Fix a Frozen Mobile Phone

Few things are more annoying than a frozen smartphone, especially when the freeze happens at the worst possible time. There are several steps you can try to unfreeze your phone, depending on whether it is an Android or iPhone. These can range from simple reboots to completely wiping and restoring the phone to its factory settings.

Steps

iPhone

  1. Plug your phone into a charger. There's a chance that your phone has run out of battery and will not turn on. Plug your phone in and let it charge for a few minutes before trying any of the following steps.
  2. Try turning your phone off the regular way. Press and hold the Power button on your phone until the "Slide to power off" slider appears. Slide it with your finger to shut your iPhone down.
    • If this doesn't work, move on to the next step.
  3. Force your phone to restart. If your iPhone isn't responding to your Power button or screen taps, you may be able to force the iPhone to restart.
    • Press and hold the Power and Home buttons for about 10 seconds until your iPhone shuts down.
  4. Delete apps that are causing your iPhone to freeze. If your iPhone is freezing whenever you run a certain app, there's a good chance that the app is causing your system to crash. The easiest way to prevent this from continuing is to simply stop using the app and deleting it.
    • Delete-an-iPhone-App.
  5. Use iTunes to restore your iPhone. If you can't get your iPhone to unfreeze, you may need to use iTunes to restore the iPhone to its factory default settings.
    • Connect your iPhone to your computer.
    • Open iTunes and select your iPhone from the row of buttons at the top. If your iPhone doesn't appear, you'll need to put it into Recovery Mode. To do this, attach the USB cable to your computer but not your iPhone, press and hold the Home button on the iPhone, connect it to the USB cable, and continue to hold the Home button until the iTunes logo appears.
    • Click the button and then click to confirm. All of the data on your iPhone will be deleted.
    • Set up your device. One the restore process is complete, you can set up your iPhone as if it were new. You can restore your device from a previous backup if you have one.

Android

  1. Plug your phone into a charger. There's a chance that your phone has run out of battery and will not turn on. Plug your phone in and let it charge for a few minutes before trying any of the following steps.
  2. Try turning your phone off the regular way. Press and hold the Power button on your phone until the Power menu appears. Tap "Power off" to turn the phone off.
    • If this doesn't work, move on to the next step.
  3. Force your phone to restart. If your phone isn't responding to your Power button or screen taps, you may be able to force the device to restart.
    • Most Android devices can be forced to restart by holding the Power and Volume Up buttons for about ten seconds.
    • If Power/Volume Up doesn't work, try Power/Volume Down.
  4. Remove the battery if you can't force a restart. If you can't force your device to restart, try removing the battery and then reinserting it. This is only possible on Android devices with removable batteries. If this doesn't fix your problem, move on to the next step.
    • If your Android has a removable battery, you can remove the back cover and then lift the battery out. wait about ten seconds and then reinsert the battery.
  5. Delete apps that are causing your phone to freeze. If your phone is freezing whenever you run a certain app, there's a good chance that the app is causing your system to crash. The easiest way to prevent this from continuing is to simply stop using the app and deleting it.
    • Delete-Apps-on-Android.
  6. Perform a factory reset if your phone won't boot up. If you can't get your phone to turn on after it was frozen, a factory reset may fix your problems. All of the data on your phone will be deleted however.
    • Start with the phone turned off. In order to access Recovery Mode, your Android phone will need to start from a powered-off state.
    • Hold down the Recovery mode buttons. These vary depending on the model phone you have:
      • Nexus, LG, Motorola - Power and Volume Down
      • Samsung - Power, Volume Up, and Home
    • Continue holding the buttons until the Android boot menu appears.
    • Use the Volume Up and Volume Down keys to navigate the menu. Select "Recovery" and press the Power button to select it.
    • Select "Wipe data / factory reset" and press Power. Select "Yes" to confirm. Once the format is complete, your phone will be rebooted and you can set it up as if it was new.

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