My iPhone Apps Won't Open! Here's How to Troubleshoot & Fix!

You tap on your favorite iPhone app, but the app won’t open. You tap on another app and it doesn’t open too. After trying a few more apps, you slowly come to realize that one or more of your apps are not opening, even though they used to work. “Why are my iPhone apps not opening, you think to yourself.

Luckily there are a few simple solutions to this problem — it just requires a bit of troubleshooting to find the right one. In this article, I’ll explain how to fix your iPhone when apps are not opening. These steps will help you fix iPad apps that won’t open too!

Why Won’t My iPhone Apps Open?

Your iPhone apps won’t open because of the following reasons:

Compatibility issues.
Your iPhone has a software bug.
The app may need to be updated.

Fortunately, it’s easy to troubleshoot when apps won’t open on iphone.

How To Fix iPhone Apps That Won’t Open

1. Turn Your iPhone Off And Back On

If your iPhone is frozen and not opening apps, you can resolve the issue by restarting your phone. Turning your iPhone off and back on again eliminates any glitches that might reside in memory and lets all the software start fresh.

The exact steps to restart your iPhone will depend on what model you have.

If you have an iPhone X, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15, or iPhone 16

Press and hold both the Power button and either of the Volume buttons.
When a slider labeled slide to power off appears at the top of the screen, drag it to the right.
Wait a few moments for the iPhone to completely turn off and for the screen to go black.
Press and hold the Power button until the Apple logo appears.

If you have an iPhone SE, iPhone 8, or earlier

Press and hold the Power button.
When the slide to power off appears at the top of the screen, drag it to the right.
Wait for your iPhone to fully turn off and for the screen to go black.
Press the Power button until the Apple logo appears.

Quick tip: You can also restart any iPhone model by opening the Settings app, tapping General, and then selecting Shut Down.

2. Check For Updates In The App Store

If you still can’t get your iPhone apps to open, you can try to update the apps. Your apps might be failing to open simply because they’re out of date and suffering from a bug or an incompatibility. Updating your iPhone apps to the latest version is simple and only takes a few minutes. Follow along below:

Open the App Store on your iPhone and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.
If the app you are having problem with need to be updated, tap Update next to the app, and the download/installation process will begin.

3. Update your iPhone

Another possible reason why your iPhone apps won’t open is that your iPhone software may be out of date. To update your iPhone, follow these steps:

Open Settings on your iPhone.
Tap General.
Tap Software Update.
Tap Download and Install or Update Now if an iOS update is available.

After updating iOS on your iPhone, check to see if the app can open.

4. Delete The App And Reinstall It

If only one or two of your iPhone apps is not opening, your next step is to reinstall the problematic app. In-short, this requires you to delete and re-download problematic apps from the app store.

If it’s a paid app, don’t worry — you won’t need to pay for it a second time. The App Store keeps track of every app you’ve ever installed, and allows you to reinstall them with a tap.

When you reinstall the app, you’ll automatically get the latest version, which includes the update.

Here’s how:

Go to your home screen, and tap and hold the problematic app.
Tap "Remove App."
Select ‘Delete App.’
Tap "Delete." That will also get rid of any data associated with that app.
Go to the App Store and redownload a fresh copy of the app you just deleted.

5. Get more help

If an app on your iPhone still open, you have two options left:

Contact the app developer.
If you bought the app recently and you no longer want it, you can also request a refund.

Apps Are Opening Again: Wrapping It Up

You’ve successfully fixed the problem and now know what to do when your iPhone apps are not opening. Make sure to share this article on social media to teach your friends and family how to fix the problem if their apps won’t open on iPhone! Leave a comment down below to let us know which of these solutions remedied your problem.