How to Turn Off an iPhone (Any Model, Step by Step)

Pick up your iPhone and find the side power button on the right edge. On the left edge are two volume buttons - up on top, down below. Press and hold the side button together with either volume button (up or down works the same).

Hold both buttons for about three seconds. You're not trying to take a screenshot here, which is a quick press - this is a longer hold. The screen dims, and the power-off slider appears.

The slider screen shows three things stacked top to bottom: a white "slide to power off" slider at the top, an SOS Emergency Call slider in the middle, and a Cancel button at the bottom. The top one is what you want.

Place your finger on the small power icon on the left side of the top slider and drag it all the way to the right. The screen goes black, and the iPhone fully powers down. To turn it back on, press and hold the side button until the white Apple logo appears.

If the touchscreen has frozen and won't respond to taps, you can still restart the phone with three quick button moves. Press and release the volume up button. Then press and release the volume down button. Then press and hold the side button for about 15 seconds.

Keep holding the side button even after the screen goes black. After 10-15 seconds you'll see the white Apple logo on a black background - that means the restart is working. Release the side button once you see the logo and let the phone finish booting up.

If your screen is responsive and you'd rather skip the buttons, you can power down from Control Center. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. The Control Center panel appears with toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, brightness, and more.

Look for the power icon - a small circle with a vertical line, sitting in the top-right corner of the panel. A quick tap does nothing here. You have to press and hold the power icon for about two seconds. You'll feel a short haptic buzz, then the same slide-to-power-off screen from the button method appears. Drag the slider to turn off.

There's also a way to power down without touching a single button or gesture. Open the Settings app (the gray gear icon on your home screen). Tap General at the top of the second group of options. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the General screen.

At the very bottom you'll see Shut Down in red text. Tap it, and the familiar power-off slider appears. Drag it to the right to turn the phone off completely.

Here's the trick that pays you back every day from this point forward. Open Settings, scroll down and tap Accessibility. In the Accessibility menu, tap Touch. At the top of the Touch screen, tap AssistiveTouch and flip the toggle on.

A small round dot menu appears on the screen. You can drag it to any edge or corner so it's out of the way. Tap the dot and a tray of shortcut icons pops up - Notifications, Control Center, Home, and a few others by default.

Back in the AssistiveTouch screen, tap Customize Top Level Menu. The default tray of icons appears with a plus button you can use to add more, or you can replace any of the existing icons. Tap the Custom placeholder button (or one you don't use, like Siri).

Scroll down the long list of actions and tap Restart. Tap the blue check mark in the upper-right corner to confirm. While you're at it, edit a second icon and add Screenshot the same way - it's the easiest one-finger screenshot trick on iPhone.

Now any time you want to restart, tap the floating AssistiveTouch dot, then tap Restart. The phone reboots with a single tap. No more 15-second button holds, no more digging through menus.