What to do if your iPhone keeps restarting?

It’s rare for an iPhone to crash and reboot, but just like any other piece of hardware, it can happen every now and then. Hence, you need to know about the possible causes of iPhone crashing and rebooting, as well as ways to fix it. It could be something as simple and harmless as a buggy app, or something as serious as a hardware problem that requires a new battery or even a new device. So if your iPhone keeps rebooting, don’t panic. Read through this and see if you find your solution.

Read more: How to turn off and restart your iPhone 13

If your iPhone keeps crashing and rebooting, you may think it could be a number of things. But it can probably be narrowed down to one of five possibilities.

Your phone or an app doesn’t have the latest version

If you’re using an outdated version of your phone or an app, there may be a bug that causes your phone to crash. After all, this is why updates are pushed in the first place – when a bug is found, an update is created to squash that bug. If you don’t apply the update as soon as possible, you will still have that bug on your phone. Makes sense, but you’d be surprised how many people never bother to update their phone. It’s enough to give you migraines.

An app or iOS has a bug that hasn’t been patched yet

The second possibility is that an installed app, or iOS itself, has a bug that hasn’t received an update yet. It’s unusual for Apple to delay releasing bug patches – after all, it’s not in their best business interest for their customers to have crashing phones. But on the other hand, developers may be a little late in tracking app issues. They may not even be aware of that is a problem.

Phone settings conflict with each other

The more you tweak and tweak your phone, the more likely two or more of these settings will conflict with each other. Again, this is a very rare occurrence as Apple probably puts a lot of effort into making sure this doesn’t happen. But on the other hand, we don’t rule it out either.

You are using iOS beta software

If you are part of Apple’s beta software program, it’s exciting to test new features. But because it is beta, it carries a certain risk. The new operating system is not ready for prime time yet and there will be plenty of bugs. This means apps don’t work, phone crashes, buttons don’t work as they should, your toilet flushes spontaneously, and more (OK, I made one of the toilet.)

The thing is, if you’re running iOS beta software, you have to accept that crashes and reboots are going to be common.

Your phone has a hardware problem

Finally, the most serious possibility is that your phone has a hardware problem either with the battery or with the circuitry. In this scenario, you can take your phone to an Apple Store to have it repaired, but of course a new phone is not out of the scope of this option. You’ll want to hope the problem didn’t get that far.

How to prevent your iPhone from restarting over and over

Now that we have looked at the possible reasons for your iPhone restarting and crashing, now let’s get proactive and check out some solutions.

Force restart the phone

Yes, it’s the old “have you tried turning it off and on again” trope. But sometimes a force restart can get rid of all gremlins in the system. You have nothing to lose by trying. How to reboot your iPhone depends on which model you have, but generally it involves holding down a volume button and the side button. If you have a Home button, hold it. When you see the screen above, slide to the right on the Drag to turn off bar.

Apply all iOS and app updates

The next step is to see what needs to be updated. You can check the status of your app update by going to the App Store and tapping your iCloud photo in the top right corner. Scroll down to Upcoming automatic updates and tap Update everything. You may need to refresh the screen first to make sure all available updates are displayed.

To check if there is an iOS update, go to Settings–>General–>Software Update† If something is available, it will be there. It would be better if you plug your phone into a wall outlet for this. If you have an unreliable battery, you don’t want to depend on it for a major iOS update.

Reset all your settings

Once everything is updated and the problem still hasn’t gone away then the next thing to try is to reset your phone settings. The iPhone has to do with so many things that it’s quite possible that something won’t work the way it’s intended. So it’s time to reset everything and start over.

Go to Settings-> General-> Transfer or Reset iPhone and select Reset† To start with Reset network settingsAnd if that doesn’t help, then do it Reset all settings† This will NOT wipe the phone, but you should still make an extra phone backup as insurance.

Check the error logs

If you’ve reached this stage, it’s very possible that one of your apps is still messing with you. So go to Settings–>Privacy–>Analytics and Enhancements–>Analytics Data† Here you will find the error logs.

They aren’t exactly groundbreaking pages you read, but you should still be able to tell if a particular app is mentioned more than once. If so, it could be the one causing all the trouble. Uninstall it, restart your phone and see if the problem is gone.

Erase the phone to factory settings

If all else failed, it’s time to pull out all the stops and wipe the entire phone. Of course, it’s better to avoid this, but if the previous tips have failed, then you probably don’t have a choice. Go to Settings–> General–> Transfer or Reset iPhone–> Erase All Content and Settings† Make sure that find my iphone is disabled, and of course make that iCloud backup. Then follow the instructions on the screen.

I say to backup but it is very possible that the bug is in the backup. So by restoring the backup you could very well put the bug back on the phone, bringing you back to square one. Therefore, it might be better to cut your losses and restart the phone with factory settings.

Contact Apple Support

If wiping the phone to factory settings didn’t make any difference then it’s a hardware issue. Either you have a faulty battery, or you have a loose circuit somewhere. Either way, you need to go to an Apple Store or a licensed Apple repair shop to show the phone. Make an appointment to see and record someone.