iPhone 16 not turning on, with workaround but no fix

[RandySea]

There are hundreds of people who have reported this problem on an Apple forum. My new iPhone 16 Pro simply would not start up even though it was fully charged. Apple hasn't acknowledged the problem. There is no known fix. If you call support, you may be offered a replacement of a reconditioned phone.

The workaround is a bizarre and kludgy way to start up the phone:

• Press and quickly release VOLUME UP

then

• Press and quickly release VOLUME DOWN

then

• Hold the SIDE button until an Apple logo appears (15-30 seconds), ignoring "slide to power off" if it appears

This worked for me after I found it online. It doesn't actually correct the problem, just gets your phone running.
New reports of the problem are posted almost daily. One person said the were able to start their phone by plugging it into a Mac. No help for us PC'ers.

 

[zencowboy]

hmmm. I have the 16 Pro Max 1TB. And one morning it was working fine then went to tap it for the time and the screen never turned on.I can hear the charge sound when plug in. And I also always have that accessibility setting sound on so when you restart the phone you hear a sound...so it does that but still a black screen. Went thru with phone support and installed the software via a Mac and plugged in to it while holding down the power button longer so it pops up on the Mac window to reinstall software. It did that but no screen worked. I'm in Costa Rica for a bit so went to an authorized apple repair store. They plugged it in via direct to Mac monitor and the monitor shows the iPhones screen but cannot do anything as the touch screen doesn't work. So technican said he believes is screen via is test so he got Miami Apple Store to mail a screen....5 days later screen arrived and tec installed and Still not working BUT he still thinks is the screen and not logic board...Apple is sending another screen and will know next week.

 

[doogm]

There are hundreds of people who have reported this problem on an Apple forum. My new iPhone 16 Pro simply would not start up even though it was fully charged. Apple hasn't acknowledged the problem. There is no known fix. If you call support, you may be offered a replacement of a reconditioned phone.

The workaround is a bizarre and kludgy way to start up the phone:

• Press and quickly release VOLUME UP

then

• Press and quickly release VOLUME DOWN

then

• Hold the SIDE button until an Apple logo appears (15-30 seconds), ignoring "slide to power off" if it appears

This worked for me after I found it online. It doesn't actually correct the problem, just gets your phone running.
New reports of the problem are posted almost daily. One person said the were able to start their phone by plugging it into a Mac. No help for us PC'ers.

This has been the procedure to restart a frozen iPhone for years (there used to be a different procedure for home button / touchid iPhones - press and hold the side button and VolDn at the same time until the logo appears for TouchID phones, press and hold the sleep/wake button and the home button until the logo appears for home button iPhones.)

Force restart iPhone

If iPhone isn’t responding, try forcing it to restart.

support.apple.com

 

[RandySea]

Looking at the Force restart iPhone link, here is the exact text:
If iPhone isn’t responding, and you can’t turn it off then on, try forcing it to restart.

This is for situations where "you can't turn it off". My OP was for the situation with new iPhone 16s that simply won't turn on. The button press workaround may be the same for both problems, but as far as I know Apple has not published the workaround for 16s that don't start up at all. And with those 16s, it really is a workaround. The non starting up repeats until you got service from Apple, which appears to be a replacement phone. No one has reported that Apple Support or a genius bar has actually giving them a permanent fix.

 

[doogm]

No, it's also designed for the instances when the phone will not respond to the side button, raise to wake, or tap of the screen to turn on. Literally "If the phone is not responding..." - almost always the screen will be dark so it looks like it is power off and won't respond to anything. Though curiously I bet if you called the number it would ring. What Apple means by "you can't turn it off then on" is literally if you do the button presses to turn off the phone (hold side button and Volume button until the menu to turn off appears) it stays dark.

I've had to to do this in the past once or twice in the last ten years with older phones, once with mine, once with my son's. It's been a long time, though - I haven't had this issue for years myself.

So really this is nothing new with the iPhone 16, and it's probably not a bug. Honestly if this was happening regularly to me I would back up the phone, factory reset, and restore from backup.

 

[RandySea]

Sorry, doogm, but you've missed the point of the problem. It happens to iPhone 16s that have been turned off and won't turn on again. Calling a phone in this situation will go right to voice mail because the phone is turned off.

People have tried factory resets on those phones and it doesn't help.

If you want to see more info, you can read this very long thread:
Why is my new iPhone 16 not turning on?

The text of the OP is:
I have the new Iphone 16 and last night I charged it and turned it all the way off and since 6:30 this morning I have not been able to turn it back on. I have tried two chargers, three outlets, Ive tried the side button tricks, and nothing is working. its been almost 8 hours, how do I get it to turn back on?

I have had iPhones back to the 4 and regularly read the Apple forums. I have never seen or heard of this problem before.

 

[zencowboy]

So my update. The authorized apple repair store Icon in Jaco Costa Rica...ordered one screen, apple sent via DHL and then repair guy installed and still black. Said think it was a dud...so apple agreed and sent another screen....yesterday installed and dud again (I thought all long it was more logic board as MacBook stopped seeing it and find my phone didn't see it anymore either and if just screen but was working would have still seen it)....so Apple is sending replacement iPhones I get March 4th. Yeah!