iPhone 16 Pro not turning on

All my past iPhones I have turned off at night. A while back I remember reading something saying it’s good for the phone. I did some research and there does seem like some merit to it being bad. Though this probably has nothing to do with it being bad for the phone. Also there are safety measures regarding charging, even over night. It cuts it off when full. Also, charging over night, again even if it was bad for the phone. Wouldn’t affect it not turning on.

Turning a phone on and off doesn’t necessarily strain the processor directly but rather the entire startup sequence. Here’s why it can impact the processor and other components:

1. Increased Power Demand: During startup, the processor and other parts like RAM, storage, and wireless radios work harder to initialize the system, load all necessary processes, and establish network connections. This initial surge in activity demands more power than regular standby or idle mode.

2. Thermal Stress: When the processor moves from a cool, powered-off state to a high-activity state, there’s a quick temperature change. This thermal cycling can, over time, contribute to wear on the delicate silicon components, as they expand and contract slightly with temperature changes.

3. Component Aging: Every power cycle contributes to the gradual aging of microchips and other components. Silicon-based processors can withstand many power cycles, but more frequent on-off cycles can, in theory, shorten their lifespan marginally.

That said, modern smartphones are designed to handle these power cycles with minimal wear, so the effect is small. Regular restarts are generally safe, but completely powering down every night might cause slightly more strain over many years compared to low-power modes or sleep modes.

Same thing happened to me. I turn my phone off every night and charge it (have done this for 12 years). With the iPhone 16 Pro I charge it with an Apple USB C cord overnight while it is off. Took me ten tries of volume up, volume down, and holding on button to get it to kick on. Battery is 100%. Running iOS 18.1. Very disappointing.

Yes what a pain- my situation a complete joke- I transferred digitally the sim via esim to the phone pro 16

which then died with the esim inside. It's my work number and Apple could not help here as you can't transfer a sim from a dead phone. I've had to ask my carrier for a replacement sim. I think Apple knows that there is a product fault but will not do a recall yet or blow this up as it would look bad for them. In eight years of being with Apple this is the most poorest of times with their grand new 16 pro phone- bit cheeky too to sell it with apple intelligence only for all the software not to be ready yet. May go back to my 14 pro which was excellent.

This is the first time it happened to my phone and I got it around 3 weeks ago. I completely turned it off yesternight before charging it, but when I tried turning it on this morning it wouldn't turn on like its usual 10 seconds. I tried plugging it again and using different chargers and different outlet, but it still didn't turn on. I tried the method of pressing the volume up and down method very quickly and then holding the power button till the apple logo showed up. It took at least 30 seconds to turn it on instead of its usual 10 seconds. This has never happened with any of my phones before, let alone a new one I recently got. I updated my phone to 18.1. Hopefully Apple can get this fixed soon because I can't do any schoolwork without my phone.

Same here man I just read over all of these reply’s while trying to power on my iPhone 16 I’ve learned the hard way don’t let it die and don’t fully turn it off Apple needs fix our glitch for what we’re paying!

Well, I’ve got bad news for you. I had the same problem multiple times jump through 1 million hoops at the Apple Store had no end of problems getting my new phone started up again because they never did figure out what was wrong with the old phone but guess what? The new phone is exhibiting the same behaviour three weeks later I get up this morning phone will not turn on 50+ hard resets later it turns on. I’ve been an apple fan since the 1984 McIntosh commercial. And I am as depressed and saddened by the quality of the products created in China by the way by this company.

C_P_See wrote:

Adding my voice to the chorus. Only difference is mine restarted in about 1 minute, while plugged in. Same base circumstances. 16 base 2 weeks old. iOS 18.0.1

Then why haven't you updated to iOS 18.1.1, which was released more than a week ago, which also might help you>

This just happened to me for the first time. I think the scenario was identical to everyone else—My battery is set to charge to 90% max, and then I turned off my phone. I’m not 100% certain I turned off my phone before it reached 90%, but I turned it off and unplugged it. This morning, I plugged in my phone to finish charging, and I was surprised the screen didn’t turn on. I didn’t really think anything of it for 10 or 15 minutes, and when I tried to turn it on… nothing. The force restart worked for me. What’s interesting is if I look at the battery level chart for the last 24 hours, the chart is empty starting at the point where I would’ve plugged it in to start charging last night. It also says “last charged to 90%,” and the date is the previous time I charged. All of this makes me hopeful that it is a software problem.

Happening to me for the first time with a 16 Pro I've had since October -- force restarting (tap volume up, tap volume down, hold power button) doesn't seem to work no matter how long I hold the buttons -- the phone turned off when it ran out of charge and it doesn't seem to be charging with either the original apple usbc charger with original apple wall plug, nor my macbook's USBC charger nor its magsafe charger, macbook doesn't recognize the phone, it just seems for all intents and purposes to be dead...

So I have the iPhone 16+, which I bought and set up on December 8, using the side by side method from my iPhone 11. I had my battery down to 7% last night before I plugged it in to charge (using the USB c cable that it came with and a 12V adapter) before turning it off for the night to let it charge. My iPhone 16+ is on iOS 18.2.

This morning I could not turn the phone on, so I had to keep trying using the reboot method - I plugged it into charge further thinking perhaps my charger didn't work, eventually it just randomly turn back on, I couldn't even set up a Genius Bar call since I couldn't turn on my phone for it to receive 2 factor authentication at first.

After looking at the responses here, it seems like:

1) I should not turn off my phone and charge overnight

2) I should get a 20V charger?

3) Set optimized charging to less than 100%

I will try these solutions and see what happens, luckily I'm still in warranty and now I think I need to get the additional one year AppleCare for an extra $200.

My week old IPhone 16 was dead after a night of charging while turned off. Took a couple of hours of forced turn ons to activate it again. This is definitely a flaw and I do NOT recommend this product. Wish I had my old one back.

The person did what’s known as a forced restart. It’s what Apple recommends as a first step for none responsive iPhone.

You can learn the procedure in the support article I linked to below.

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

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 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.