Apple's iPhones have always been all about streamlining, simplicity, ease of use. They were pretty easy to wrap your head around back when they had 4 harware keys — the two volume buttons, the power button, and the pressable home button. But, ever since the iPhone XS design, these have been shuffled around a bit. The big, pill-shaped key on the right might look like a power key, but it's in fact a Siri button, there is nothing on the front of the device, and the gesture navigation has been introduced.
That's not to say that the iPhone is now a complex device to operate. It's just that the buttons we know and love have slightly different roles and we now need to wrap our heads around this concept. The very first things you might be asking yourself are probably:
How to turn off iPhone 11 / iPhone XR / iPhone XS / iPhone X?
As previously mentioned, that large pill-sized button on the right is now the Siri button. Yes, if you just click it, it will sleep or wake your phone. But if you press it down and hold it, it calls up Siri, instead of turning the phone off.
To get that shutdown menu that you are looking for, you need to push one of the volume buttons (doesn't matter which one) on the left and the Siri (sleep) button on the right. Hold them down together for two seconds and you will be taken to the emergency menu, where you have the Shut Down slider on top. Slide that and the phone will turn off.
If you press and release the volume up and sleep buttons too early, you will get a screenshot instead of the power menu. This doesn't mean you are doing something wrong — just hold the buttons a bit longer.
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The iPhone Emergency menu explained:
You will also notice you have two other emergency options like displaying your Medical ID (which you need to set up in the Health app) or sending out a SOS signal to the proper authorities and your emergency contacts. Both of these work in a slide-to-confirm manner, like the power slider on top.
Take note that if you open up the Emergency menu but don't turn the phone off, the iPhone will be locked down via passcode — Face ID will not unlock it the first time you try to open it up. This is a security measurement — if you figure some bad actors are about to snatch your phone or force you to unlock it with Face ID, you can enable the Emergency menu real fast, which will lock the phone down in a more secure manner.
Alternative method - how to get the Power Off iPhone menu?
If you just want the classic Power Off menu (not the Emergency menu), do this in the following succession — click volume up, click volume down, press and hold sleep button. You will see a screen, which doesn't have any Emergency sliders, just the shut down slider on top. This method will also disable Face ID, so it's essentially the same thing as pressing and holding volume + sleep. It's just a bit fiddlier to pull off, we think.
Alternative method - press power 5 times
If you don't want to bother with pressing and holding two different buttons, you can set the iPhone up to open the power menu when you press the power button 5 times. Go to Settings -> Emergency SOS -> toggle "Call with Side Button" to "On".
Now, you can call up the turn off menu by pressing the right-side button 5 times in rapid succession. The old method of holding a volume button and the sleep button together will still work.
Alternative method - shut down iPhone without using buttons
If, for one reason or another, you can't or don't want to use the hardware buttons, you can just go into Settings -> General and scroll all the way to the bottom. There, you will find the Shut Down option — tap it and you will get to the classic Shut Down menu (just a Slide to Power Off slider on top, no emergency options). Take note, this method will also disable Face ID for the next time you are unlocking your iPhone.
The iPhone SE (2020) still has a power button
The recently-released iPhone SE (2020) still bears the classic design with hardware buttons all around. The round pad on the front of the phone acts as your Home and Siri button (even though it's not a physical button). So, the pill-shaped one on the right side is a proper power button. Just hold it down and you will be able to turn off or reset your iPhone SE.
How to hard reset iPhone 11 / iPhone XR / iPhone XS / iPhone X?
In case your iPhone becomes irresponsive for one reason or another (screen is not working, or tapping on the screen does nothing), you may need to perform the so-called "hard reset". Essentially, this means that you are commanding the iPhone to restart by using nothing but hardware buttons. And for this, you will need all three buttons on your all-screen iPhone.
Do this in succession: click volume up, click volume down, press and hold the sleep button. Keep holding it for about 10 seconds and you should see the iPhone restart and the Apple logo pop up. If this doesn't work and your iPhone is still not responding, you may need to schedule a visit at the nearest repair shop.
How to hard reset iPhone SE (2020)?
Don't let that home button fool you — it's just a touch pad. So, you can't use that for a hard reset as you used to with pre-iPhone 7 models. To force the iPhone SE to reset, you do the same as on the new models: click volume up, click volume down, press and hold the sleep button for about 10 seconds.
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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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