How do you force shut down an iphone 11

Plus how to restart the iPhone 11 series

Updated on November 17, 2021

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What To Know

  • Hold down both the Side button and either Volume button. Once the slider appears, slide it left to right and then let the phone shut off.
  • A basic restart is the same as turning the iPhone 11 off and on.
  • Force restart iPhone 11 series: Press Volume Up, then Volume Down, and press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears.

While you probably won't need to turn off your iPhone 11 series phone very often, this article explains how it works. It also covers how to restart and force restart all iPhone 11 models.

The instructions in this article apply to all iPhone 11 series phones—iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max—running iOS 13 and up.

How To Turn Off iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

Most of the time, you don't need to turn off your iPhone 11. You can just put it to sleep instead. If you really need to conserve battery, you may want to power down the iPhone 11 (though you should try Low Power Mode, too). No matter what iPhone 11 model you have, here's how to turn it off:

  1. Press and hold either Volume button.

  2. Keep holding the Volume button and then press and hold the Side button.

  3. Keep holding until the Slide to Power Off slider appears at the top of the screen.

  4. Let go of the buttons, move the slider from left to right and let the iPhone power down.

To turn any iPhone 11 model back on, press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears on the screen. Let go of the Side button and let the iPhone keep starting up.

How To Restart iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

You'll want to restart your iPhone 11 more often than you turn it off. That's because restarting is often the first step in fixing all kinds of glitches and bugs. In most cases, you can reboot your phone just by following the instructions from the last section for turning a phone on and off.

In some cases, though, your iPhone 11 may have a problem that prevents you from turning it off using those instructions. In that situation, you need to try a force restart your iPhone (also called a force reset or a hard reset). Here's what to do:

  1. Press and release Volume Up.

  2. Press and release Volume Down.

  3. Press and hold the Side button.

  4. Keep holding it after the screen goes black. When the Apple logo appears, release the Side button and let the iPhone 11 restart.

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Apple's newest range of smartphones, the iPhone 11, ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro and ‌iPhone‌ Pro Max, share the same overall design of last year's iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max. As such, the physical buttons have inherited the same range of functions, including powering on and off, forcing a restart, entering DFU mode, entering recovery mode, activating Emergency SOS, and temporarily disabling Face ID.

In this article, you'll find step-by-step guides for performing the button combinations of all of the above functions, along with explanations of what the more obscure ones do and why they might one day come in useful.

iPhone 11 Button Basics

Apple changed many of the physical button functions on its smartphones with the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 8 and ‌iPhone‌ X, so if you're upgrading from a device that pre-dates these 2017 models, you'll want to familiarize yourself with them.

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

Face the screen of your new ‌iPhone‌ and you'll see that there are two volume buttons on the left-hand side, and a single Side button on the right-hand side. With no Home button to speak of, these three side buttons work in combination to undertake all of the necessary functions.

How to Power on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

To turn on your new ‌iPhone‌, press the Side button once. If the Apple logo doesn't appear on the screen, the device may need charging – plug it into a power outlet using the supplied Lightning cable, and let it charge for at least a few minutes before trying again.

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

If after charging your ‌iPhone‌ still doesn't respond to a press of the Side button, try the button combination for exiting DFU mode. If that doesn't work, you may need to take it back to Apple to check that the handset isn't faulty.

How to Power off iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

  1. Press and hold the Side button along with the Volume Up or Volume Down button until two sliding buttons appear on the screen.
  2. Release the physical buttons and swipe right on the slide to power off button at the top of the screen.

How to Activate Emergency SOS on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Max

Activating Emergency SOS on your ‌iPhone‌ automatically calls emergency services and sends a text message with your location information to the people in your emergency contacts. For this reason, you should only use it when you're in danger or facing a genuine emergency. Note that you'll need to enter your ‌iPhone‌'s passcode to reenable ‌Face ID‌ and unlock your ‌iPhone‌ after performing Emergency SOS.

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

  1. Press and hold the Side button as well as either one of the Volume buttons, so that you're essentially squeezing either side of the device.
  2. Keep squeezing until the Emergency SOS countdown initiates on the screen. You can either wait for the countdown to finish or slide it across to call the emergency services immediately and alert your emergency contacts.

If you don't want Emergency SOS to automatically call emergency services when the Side button is pressed, make sure to disable Auto Call via Settings -> Emergency SOS -> Disable Auto Call.

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

How to Disable Face ID on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

Disabling ‌Face ID‌ on your ‌iPhone‌ makes it so your passcode has to be entered to unlock it. By disabling facial authentication, a police officer or malicious person can't unlock your ‌iPhone‌ simply by holding it in front of your face.

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

  1. Press and hold the Side button.
  2. Press and hold either Volume button.
  3. Tap the Cancel button that appears at the bottom of the screen.

Troubleshooting Functions

Apple changed the process of activating the following troubleshooting functions with the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 8 and ‌iPhone‌ X, so if you upgraded from a device that pre-dates these 2017 models, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with them in case you run into problems.

How to Hard Reset the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

  1. Quickly press and release the Volume Up button.
    How do you force shut down an iphone 11
  2. Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
  3. Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears, then release the Side button.

During this process, you will see a slider to power off the ‌iPhone‌. You're going to want to ignore it and continue holding down the Side button until the screen goes black. At that point, the Apple logo will pop up, and after the restart is complete, the screen will activate once again.

Using the force restart process prevents you from having to shut the ‌iPhone‌ down entirely, which takes several more steps.

If you do want to shut the ‌iPhone‌ down, you can do so by going to the General section of the Settings app, scrolling down to the bottom, and choosing the Shut Down option.

How to Enter Recovery Mode on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

Entering recovery mode can help if you're having trouble updating or restoring your ‌iPhone‌ over the air. For example, if the screen shows the Apple logo for several minutes but no progress bar appears, you can try putting the device in recovery mode and restoring it with iTunes. Here's how it works.

  1. Using the Lightning cable that came with your ‌iPhone‌, connect the device to a computer that has the latest version of iTunes installed.
  2. Launch iTunes on your Mac or PC.
  3. With the ‌iPhone‌ connected, force restart it with the following steps, but don't release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. Instead, wait until the recovery mode screen appears.
  4. Press and quickly release the Volume Up button.
  5. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button.
  6. Press and hold the Side button until you see the recovery mode screen with the "Connect to iTunes" screen, then release it.
    How do you force shut down an iphone 11

  7. Select your device in iTunes.
  8. You should see a message in iTunes saying that your ‌iPhone‌ is in Recovery Mode. You'll then be given options to update or restore your ‌iPhone‌’s software.

How to Exit Recovery Mode on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

Simply press and hold the Side button until the "Connect to iTunes" screen disappears, and your ‌iPhone‌ should reboot back into iOS.

How to Enter DFU Mode on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max

The forced restart procedure described above can help if an ‌iPhone‌ is freezing, throwing up errors, or has stopped responding completely. DFU mode (standing for Device Firmware Update) on the other hand restores an ‌iPhone‌ if a restart or entering standard Recovery Mode doesn't solve the problem you're experiencing.

How do you force shut down an iphone 11

DFU mode lets the device interface with iTunes, update the firmware, and restore the OS without automatically installing the last downloaded version. It's useful for installing older versions of iOS if a beta persistently hangs your phone, or if a jailbreak goes bad.

Before following the steps below, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer.

  1. Turn on your ‌iPhone‌ if it isn't already.
  2. Connect it to your computer using a Lightning to USB cable.
  3. Launch iTunes on your computer, and check that your ‌iPhone‌ appears in the list of devices.
  4. On your ‌iPhone‌, press the Volume Up button immediately followed by the Volume Down button.
  5. Next, press and hold the Side button (or power button) until your ‌iPhone‌'s screen turns black.
  6. Release the Side button and then hold down both the Side button and Volume Down button together for approximately five seconds.
  7. Now release the Side button, but continue to press the Volume Down button.
  8. Wait for at least five seconds for iTunes to recognize DFU recovery mode has been enabled.

You should see a message dialog saying "iTunes has detected an ‌iPhone‌ in recovery mode. You must restore this ‌iPhone‌ before it can be used with iTunes". If you don't see the message, repeat the steps above.

Once you've closed the iTunes recovery prompt you can go ahead and restore your ‌iPhone‌ back to factory settings by selecting Restore iPhone on the ‌iPhone‌ Recovery Mode screen. Once restored, your ‌iPhone‌ will automatically exit out of DFU mode and boot up to its activation screen.

How to Exit DFU Mode

If you enabled DFU mode and want to manually exit out of it, here's how it's done.

  1. Press the Volume Up button on your ‌iPhone‌ and quickly release it.
  2. Press the Volume Down button and release it.
  3. Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears on your ‌iPhone‌'s screen.

Your ‌iPhone‌ should now have exited DFU recovery mode.

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How do I turn off my iPhone 11 without the power button?

Turning off your iPhone 11 without the buttons.
Navigate to your iPhone's Settings..
Select “General”..
In the “General” -screen, press “Shut Down”..
Use the slider to shut off your iPhone 11..