iPhone 12: How to Force Restart, Enter Recovery, & DFU Mode

There may come a point and time when you’ll need to restore your iPhone 12, or enter recovery mode. At the very least, you’ll probably need to force restart your device occasionally when it hangs. We also walk you through the steps to put your iPhone 12 in DFU mode.

Before You Begin

This guide apply to all devices included in the iPhone 12 lineup: iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Before you begin, it’s a good idea to become well-acquainted with the physical buttons on your iPhone 12.

The two Volume buttons are located on the left-hand side of the iPhone 12, while the Side button is located on the right-hand side.

How to turn off iPhone 12

The iPhone 12 series features several different methods for powering off.

Method 1: Swipe down from the top-right corner of your iPhone screen to open Control Center, press and hold the Power button in the top-right corner, then slide to power off when the shutdown screen appears.

Method 2: Press and hold the side button and either volume button simultaneously until you see the power off slider appear on screen. Drag the slider from left to right, and your iPhone 12 will shut down.

Method 3: Go to Settings, tap General, scroll down to find Shut Down, then drag the power off slider to complete the process.

Method 4: activate Siri and say “turn off iPhone.” Say “Yes” when Siri prompts you to confirm

How to turn on iPhone 12

Method 1: Press and hold the Side button on your iPhone 12 until you see the Apple logo appear.

Method 2: plug your iPhone 12 into power. The Apple logo will appear on your screen.

How to Force Restart An iPhone 12

If your iPhone 12 is hanging, or otherwise acting abnormal, pressing the following buttons in quick succession will cause your iPhone 12 to force restart.

1. Quickly press and release the Volume Upbutton.
2. Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
3. 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 enter recovery mode on iPhone 12

Placing iPhone 12 into recovery mode works much in the same way as the force restart method, though there are a few differences. Follow these steps to enter recovery mode on an iPhone 12:

1. Connect your iPhone 12 to your computer with a USB cable.
2. Open the Finder on your Mac, or open the Apple Devices app on your PC. If your PC doesn’t have the Apple Devices app, or your Mac is using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes instead.
3. Quickly press and release the Volume Upbutton.
4. Quickly press and release the Volume Downbutton.
5. Press and hold the Side button until you see the connect-to-computer screen on the iPhone 12’s display.
6. You’ll next see a prompt on your computer stating that your iPhone 12 has been placed into recovery mode. Your computer will provide options to either update to the latest version of iOS, retaining your data, or to restore, which installs a clean copy of the latest version of iOS without your data.
7. After the Update or Restore completes, set up your iPhone.

How to exit recovery mode on iPhone 12

1. Quickly press and release the Volume Upbutton.
2. Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
3. Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears, then release the Sidebutton. Your iPhone 12 will reboot back to the Lock Screen.

How To Put An iPhone 12 In DFU Mode

In some super-rare cases, you may need to place your iPhone 12 into Device Firmware Upgrade aka DFU mode in order to reinstall iOS by uploading firmware directly via USB. Similarly to recovery mode, you’ll need to connect your iPhone 12 to your Mac using a USB-C. Follow these steps to enter DFU mode on an iPhone 12:

1. Connect your iPhone 12 to your computer with a USB cable.
2. Open the Finder on your Mac, or open the Apple Devices app on your PC. If your PC doesn’t have the Apple Devices app, or your Mac is using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes instead.
3. Quickly press and release the Volume up button, then quickly press and release the Volume down button, and then press and hold the side button until the screen goes black.
4. As soon as the screen turns black, press and hold the volume down button while continuing to hold down the side button.
5. After 5 seconds, release the side button while continuing to hold down the volume down button until your iPhone shows up in iTunes or Finder.

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6. As soon as it appears in iTunes or Finder, release the volume button. Voilà! Your iPhone 12 is in DFU mode.

After entering DFU mode, your iPhone display will remain black. Keep in mind that if the Apple logo appears during the above steps, the process was not performed correctly. Start the process over from the beginning and try again.

How to exit DFU mode on iPhone 12

If you are done with your update, or you mistakenly entered DFU mode on your iPhone 12, these are the steps to exit it:

1. Quickly press and release the Volume Upbutton.
2. Quickly press and release the Volume Down button.
3. Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears, then release the Sidebutton. Your iPhone 12 will boot back to the Lock screen.

GeeksChalk’s Take

It’s not often that you’ll need to use recovery mode, and even less likely that DFU mode access will come into play. But these are handy tips that every iOS user should know. Especially handy is the ability to force restart an iPhone 12 that’s acting weird, even casual iPhone 12 users should be well aware of this feature. What are your thoughts? Sound off down below in the comments!