tip for when you forcibly shutt your phone off with home and power buttons.

By alex wallis, 12 March, 2014

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

Hi all, just thought I would post a tip for those of you who like me sometimes have to forcibly shut your phone off with the home and power buttons held down together. I am sure like me you frequently have problems working out when you have held the buttons down for long enough, and either you release them two quickly, or even worse hold the buttons down for two long and put the phone into recovery mode which I have no idea how you would get out of without sighted help. Anyway I recently discovered a nice trick for working out when you have held the buttons enough and can release them without doing either of the above putting the phone into recovery or not turning it off. The trick if you can do it is to put on a pair of in ear headphones when you hold the buttons, I have found that when you do this you hear a very audible pop when the phone powers off and you can then release the buttons safe in the knowledge that the phone has shut down and not gone into recovery mode. I have tried with over the ear headphones but have found it hard if not impossible to hear the pop sound, but I guess other people might have more luck. I have only been able to test this on a 5s but don't see why this trick couldn't work on other phones. Just thought I would share in case people find it useful.

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Comments

I can confirm this

I have definitely heard the pop you describe when I have my iPad Air connected to a speaker system in my bedroom, though it is less audible through headphones. The loudness or presence of the pop may vary depending on the headphones or speakers used, so I'd be cautious about relying on this unless you've explicitly tested it out.

Hello. Just giving some

Hello. Just giving some alternatives, as some (like me) don't use in-ear headphones. A solution I use all the time is I simply put the phone against my ear. When the phone reboots, the processor stops working for a second or so. When the processor Works you can hear it very very quietly, so it is not for noisy condition use. Also, counting to 8 has always worked for me as well.

Rebooting

I do the same as Jakob; I put the phone against my ear, and I can hear when it stops making the tiny noise that it makes when the phone is running. I have to be in a quieter environment for this to work, but it's worked well for me so far. When I hear the processor stop making that sound, I release the buttons.

confusion

just by holding the power and home buttons for to long when hard resetting an i device doesn't put it into recovery mode, so i'm kind of confused as to why people are concerned about this

Interesting I can't hear my

Interesting I can't hear my phone making a noise when the processor is in use, I wonder if its quieter on the 5s or if you have to be using a particularly resource hungry app. I am sure in the past I have ended up with my phone in recovery mode by holding home and power two long, I guess its possible I did something else as well though, but its always something that worries me when I use this method.

is it safe to do this reset on a jailbroaken device?

Hi. I have heard the erase all content and settings option found in general-reset should not be used on jailbroaken devices because it messes up system files. Is it safe to do the home power reset on a jailbroaken device? All of my devices are jailbroaken, but if it is safe, I have another way I think we may be able to use to know when to let go of the home and power buttons. I use the pop sound in my headphones because I always have the headphones that came with my devices or headsets like them with me and my hearing is also very good. However, I can see how this way would not work for people who do not like or do not use headphones or people who do not have good hearing. So if it is safe, I will test it and if it works, I will explain how to do it and if it is not safe I will explain it anyhow and someone who is not jailbroaken can test it and let us know if it works. I have been intentionally not using that reset since I jailbroak because I have been meaning to ask if it was safe or not and have not asked yet.

Hi, yes that's right you

Hi, yes that's right you shouldn't use the erase all content and settings on a jailbroken iPhone, however it is safe to use home and power together on a jailbroken device.

I normally count to 15 then

I normally count to 15 then let up on the buttons. it normal works. and as for getting out of DFU mode, I just restart the device and it gets out of it just fine.

Thanks for the tip though. I'll remember that if I have a pair of headphones on me.

another thing to try

I said I had something to test and if it worked I would post it here. Well I tested it and it works so here goes. This is nice because you do not have to use headphones and you can make the volume as low or high as you want. Turn on some music, put the volume where you will be able to hear when it turns off, then hold down your home and power buttons. When the music stopps, then let both buttons go right away and wait for your device to come back on.

popping sound on iPhone 4s and iPod 5

I can also confirm for people who would rather use the popping sound that you can hear that sound on both the iPhone 4s and iPod 5 when you do the home power reset and it is time to let the buttons go if you are using headphones. I have not tested on any other devices, but I think that sound would happen on any iOS device when you do a home power reset on it no matter if it is an iPad, iPhone or iPod and no matter what generation it is. However, if you can not here the popping sound or you do not have headphones, the music idea I talked about in my last post should work.

The only problem with that idea

The only problem with that idea is that you actually have to be able to start playing music. I have had to reset my iPad only a couple of times thus far, and each time the iPad was completely frozen or unusable, so I couldn't start playing anything if I wanted to. Still, it is an option in certain situations, though I would think that if you can do that, you could also reset the device by holding the power/sleep button for a few seconds and then selecting the option to power off the device, which is a more graceful shutoff and recommended if you have the choice.