iPhone 16 Pro not turning on

My wife’s iPhone 16 Pro is not turning on. Several times I have had to push the top volume, bottom volume and then hold the right power button until the Apple came on. And it took much longer than 10 seconds and instead of it coming on by itself, the Apple would show only after I held and released the power button. Did she get a lemon or are others having this problem? She gets a new phone every year so this is not an operator error.

iPhone 16 Pro

Posted on Sep 27, 2024 5:04 PM

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Posted on Oct 8, 2024 6:55 AM

Bought two new iPhone 16 Plus. Did update to iOS 18.0.1. When one phone was turned off and charged overnight, it would not turn on this morning. So far I am trying the force restart multiple times and I have plugged it into a different charger no beeps. Also I plugged it into my MacBook and no beep and not showing up on Finder. This is bad. This has never happened with multiple iPhones over the last several years. Phone $1000 and it does not work after a few days. Ugh. Afraid to shut down the other phone and fear that it will also not be able to be turned down.

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Jan 18, 2025 7:58 AM in response to Gofastpowder

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).

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Jan 18, 2025 8:17 AM in response to lobsterghost1

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.

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Jan 21, 2025 6:09 PM in response to Lilisbuddy

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.

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Jan 23, 2025 10:26 AM in response to Allmus2025

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.

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Jan 25, 2025 11:13 AM in response to Lilisbuddy

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!!

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Jan 26, 2025 10:45 AM in response to Lilisbuddy

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." 

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Jan 26, 2025 3:35 PM in response to Heardy123

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.

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Jan 26, 2025 8:26 PM in response to Mark Gregor-Pearse

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.

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Jan 27, 2025 7:57 AM in response to Heardy123

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.

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Jan 27, 2025 8:34 AM in response to mtvann71

Why do you think it’s a bug, rather than a hardware problem with YOUR iPhone? I have no problem turning mine on if I turn it off, and apparently millions of other users don’t have a problem either, or they would be posting here. Have you had Apple Support evaluate your phone?

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Feb 15, 2025 9:48 AM in response to Lilisbuddy

I have a IPhone 16 Pro purchased three months ago and yesterday my phone shut off on it’s own and I was not able to restart it using the recommended push the up volume, down volume and hold the start button. I tried for over an hour. I tried plugging it in to a charger and it still would not come back on.


This morning I tried the recommended steps and it finally came back on. This only happened after I did the newest update.


I also have been using an IPhone for the past 15 years and have never had this problem before.

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Feb 18, 2025 9:03 AM in response to Lilisbuddy

Same issue here. Mom’s new iPhone 16 Pro Max won’t turn on after being left overnight to update to latest iOS 18.3.1 version, while plugged-in to charge. Followed the button steps outlined by Apple Support to no avail. We don’t have a computer (only iPad) and don’t have the time to run immediately to an Apple Store. This is really something that Apple needs to address with an urgent fix, as it’s leaving customers without a working phone.

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Feb 18, 2025 1:48 PM in response to Perscorilo2002

Update: I finally visited T-Mobile, and the salesperson there followed the same steps suggested in this thread. They clicked the up volume button, then the down volume button (in quick succession), and finally held down the button on the other side for approximately 30 seconds. As a result, the phone started up. However, this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. We should have had the phone available and turned it on, especially considering that we were expecting an important call.

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Feb 18, 2025 2:00 PM in response to Perscorilo2002

Perscorilo2002 wrote:

We should have had the phone available and turned it on, especially considering that we were expecting an important call.

Technology made by imperfect humans is not perfect. Sometimes, glitches happen. However, now you know how to do a forced restart which means you can probably resolve a lot of issues yourself and fairly quickly.

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iPhone 16 Pro not turning on

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