How to Reset an iPhone 7 or Enter DFU Mode for Last-Ditch Recovery

[MacRumors]

This tutorial explains how to reset an iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and how to activate Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) mode to troubleshoot your device if needed. Apple has changed the reset process with the iPhone 7 series, and with the devices now making their way into users' hands, it's a good time to let everyone know what to do when things go wrong.

A hard reset basically force-reboots your iPhone, which is useful if the device is freezing, throwing up errors, or has stopped responding completely. DFU mode, on the other hand, restores an iPhone if a reset or standard Recovery Mode doesn't solve the problem you're experiencing.

DFU mode lets the device interface with iTunes, update the firmware and restore the OS without automatically installing the last downloaded version. It's useful for installing older versions of iOS if a beta persistently hangs your phone, or if a jailbreak goes bad.

Note for iPhone 6s and earlier owners: Apple has had to alter the hard reset process and DFU mode activation on the iPhone 7 because the physical-click home button has been replaced with a Force Touch-based Taptic Engine, which is rendered unresponsive if the OS isn't functioning properly. Owners of iPhone 6s/6s Plus or earlier devices should therefore consider all mentions of the "lower volume button" in the below steps to indicate when the home button should be held down instead.
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Article Link: How to Reset an iPhone 7 or Enter DFU Mode for Last-Ditch Recovery

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Does this indicate that the lock and volume buttons will remain physical?

 

[2457282]

I had no idea that the reset had changed to use the lower volume button. Thank you MR, this will save me some frustration in the near future.

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

This post is rambling too much. Get to the point within a sentence or two.

 

[kirky29]

It took me a few minutes to work this out earlier when my iCloud restore went 'tits up'!

 

[bhall110]

Didn't even think about this. Good to know.

 

[naeS1Sean]

Great article! Thanks for thinking of this before I did! lol

 

[JustThinkin']

This post is rambling too much. Get to the point within a sentence or two.

You must be joking. I found the article well written - in fact it was just right. Novices and Experts alike can get the point quickly - because it provides proper context.

 

[realeric]

This post is rambling too much. Get to the point within a sentence or two.

"Use 'lower volume button' instead of 'home button' to reset or DFU iPhone 7".

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

You must be joking. I found the article well written - in fact it was just right. Novices and Experts alike can get the point quickly - because it provides proper context.

Bullet points are fine, but the initial paragraphs contribute little to the discussion. Also, at least on the mobile version, you cannot see how to reset the phone until you read the full text which requires clicking on a separate link.

 

[Telos101]

Does this indicate that the lock and volume buttons will remain physical?

This is a really good point. Something has to remain physical on the iPhone 8, right? Otherwise every OS freeze would essentially brick your phone!

 

[decimortis]

This is a really good point. Something has to remain physical on the iPhone 8, right? Otherwise every OS freeze would essentially brick your phone!

I wonder if they'd end up doing pressure points in that case. Like, pinching your phone together in the middle of the screen will do a reset, and say, pinching the middle, plus pinching the top left corner would activate DNU. I dunno, spit-balling and talking out of my arse mostly.

 

[Waxhead138]

I wonder if they'd end up doing pressure points in that case. Like, pinching your phone together in the middle of the screen will do a reset, and say, pinching the middle, plus pinching the top left corner would activate DNU. I dunno, spit-balling and talking out of my arse mostly.

You might be onto something there with force touch. It would get complicated...but you might have just accidentally nailed a future process lol.

 

[Kaibelf]

This post is rambling too much. Get to the point within a sentence or two.

Behold, the Twitter generation.

 

[Larry The L]

This post is rambling too much. Get to the point within a sentence or two.

Are you serious? The article is fine. The things you people complain about just astound me. Can you please rewrite the article for us and prove your point by showing us how your abridged version will work better than the one presented. Thanks so much.
[doublepost=1474050351][/doublepost]

You must be joking. I found the article well written - in fact it was just right. Novices and Experts alike can get the point quickly - because it provides proper context.

You need to understand that some people have an attention span of only one sentence. We must accommodate them.

 

[keysofanxiety]

This post is rambling too much. Get to the point within a sentence or two.

Had there been two sentences written instead:

"What the hell? This isn't an article. Next time, take the effort to write some more stuff before putting it on your page."

 

[definitive]

LOL, I was wondering why I couldn't get the phone to restart while holding Home and Power buttons. Tried it on two 7's, and neither would budge...

 

[AppleWarMachine]

Yeah, good to know because I already had to use this. Tried restoring my iPhone 7 from iTunes backup (which I just did this morning) and my phone bricked, did this, then restored from iCloud instead

 

[akfgpuppet]

Off topic, but can anyone else enter field test mode on the phone app? Did they change the code for it?

Just kidding, I got it.

 

[TMRJIJ]

Behold, the Twitter generation.

TL;DR

 

[MyopicPaideia]

This is why there will always be at least two physical buttons on the phone regardless of design...

 

[Kajje]

This is a really good point. Something has to remain physical on the iPhone 8, right? Otherwise every OS freeze would essentially brick your phone!

Ever seen a brick with buttons? Didn't think so.

 

[Shirasaki]

Ok. Since Apple is often a late comer, let's see how a button less phone work when there is no way to force the phone to restart. Apple could wait and see how this would be possible. Waterproof can coexist with physical buttons. There must be something on phone to restore it regardless of its state.

 

[Fortimir]

"Use 'lower volume button' instead of 'home button' to reset or DFU iPhone 7".

Yeah, those instructions work for the already-initiated. But every day there will be people learning on how to do this for the first time. Obviously they put this post together for search engine purposes so in the future when someone goes to Google trying to figure this out, all the instructions are there.

 

[vpndev]

This is a really good point. Something has to remain physical on the iPhone 8, right? Otherwise every OS freeze would essentially brick your phone!

Exactly. And the number of physical buttons has a minimum of TWO.