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How to Restart an iPhone Without Using the Sleep/Wake Button

Feb 9, 2015 11:59 PM
Sep 15, 2017 12:53 AM
Close-up of a smartphone screen with a visible side button.

Apple's iPhone is one of the most popular, most expensive smartphones in the world, yet with a broken Home or Sleep/Wake button, it might as well be a doorstop. There are many different DIY ways to fixing a busted Home button, but the Sleep/Wake button (aka Power button) is a little more averse to DIY trickery.

If you have an iPhone 5, you may be able to get Apple to fix the Sleep/Wake button for free. Otherwise, if you're just looking to occasionally restart your device, there's a few little-known tricks to doing so without spending any money.

First, as long as you have iOS 11 installed, you can use AssistiveTouch to restart your iPhone. For those of you who don't like having the AsssistiveTouch menu floating around, there's another way, which we'll cover below.

Use iOS's Accessibility Feature to Perform a Restart

An iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch is essentially a little computer, and restarting one regularly helps improve performance and increase longevity. So if you want to restart your iOS device without the Power button, you need to take advantage of the built-in Accessibility feature.

Toggle Bold Text Off/On

On your device, head to Settings -> General -> Accessibility. Then, toggle the "Bold Text" option on or off, depending on your current settings.

Accessibility settings menu on a mobile device.
Accessibility settings on a smartphone with options for text size, color adjustments, and button shapes.
Accessibility settings menu on a mobile device.
Accessibility settings on a smartphone with options for text size, color adjustments, and button shapes.

Hit "Continue" to Restart

Toggling the "Bold Text" option, no matter if it was originally on or off, will bring up the popup: "Applying this setting will restart your iPhone."

Popup message on an iPhone warning that applying settings will restart the device, with options to continue or cancel.

In order for iOS to alter the font settings system wide, it needs to perform a restart for the changes to take effect. Just tap "Continue" and your device will automatically restart. Boom.

If you wanted, there's also a way to use the Accessibility feature to turn off the device completely, but if you're Sleep/Wake button doesn't work, it's probably not the best move you can make.

The next big software update for iPhone is coming sometime in April and will include a Food section in Apple News+, an easy-to-miss new Ambient Music app, Priority Notifications thanks to Apple Intelligence, and updates to apps like Mail, Photos, Podcasts, and Safari. See what else is coming to your iPhone with the iOS 18.4 update.

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