iPhone 15: How to Force Restart, Enter Recovery, & DFU Mode

There may come a point and time when you’ll need to restore your iPhone 15, 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 15 in DFU mode.

Before You Begin

This guide apply to all devices included in the iPhone 15 lineup: iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Before you begin, it’s a good idea to become well-acquainted with the physical buttons on your iPhone – as the iPhone 15 Pro models have gained an additional button.

The two Volume buttons are located on the left-hand side of the iPhone 15, while the Side button is located on the right-hand side. The iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button is not used in this tutorial.

How to turn off iPhone 15

The iPhone 15 series features several different methods for powering off.

Method 1: launch Control Center by swiping down from the top right-hand corner, long-press the power button in the upper right-hand corner, and slide to power off.

Method 2: Long-press the Side button along with either of the Volume buttons, then slide to power off.

Method 3: Go to Settings > General, tap Shut Down at the bottom of the page, and slide to power off.

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

How to turn on iPhone 15

Method 1: Long-press the Side button on your iPhone 15 until you see the Apple logo appear.

Method 2: plug your iPhone 15 into power. The Apple logo will appear on your screen.

How to Force Restart An iPhone 15

If your iPhone 15 is hanging, or otherwise acting abnormal, pressing the following buttons in quick succession will cause your iPhone 15 to force restart.

1. Quick-press the Volume up button and release.
2. Quick-press the Volume down button and release.
3. Long-press the Side button until the Apple logo appears.

How to enter recovery mode on iPhone 15

Placing iPhone 15 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 15:

1. Connect your iPhone 15 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. Quick-press the Volume up button and release.
4. Quick-press the Volume down button and release.
5. Long-press the Side button until you see the connect-to-computer screen on the iPhone 15’s display.
6. You’ll next see a prompt on your computer stating that your iPhone 15 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 15

1. Quick-press the Volume up button and release.
2. Quick-press the Volume down button and release.
3. Long-press the Side button until the Apple logo appears. Your iPhone 15 will reboot back to the Lock Screen.

How To Put An iPhone 15 In DFU Mode

In some super-rare cases, you may need to place your iPhone 15 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 15 to your Mac using a USB-C. Follow these steps to enter DFU mode on an iPhone 15:

1. Connect your iPhone 15 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. Quick-press the Volume up button and release, then quick-press the Volume down button and release, and then long-press the side button until the screen goes black.
4. As soon as the screen turns black, long-press the volume down button while continuing to long-press the side button.
5. After 5 seconds, release the side button while continuing to long-press the volume down button until your iPhone shows up in iTunes or Finder.
6. As soon as it appears in iTunes or Finder, release the volume button. Voilà! Your iPhone 15 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 15

If you are done with your update, or you mistakenly entered DFU mode on your iPhone 15, these are the steps to exit it:

1. Quick-press the Volume up button and release.
2. Quick-press the Volume down button and release.
3. Long-press the Side button until the Apple logo appears. Your iPhone 15 will boot back to the Lock screen.

How to temporarily disable Face ID on iPhone 15

To temporarily disable Face ID, simultaneously long-press the Side button and either Volume button until the slide to power off slider is displayed. To reactivate Face ID, you’ll need to unlock your iPhone 15 with your device passcode.

Using Emergency SOS with iPhone 15

Triggering Emergency SOS will contact emergency authorities. Only use this feature when there is a real emergency. You can enable Emergency SOS discretely without taking your iPhone 15 out of your pocket.

There are three ways to trigger Emergency SOS on iPhone 15:

• Long-press the Side button and one of the Volume buttons simultaneously until Emergency SOS is triggered.
• Long-press the Side button and one of the Volume buttons simultaneously until the slide to power off slider is displayed. Use the Emergency SOS slider to activate Emergency SOS.
• Visit Settings → Emergency SOS, and enable the Call with Side Button toggle. This feature lets you trigger Emergency SOS by quick-pressing the Side button 5 times in a row.

There is also a Call Quietly option in Settings → Emergency SOS. Enabling this feature will silence warning alarms, flashes, and Voice Over audio for a more discrete trigger option.

Finally, there is the Crash Detection toggle, which will cause your iPhone to automatically call emergency services if it detects that you’ve been in a car crash.

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 15 that’s acting weird, even casual iPhone 15 users should be well aware of this feature. What are your thoughts? Sound off down below in the comments!