How to Restart, Force Restart, or Reset an iPhone 17

To restart your iPhone 17, press and hold down the Power and Volume buttons until a slider appears on-screen.
If restarting doesn’t work, you can "force restart" your iPhone 17 by pressing Volume Up, Volume Down, and then Power.
As a last resort, you can fix almost any glitch by resetting your iPhone 17.

Note: Information in this article applied to iPhone 17, ipPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

It might sound like a joke, but it’s true: You can fix most tech problems by turning your device off and back on again.

If you run into a weird glitch on your iPhone 17 — maybe the sound won’t work, or apps keep crashing, or you can’t make calls — your first step should be to perform a quick restart. This will refresh the software on your iPhone 17 and likely fix whatever’s gone wrong.

And if your iPhone 17 is so bugged that you can’t even restart it, a force restart works just as well. This method "forces" your iPhone to turn off, even if it’s frozen.

Here’s how to restart or force restart an iPhone 17 — and what to do if restarting doesn’t fix the issue.

How to restart an iPhone 17

The steps to restart an iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are the same.

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.

How to force restart an iPhone 17

When your iPhone 17 freezes, it might not even be able to show you the power slider. In this case, you’ll need to "force" your iPhone 17 to restart.

Don’t worry — this won’t harm your iPhone at all. Just beware that if you were working on a project, this will likely erase any unsaved data.

Again, the steps are the same for iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Quickly press and release the Volume Upbutton.
Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears, then release the Sidebutton.

During this process, you will see a slider to power off the ‌iPhone‌. You’re going to want to ignore it and continue holding down the Side button until the screen goes black. At that point, the Apple logo will pop up, and after the restart is complete, the screen will activate once again.

How to Reset an iPhone 17

If you’ve restarted and force restarted your iPhone 17 but it’s still not working, there’s a deeper issue at play. Some files or pieces of software might be corrupted, meaning that they’ll always cause an issue.

Your best chance at fixing these issues is to give your iPhone 17 a factory reset. A factory reset will erase all of the data on your iPhone 17 and return it to the state it was in when you first bought it, as if it just left the factory. This might sound extreme, but it’s a fantastic way to fix nearly any software issue. The factory reset your iPhone 17, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content & Settings.