Hello #iPhone8 users! Our today’s troubleshooting article answers some questions on what to do if an iPhone 8 fails to turn on. We hope you’ll find our suggestions helpful.
Before we proceed let us remind you that you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.
Problem 1: iPhone 8 no longer powers on, won’t turn on
Went to bed after charging phone fully. I had unplugged it and laid it next to my pillow, and woke up to an unresponsive phone. i’ve tried everything, force restart, iTunes restore (iTunes doesn’t even detect my phone & my phone wont show up as charging when I plug in the charger but my charger works on other iphones in my household). I’ve even taken my phone to AT&T and they couldn’t help, only gave me the number for Apple support. can you help me? — Kari
Solution: Hi Kari. That AT&T was not able to help you at all is a signal that this problem is most probably beyond your level to fix. An iPhone that won’t turn on can be caused by a number of factors so you’ll need to narrow down possible causes. These causes includes these things below:
- bad charging cable and/or adapter
- broken charging port
- malfunctioning or dead battery
- damaged power management IC
- other hardware errors
If you’ve noticed in the list above, we don’t include any software-related cause at all. That’s because first, we don’t think you have a software problem, and second, there’s no way you’ll be able to find out the real reason unless you let a technician check the hardware. We don’t know your phone’s history enough to help you identify the cause of the problem. Based on a lot of similar cases, your problem is only fixed by repair, especially if the phone remains unresponsive after charging it for more than 30 minutes. We can’t see any specific circumstance that makes your case an exception rather the rule. The cause can be any of the items in the list above. Unless you are trained how to fix an iPhone 7 hardware, leave the job to a professional.
Problem 2: Easy ways to fix iPhone 8 that won’t turn on
I just bought a second hand iPhone 8 plus from a friend. because it is a second hand unit, i had it reset and change the passcode. At first, the unit is running smoothly at my house thru wifi. In fact, i was in the process of downloading a chesscube game software while having my breakfast. After my breakfast, however, i forgot to check the status of the downloading and went directly to my office. I was already in the office when i realized that i was downloading the game stated above. I was not sure if it was completed or not. Anyway, i tried to turn on my iphone this time with cellular data but the unit won’t turn on. When i hit the passcode, the unit will not start. I tried to repeat the process to no avail. Can you please assist? Thanks and regards. — Darwin Mendiola
Solution: Hi Darwin. An issue like yours can be caused by a software glitch or a hardware malfunction. Generally, an iPhone that won’t boot up due to bad software can be fixed relatively easily versus a phone with a hardware malfunction. In majority of cases, hardware malfunction almost always ends up with repair or replacement. In other words, there’s basically nothing that you can do when you find your phone with a bad hardware.
To troubleshoot an unresponsive iPhone 8, follow our suggestions below.
Try to use another set of charging cable and/or adapter
This may seem a no-brainer but a lot of users usually don’t consider this step when trying to fix this unresponsive iPhone. Well, make sure that you’re not one of them. You don’t want to be doing more drastic solutions when the real reason why your iPhone 8 does not appear to power back on is the fact that it simply does not have enough power to turn the entire system back on. If you have another iPhone, make sure that you try another lightning cable and adapter to charge your iPhone 8.
Charge using another outlet
Another simple troubleshooting step that you should try is to charge in another outlet. This is especially important if you tend to charge in one favorite place in your house only. Alternatively, you can try to see if the outlet you’re using works by plugging in a different device to it.
Charge using a computer
In some cases, iPhones may charge when connected to a computer but not in an AC outlet. If you have a computer, try to connect your iPhone to it and see if it will charge it. If it does, make sure to let it charge long enough so you can create a backup of your important files. After that, perform a factory reset to return all settings back to their defaults
Let your iPhone charge for at least 30 minutes
In any of the suggestions above, be sure to let your phone charge for at least 30 minutes before turning it back on. There’s a chance that the battery may have drained completely. A fully depleted battery may need this long to return the battery to its fully functional state.
Make sure that it’s not a screen issue
There’s a big difference between a No Power issue and Black Screen issue. The former is often indicated by the fact that your iPhone won’t show any signs of life at all — no LED light, no notifications, no vibrations, not recognized by iTunes. Black Screen issue on the other hand may still allow iTunes to detect your device only that, obviously, the screen remains black. A black screen issue also means that the phone is not totally dead so replacing the defective screen wil most likely fix the issue relatively easily. No power issue can be due to bad battery to a permanent component damage. If you dropped your phone before the issue started to occur, you may be having a damaged screen issue only. If you think the phone’s screen is damaged, contact Apple to have it fixed.
If iTunes can still detect your phone and access the data, make sure to back them up right away. This may be the last chance you get to create a backup of your important files.
If your iPhone 8 won’t turn on at all and iTunes can’t recognize it, there’s no way to recover your data at all. In some rare cases, special software and tools may be able to access the storage device of a dead iPhone but such exercise can be very expensive.
Try DFU update
In case you find your iPhone 8 responsive to a certain degree, which means that it’s not totally dead, you may be able to revive it by doing a DFU Recovery. DFU stands for Device Firmware Update and it’s the most drastic software change that you can do (aside from jailbreaking) to your phone’s software. Remember, this will only work if iTunes can still detect your phone, and if your iPhone 8 is not totally dead. If your phone does not show any signs of life, even when connected to a computer, don’t bother wasting your time with this procedure.
- In your computer, close all active apps.
- Open iTunes.
- Turn off your iPhone. If you can’t turn it off normally, let the battery drain to 0% so the phone powers down on its own. Charge the phone for at least an hour without attempting to turn it on.
- Connect your iPhone to the computer via USB cable.
- Press and hold the Power button for at least 3 seconds.
- Press and hold the Volume Down button on the left side of the iPhone while continuing to hold the Power button. Be sure to hold both Power and Volume Down keys for 10 seconds. If Apple logo appears at this time, repeat steps 5 and 6. Apple logo should not show at all.
- Continue to hold Volume Down key for another 5 seconds. If the Plug into iTunes screen is displayed, repeat steps 5-7. Plug into iTunes screen should not show up.
- You’ll know that your phone is in DFU mode if the screen remains black. Your computer should then tell you that iTunes has detected an iPhone.
- Follow the on-screen steps in your computer to do a full recovery.
Software solutions can’t fix hardware damage
A lot of iPhone users may think that there’s a solution for every iPhone issue. To some degree, that may be true but the general rule you should remember is that you can’t undo hardware damage by tweaking the software. For example, if your phone started showing problems, including the one we’re discussing in this post, after you dropped it, the most likely reason is bad hardware. Some iPhones may get away with a nasty drop while others may stop working altogether even just after a shallow drop. We don’t have the full history of your device so we can’t tell if you have hardware issue or not. Just remember, electronics are fragile. Dropping them will most likely result to something negative sooner or later.
Contact Apple Support
If the problem persists and that your iPhone still doesn’t power on, or stuck on black screen after force restarting and charging, then you should now consider escalating the problem to your device carrier or Apple Support. You may opt to seek further assistance in performing more advanced troubleshooting procedures or avail for service or repair warranty.
Engage with us
If you happen to have a problem with your own iPhone, let us know about it and we will do our best to post them and their solutions in our upcoming articles. You can use this link to contact us for assistance. We can’t guarantee an answer to every question but rest assured that we will exhaust everything on our end to help you.
Be as detailed as possible when describing your problem to help us diagnose your issue easily. If you can include error messages, popups, attempted troubleshooting steps, and circumstances leading to the problem, that would be very helpful.