You can shut down an iPhone with the hardware buttons or from Settings. On iPhones with Face ID, holding only the side button can activate Siri, so the normal shutdown shortcut uses the side button together with a volume button.
Quick steps
- Press and hold the side button and either volume button.
- Release them when the power-off slider appears.
- Drag slide to power off to the right.
- Wait for the screen to become completely dark.
- Hold the side button to turn the iPhone on again.
Shut down from Settings
Open Settings > General and scroll to Shut Down if you prefer an onscreen method. This is also useful when one of the volume buttons is difficult to press. The result is the same normal shutdown.
A shutdown is not a force restart
Turning the iPhone off normally closes iOS and powers down the device. A force restart is intended for a frozen or unresponsive phone and uses a different button sequence. There is no benefit to force-restarting a phone that can shut down normally.
If the screen is frozen
On current Face ID models, quickly press Volume Up, quickly press Volume Down, then hold the side button until the Apple logo appears. Do not release the side button merely because the power slider appears if the screen itself is unresponsive.
When a restart is enough
For Wi-Fi glitches, a stuck app, or a temporary interface problem, you usually do not need to leave the iPhone powered off for a long time. A normal shutdown and restart is enough to reload iOS and many system services.
One more detail worth knowing
You can turn off an iPhone with its physical buttons, from Settings, or from Control Center on current versions of iOS. The button combination depends on whether the iPhone has Face ID or a Home button. Turn Off an iPhone with Face ID Press and hold the side button and either volume button at the same time.
How to confirm the change
After you finish power off/shut down iphone, repeat the action that originally brought you to this guide. Check the visible setting or real-world result rather than assuming the change took effect. If the result differs from the steps above, return to the relevant menu and look for a carrier, account, device, or app-specific control before changing unrelated iPhone settings.
Turn off a Face ID iPhone
Press and hold the Side button and either Volume button until the power sliders appear, then drag the power-off slider. Wait for the phone to shut down completely before pressing the Side button again to restart it.
Open Settings > General, scroll down, and tap Shut Down. This provides an on-screen way to power off the iPhone. If the screen is frozen and neither method works, use the force-restart sequence for the specific iPhone model instead.
Matthew Roberts created this site to help his friends and family with questions that they might have about how to change the settings on their iPhones. It now serves as an archive of iPhone how-to guides to help anyone that stumbles upon this website.