Even though the iPhone was created to perfectly harmonize software and hardware, it is also susceptible to glitches.
So if your iPhone has locked up, know that this is a common problem, which can be caused by a variety of reasons.
Regardless of the reason why your device is locked, it’s an unpleasant situation to say the least – especially when it happens at a critical moment, isn’t it?
That’s why we’ve created this post: to show you what to do to unlock your iPhone and – as a bonus – to teach you what steps to follow if you can’t unlock your device.
How to unlock iPhone with frozen screen?
If your device doesn’t respond to touch, has a black screen or has crashed for good, here’s what to do:
If the screen is black
This failure can occur because the operating system is malfunctioning – or because of an unresponsive application.
The best way to unlock your iPhone is to force restart it. This will turn your device on and off automatically.
Each version of the iPhone requires a specific hard reset. So identify your model and follow the corresponding procedure to get it to restart in the right way.
To find out which model your device is, check out this article from Apple.
On iPhone 8 or later, including iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- Press and quickly release the “Volume Up” button, then do the same with the “Volume Down” button;
Then hold down the “Power” button until the Apple symbol appears on the screen.
On iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus
- Press and hold the “Power” and “Volume Down” buttons until the Apple apple appears on the screen.
On iPhone 6s and earlier, including iPhone SE (1st generation)
- Press and hold the “Home” and “Power” buttons until the Apple symbol appears.
If you can’t unlock your iPhone
If your device displays the apple screen, the blue screen or the red screen, follow the steps below:
Force restart an iPhone with Face ID
- Using the USB cable, connect your device to a computer. Depending on your PC’s operating system, you’ll need to open different software: on macOS Catalina, the Finder; on macOS Mojave or earlier, iTunes;
- Now select your iPhone on the computer;
- Once your iPhone is connected, you need to follow different steps, depending on your device model:
Force restart iPhone 8 or iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- Press the “Volume up” button and release quickly. Do the same with the “Volume down” button;
- Then hold down the side button.
Force restart iPhone 7
- Press and hold the side and volume down buttons at the same time.
Force restart iPhone 6s or iPhone SE (1st generation)
- Press and hold the “Home” and side (or top) buttons at the same time.
- Once this is done, regardless of your device model, hold down the buttons until the recovery mode screen appears;
- When the option to restore or update appears, click on “Update”;
- Once this is done, your computer will download the software to your device. If the download takes longer than 15 minutes, the device will exit recovery mode. If this happens, repeat steps 2 to 4.
Conclusion
To unlock your iPhone, you can restart it or – if that doesn’t work – force a restart using your computer. Be careful not to restore to factory settings, as in this case you will lose all the data saved on your device.
We can recover data from iPhones that have crashed but have not been factory reset.
We at Bot have been working with data recovery for 10 years and have fixed 95% of the more than 100,000 cases we have dealt with.
The best part is that you don’t pay anything for the quote – even if your device has already been opened by another service center.
What’s more, we offer free collection of your device from any address in Portugal, and we diagnose within 48 hours – or less, depending on your urgency.
Become one of our 98% satisfied customers: start your recovery now!
