I woke up one morning to find my iPhone screen blank with no obvious way to turn it on. It has been charging all night. What’s happened?
If you’re anything like me, charging your phone nightly is a part of your routine, and just something you do.
Short of when we’re reviewing devices and running a battery rundown test, phones go on the charge before we go to sleep. They’re plugged in or left against a wireless charger, topping up the batteries in such a way where by the time you wake up the next morning, your phone is waiting at 100 percent, ready for you to churn through it.
That’s what’s supposed to happen, and what happens nine times out of ten. So what happens on that tenth time?
Some phones can shut down after charging
Call it a gremlin in your phone or something equally random and frustrating, it’s entirely possible for some phones to just shut down overnight.
It might happen after an update or a battery that needs some extra love and care from an Apple maintenance team, but it’s entirely possible that one day you’ll wake up to find your phone isn’t switched on. Worse, it seems like it won’t.
One morning, that’s exactly what happened to our iPhone 14 Pro Max.
A lifeless black screen stared back at us, and holding the power button down for a few seconds did nothing to fix or alleviate. It was as if our phone was broken and bricked. Was it?
How to fix a seemingly bricked iPhone that won’t turn on
It wasn’t, but you’d never realise it on first glance. In fact, if you didn’t know how to bring your phone back, you’d automatically assume it was dead.
Fortunately, there are some things we can try. You simply need to follow three steps:
- Press the volume up button quickly
- Press the volume down button quickly, and
- Now press and hold the power button until the Apple logo appears, which could take as long as 20 seconds.
Once the Apple logo appears, you can let go of the power button and breathe a sigh of relief. Congratulations, your iPhone isn’t dead, even if it may seem like it was pining for the fjords like a dead parrot only moments ago.
What if this doesn’t work
If your iPhone doesn’t come back to life following these steps, you may want to consider plugging in your phone for an extended time and seeing if it’s an issue with the battery health.
An iPhone will switch on when it’s plugged in and has sufficient charge, but will appear off until it has enough juice to work with.
However if neither works, it might be time to call up your local Apple Store and make an appointment with a Genius for some in-person tech support. There are some things that may need the magic of a real-life visit to remedy, and your phone could be one of them.
