What to Do When Your iPhone Freezes

1. Restart Your Phone

This one’s a no-brainer, but it might work. Turn off your phone by holding on the Sleep/Wake button (top left). If nothing happens, try a hard reset by holding in the Home Button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time for at least 10 seconds or until you see an Apple logo appear onscreen.

Restarting your phone will complete updates or downloads of your recently installed apps (similar to how your computer restarts every time it updates iTunes). Periodic restarts will keep your phone from wasting computing power on almost-finished installs.



2. Recharge

Plugging your phone into a charger (or connecting to your computer via USB charging cord) may also help unfreeze a stuck screen. If your phone is extremely low on power, your phone screen may remain black for up to two minutes before the battery charging screen appears, so be patient if it doesn't work right away.

4. Close Extra Apps

If only a single app has stopped working, access your open apps by double pressing the Home button. When the open app icons will appear at the bottom of your screen, hold the app icon down until it starts wiggling back and forth. Press the red minus sign in the corner to close.
Having several unused apps open at one time is not only a battery drain, but can cause your phone to freeze. Try to keep only the most necessary apps up and running in the background.

5 Not Enough Space

One reason for excessive freezing on your phone may be a space issue. Your phone may have 32 GB of space available, but utilizing all that space may cause the phone to lag or freeze (it’s an unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless).
This is especially true if you’re phone is packing a lot of applications. Delete some of those games you don’t play anymore and try to keep at least 1-2 GB of space free at all times to prevent future freezes.

6. Check for Updates

An outdated OS might be the reason your phone is freezing. To check if your phone needs updated, go to Settings>General>Software Update and follow the instructions on the screen.
You could also check from a computer if your phone screen is not working properly.

7. System Restore

As a last resort, you can also restore your iPhone. Please note that doing a system restore will delete all media from your device, restoring it to the original factory settings. You will want to make sure that you’ve backed up all your media elsewhere before doing this.
To restore, first make sure that your version of iTunes is up to date. Then, with your phone connected to your computer, click iPhone (in the left hand column under Devices), then click Restore in the summary tab and follow the instructions on the screen.

8. Bring in the Geniuses

If all else fails, you may have to call in your Apple warranty or at least ask Apple Support to see if what you’re experiencing is a common issue. They don't call 'em geniuses for nothing.