me. Apparently, being so smart, the gadget had noticed I must be sleeping so it took it upon its smart self to update it's operating system. Now it's back.

Steve this solution did not work for me either. What did work, is when the power finally died, I plugged my iPhone 7 Plus to the power adapter and BINGO, it worked! Backed it up to my mac, and all is good.

This worked for me, it's just another solution that may work for you.

This worked perfectly for me! I didn't even have to plug it in to the computer. The screen went black for a few seconds and then the Apple logo came on the screen. It completely started up in about 30 seconds. I was really starting to panic!! Thanks for sharing this information.

Thanks djdalite. This tip helped me a lot, nothing worked for me , except holding down the volume down + home button + lock button. I had my office calls and was going mad. Thanks for helping with your tip.

None of the above info and others below have helped me out. My problem is the black screen and spinning wheel come on and off. I will be looking at my mail and it will go black and then come back on to the home screen. It does this about every 3 minutes if I am on the phone. Nothing seems to work. I have tried all I can see. I h ave not tried a restore setting and I am not sure how to do that. HELP....

Same problem here for me, what iOS version is on your device?

For me it's that the iOS spring board is restarting every 2 minutes (iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 11.1.2 15B202). I tried with the combo of buttons (vol down + home + lock), did not help at all. I can confirm that on right upper corner the device gets warmer than usual.

I'm now updating to iOS 11.2, fingers crossed it might help.

Just hold both volume buttons , power button, and home button at the same time. I will power off then power back on.

Hi! I believe I may have a solution to our problem of the black screen with the spinning circle.

I've stumbled upon this post today because my brand new iPhone 7 (which I have upgraded to the latest ios) also got stuck on a black screen with the spinning circle. I was trying to update some of my apps, when the screen suddenly froze. I clicked the home button once, and the screen became black with the subsequent appearance of the spinning circle.

I tried everything - pressed simultaneously the home and power button (did not work); connected it to itunes to do a restore (it won't let me because my "Find my iPhone" was turned on - but I couldn't turn it off because my phone was unresponsive).

Anyway, a very helpful Mr. Damon (a senior advisor from Apple) helped me via chat to resolve the problem.

Here's what I did:

1. Make sure your iPhone is unplugged from the socket or the computer.

2. Hold down the POWER button plus the VOLUME DOWN button SIMULTANEOUSLY. If it works, the screen should power off almost immediately.

3. Connect your iPhone to the computer. (when I connected to the computer, my iPhone automatically turned on and was ready to be used again).

The subsequent steps below are for those whose iPhones did not turn on with the above steps. The following steps are designed for you to be able to remotely turn off your "Find my iPhone", so you can do a manual restore from iTunes.

4. Go to www.icloud.com.

5. Click Find iPhone

6. Since the phone is powered off already, it won't be able to locate it. Click DEVICES on the upper bar.

7. Click your iPhone.

8. Click "remove from account".

9. Go to your itunes, and do a restore.

I did not have to do steps 4-9 anymore, because as I have mentioned, my iPhone automatically turned on after step 3.

This really worked for me. Hope it works for everyone else too! Have a great day!

thanks! this worked for me. the power and volume down! yay thanks.

me too

THANK YOU!! THIS FIXED THE PROBLEM FOR ME AS WELL.

WWondering if you are still experiencing this issue. My iPhone has been crashing apps and giving me a black screen with the loading circle for a few seconds then would ask for my passcode until one day the phone crashed and never recovered even iTunes couldn't unlock my phone I had to go to apple and let them do their rest it all worked and it still giving me the circle, today I did a factory reset I backed up all pics to google Then set up as a new phone and it's still giving me issues. this is also on a brand new 7 plus