If your iPhone is stuck on the Apple logo during startup and can't continue past it to the home screen, you may think your iPhone is ruined. That's not necessarily the case. Here are a number of steps you can take to get your iPhone out of a startup loop.
Try This First: Restart the iPhone
The first thing you should do to try to resolve this problem is to restart the iPhone. Honestly, that won't fix this particular problem in most cases, but it's by far the simplest approach and won't cost you anything other than a few seconds waiting for the phone to start up again.
If that doesn't work, your next step is a hard reset. This is a more comprehensive type of restart that can sometimes solve the problem.
The Next Potential Fix: Recovery Mode
If neither type of restart fixed your problem, try putting your iPhone into Recovery Mode. Recovery Mode allows your iPhone to connect with iTunes and restore a fresh installation of the iOS or a backup of your data onto your phone. It's a relatively simple process and solves the problem in some cases.
Recovery Mode works more often than a restart, but even it doesn't solve the problem all the time. If that's true for in your case, you need DFU Mode.
If That Doesn't Work: DFU Mode
If you're still seeing the Apple logo and nothing else has worked, there's a problem booting up your iPhone. DFU, or Device Firmware Update, Mode stops your iPhone from booting up all the way so that you can connect it to iTunes and restore the iPhone and start fresh.
DFU Mode takes some practice to use because it requires a pretty precise set of actions, but try a few times and you'll get it. To enter DFU Mode, follow these instructions:
- Launch iTunes on your computer (if you don't have a computer, you'll need to make an appointment at the Apple Store to get more help)
- Connect your iPhone to your computer using the USB cable that came with the phone
- Turn your iPhone off. If the phone won't turn off using the onscreen slider, just keep holding the on/off button until the screen goes dark
- After the phone is off, hold down the on/off button for 3 seconds
- When 3 seconds have passed, keep holding the on/off button and start pressing the home button on the front of the phone (if you have an iPhone 7 series phone, use the volume down button instead of the home button)
- Hold both buttons for 10 seconds
- Let go of the on/off button, but keep holding the home button (or volume down on an iPhone 7) for another 5 seconds
- If anything is displayed on the screen—the Apple logo, the Connect to iTunes prompt, etc.—you're not in DFU Mode and need to start the process again from step 1
- If your iPhone's screen stays black and doesn't display anything, you're in DFU Mode. This can be hard of hard to see, but the screen of an iPhone that's turned off looks a little different than a screen that's on but not displaying anything
- Once you're in DFU Mode, an pop-up window appears in iTunes on your computer and prompts you to restore your iPhone. You can either restore your iPhone to factory settings or load a back up of your data onto the phone.
What Causes An iPhone to Get Stuck on the Apple Logo
The iPhone gets stuck on the Apple logo screen when there's a problem with the operating system that prevents the phone from booting up like normal. It's very difficult for the average user to pinpoint exactly what the cause of the problem is, but there are a few common causes:
- Problems when upgrading to a new version of the iOS
- Problems with jailbreaking the phone
- Running a beta version of the iOS that has expired.
