iPhone 16 Pro not turning on

In our experience just keep trying. Up, down volume and then hold the power button a really long time. Ours took longer than 30 seconds. We have 2 iPhones 16 and both have done this numerous times u til we took the advice not to turn it off. We use focus, do not disturb with the calls we want to come through in emergency.

just keep trying the above method. It made zero difference for us to power it on while plugged in and it’s not the charger as some have suggested. It’s the PHONE and we are waiting for a permanent fix. Good luck. One day mine took 3 hrs of intermittently trying to get it on. Then don’t turn it off at night while charging or it’s, here we go again!

Have you talked to Apple Support team via chat, phone call, in person at Apple Retail Store, social media? If you don’t give them the opportunity to inspect and diagnose the iPhone, don’t expect a warranty claim to get to far.

Same story with my new iPhone 16. It has to be a flaw by Apple and IMHO, they should give us all some sort of credit so that we can turn these in earlier than we ordinarily would. This is beyond exasperating

I would not turn off my phone when charging now, since my iPhone 16+ was updated to iOS 18.2 when it first happened. And I did charge it before while the phone was turned off a few times no issue, and then the issue happened in December. I would also worry about updating the phone while on a full charge - since it likely will shut off the power during the update process.

I Phone16 turn on problems.Just to record that my wife (too) came to me with a problem turning on her phone. I found the above post very helpful. I managed to get it to turn on after pushing the vol up then vol down then the power button in quick succession. Holding the power button down for at least 10 seconds.

After 3 attempts the “apple” appeared on the screen. Voila!

I just bought the 16 max pro less than 3 weeks ago and I turned it on, and they got it working.

Then again, I turned it on again, same problem.

Twice, in less than 3 weeks!

Any advice?

Lesli

The method you used which worked IS a Forced Restart. I'm curious why you choose to power the phone off while charging? I realize it shouldn't have an issue turning back on in the morning, but there really is no reason to power the phone off while charging. In fact, it SHOULD remain on, connected to Wifi, so your phone will backup to iCloud at night. It's best practice to charge it at night, powered on, every night with Optimized Battery Charging enabled (Settings > Battery > battery Health > Optimized Battery Charging).

As I stated in the post: I read through the thread and used the process that had been described in the thread, which didn't work for me and clearly was not working for many others who have posted to this thread. I found a better description of the forced restart process and shared it for the benefit of others who might come across this thread while searching for a solution to the problem.

I decided to turn the phone off last night because I turned it off. It has a rather large, prominent button whose purpose is to allow the operator to turn it on and off, and the device is designed to be turned on and off. It is not designed, nor intended, to be left on all the time.

Frankly, whether or not one SHOULD keep it on for the purpose of it backing up at night is wholly irrelevant to the problem being discussed in this thread. It is an electronic device and should be fully capable of being turned on and off without an issue.

I just bought my phone in November and I am experiencing this issue. I have tried 3 different wireless chargers and my iPhone charger. None seem to be charging my phone or at least that what it seems like since it isn't turning on. I have tried to force restart it several times and nothing. This is frustrating since I have barely had this phone for 2 months and it isn't cheap.

Allmus2025 wrote:

iPhone 16 pro max charged overnight while turned off. Used a different but compatible lead and wouldn’t turn on. Volume up and down quick tap and held power button sorted it. Sorted but disappointing and complex for someone who doesn’t look on YouTube for an answer. A phone of this level and pricing should be more full proof I would have thought.

Why are you turning it off to charge it in the first place? It is not necessary, nor even recommended the phone be powered off to charge. In fact, doing so, stops necessary background processes and prevents the normal backup of data to iCloud.

I was having the same issue here with my brand new iPhone 16 Pro. My phone died this morning, I have had it on charge for over four hours and tried all the usual botton combos to try to get it back on. This is completely unacceptable for a brand new $1000 phone. I could not be more disappointed in Apple.

**If you are having this issue too- try this botton combo**

quick press one at a time: power, volume up, volume down. then hold power until apple icon comes on. This was the only thing that got my phone back on. Hope this helps someone!! Good luck!!

All these answers of press this and that will not work. Please see the gurus coupled with AI answer. It worked for me and all I did was click on itunes.

"If your iPhone 16 isn't working, the "trick" of clicking on iTunes is essentially putting your phone into recovery mode by connecting it to your computer with iTunes open, which allows you to potentially restore your phone's software and potentially fix issues that are preventing it from functioning normally; this usually happens when you see a "Connect to iTunes" screen on your phone after attempting to restart it, prompting you to connect it to a computer with iTunes to troubleshoot further." 

Heardy123 wrote:

Hi

Brand new iPhone 16 pro turned off and on Magna charge.woke up this morning would not start!

tried fast volume up/down many times no joy.

Gave it one more go keeping my finger on the start button for much much longer (1 min) voila it came on!

Apple don’t want you turning your iPhone off at night!!!! WHY????

Loyal apple customer ANGRY!!!!!

WHY are you turning the phone off at night to charge it? It's not only not necessary, it's counterproductive. The phone does updates at night while charging. The phone backs up at night while charging. It's not recommended to power the phone off at night. You cannot overcharge an iPhone.

After mine died, charged it for a few hours with a magsafe charger. Waited until the charger showed the phone fully charged. Removed phone from its cover and performed the vol up/vol down/power reset several times. The reset maneuver is easier to do with the bare-bones phone. On the 4th or 5th reset attempt I held the power down for about 3-4 minutes and thankfully it finally turned on. After it booted, I updated to 18.2.1.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Whether you are an Apple customer or not, of course you can turn your phone off when you want to. Of course, if you do you can lose text messages and other notifications sent while it is off, you lose automatic nightly backups, which is OK if you manually back up frequently or don’t care of you lose your content if the phone is damaged, stolen, or just has a hardware failure. And you also lose some of the sophisticated charging features that can extend the life of your battery.

Apple’s recommended best practice is to charge overnight, every night, with Optimized Charging and automatic backups turned on. But you are certainly free to ignore recommendations from the people that designed, built and programmed your pocket-sized computer that can also make phone calls.