Various

Phone frozen how to force restart it with a hard reset

Having a phone (or, most likely, smartphone) not responding, probably making noise that won’t stop until the non removable battery runs out of power ?

Do not panic, there is a simple solution, which is called power cycling, hard reset, hard reboot, force reboot, depending on the source.

Basically, it is equivalent to your computer’s reset button : by pressing a combination of keys for some time, a battery disconnection will be simulated, forcing your hardware to reset, emptying the phone’s memory, but NOT loosing any stored applications and saved data. Your phone will simply restart.

See below example for the following devices :

1 – Android devices

Press Power + Volume down keys (it might be volume up on some devices) for 10 to 20 seconds.

The phone will then reboot automatically

Example with a Samsung Galaxy S7

Samsung Galaxy S7 frozen : force reboot by pressing power and volume down keys for 20 seconds
Samsung Galaxy S7 frozen : force reboot by pressing power and volume down keys for 20 seconds

Example with a Samsung Galaxy S6

Samsung Galaxy S6 blocked : hard reboot by pressing power + volume down for 20 seconds
Samsung Galaxy S6 blocked : hard reboot by pressing power + volume down for 20 seconds

Example with a Samsung Galaxy Note 5

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 not responding : hard reboot by holding power and volume down keys for 20 seconds
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 not responding : hard reboot by holding power and volume down keys for 20 seconds

 

Example with a Google Pixel

Google Pixel stuck : soft reset by pressing power button for 15 seconds
Google Pixel stuck : soft reset by pressing power button for 15 seconds

 

Example with HTC Desire 626

HTC Desire unresponsive : force a soft reset by pressing Power and Volume up buttons for more than 10 seconds
HTC Desire unresponsive : force a soft reset by pressing Power and Volume up buttons for more than 10 seconds

2 – iPhone, iPad, iPod devices

All Apple devices use the same combination to force a hard reboot : hold the power and home buttons

Example for iPhone 5

Example for iPhone 7

Example for iPad

Example for iPod

Unresponsive iPhone, iPad, iPod device : force restart by holding power and home buttons