iPhone 16 Pro not turning on

susagoode wrote:

One can do the force start and yes, it eventually turns on. Sometimes after 2-3 tries and sometimes after 40. The point is, WHY should we have to go through this time consuming and frustrating endeavor? Apple Store, the first time I went in a month ago, acted as though they didn’t know this was a problem. They have all been aware of this since the iPhone 16 was released. Also according to the numerous posts, it is all types of 16 and it doesn’t matter how one transferred data from previous phone or if it’s plugged in to charger or not, they still have this problem if one powers off their phone. Not every time, but one time is too many and Apple needs to fix it or recall these phones! Stop selling them.

Then tell Apple what they need to do. By posting here, you are only commiserating with other users like yourself on this user to user only forum.

Feedback which Apple does read goes here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Have you updated your iPhone to iOS 18.2? I've not ONCE had an unexpected shutdown on our 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max. It can often be difficult to isolate an issue, which only happens to a small minority out of the millions upon millions of iPhone 16 Pro models out in the world.

Same thing just happened to my boyfriends new Iphone 16. We tried to restart it multiple times with the up-down-power thing. Took an hour or charging and trying. Hold the power button longer than you think!!!

If every iPhone were manufactured perfectly (which is impossible) there would be no need for a warranty ever. Manufacturers defects in materials and workmanship are always a possibility. Hence the importance of the warranty, return policy and company to back it up.

If you’re within the return period, by all means return it. This isn’t rocket science.

Apple makes about 240 million iPhones a year. So, on average at the 6 month point 120 million have been produced. If just 1/10 of 1% was defective, that’d be 120,000 defective iPhones. It’s going to happen.

Thanks for your background, Jeff. I went to the very first Apple store in Palo Alto Ca the day after it opened. The Genius Bar really had "geniuses" back then!!

Te get up to date; Today, after a helpful Apple Support phone call yesterday where they said I could get a new phone, I went to the Store in Northern NV. They did a mechanical diagnosis and could find nothing wrong, and said- it must be a glitch in the software, much conversation ensued, leading to the fact, that they were quite knowledgeable, but left in the dark from Apple as to the fix. So, we reloaded system software in-store, and I finished the data/apps update at home. I haven't yet turned it OFF yet, as I have another support telcon scheduled tomorrow- non related. No explanation why many other phones don't have the issue, but with about 50 shoppers in the store, there were 3 of us with the same problem.!! It seems all [Apple]are aware that the problem first surfaced on some iPhone 15 models- before 10/24, but mostly iPhone 16- all models. I'm now thinking that it is software related, but with a connection to the "ON" connected function of the key- as in, when "ON" is pressed, the software/circuitry asks: is the Phone "OFF"(??), and/or a short or 'blind-garden path' has a reason not to allow the actual Turn-On. Maybe circuit board related, maybe lines of code related, or combinations. The tech pointed out that when a new rev is being built, it is something like going through a cafeteria food line; "We'll have some of this, not that, some more of the other", etc, and of course, each food item is prepared by different sets of people- they may not be talking to each other properly.

I just wish Apple had been more forthcoming and open about the problem[s], and on progress on the solution- at LEAST to their Apple Store techs and CSRs. So, I have my original new iPhone 16 e from Thursday evening, with today's reloaded system software, working OK since then, but not turned off since I left the Store. After my phone-cons tomorrow, I shall try OFF/ON again. The tech did say to let him know ASAP of any more and types of problems. I haven't made any phone call tests yet, that's on for tomorrow as well. . I will check the origin location tomorrow. Cheers and good feelings to you. Regards, Mike Jaureguy

Upgraded from my 13 Pro Max to a 16 Pro this December. My phone died twice today, second time it would not turn back on, or display the red battery icon. Charging cable was working fine, as I was able to charge my laptop with it. Using a different charger did not help. Had to repeat the force restart steps 5x, and hold the power button down for an obscene amount of time. Phone was at 35 percent battery life upon resuscitation. For a $1000 phone, this is a bit outrageous. Never had an issue like this happen, have exclusively used various generations of iPhone for over 10 years. Hoping there is a fix for this issue sooner rather than later.

You hit volume up then down quickly (without holding either one), and then hold down the power button by itself. It should turn on within 5-10 seconds.

Don’t turn your iPhone off when charging and the issue probably won’t happen again. This has been posted before and everyone one I’ve read the device was powered off over night.

Big thumbs up to you Lilisbuddy. This happened to me on 4/15/25 and plugging the phone in allowed the forced start to work. Thank you for sharing!

Yes…seems to be a major issue. Same thing happened to my iPhone 16 plus. I have been in touch with tech support at 2 levels and they don’t have an answer…said try a different charger. The charger I used is fine and works for my wife’s 13 mini and worked fine on my iPhone 13 Pro for years … it is an Apple MagSafe. Some days it is fine the next it’s not powering on and need to do volume up, down and side button…at that very slow to power up.

Continued to check out every possibility such as a failed screen. Tried ringing and Find My. Tried several times with different chargers and tried tapping on the screen. And I tried a normal start several times holding the button for a long time then I tried several force starts as per Apple Support (quick press, volume up, quick press, volume down, and then pressing start for a long time). Repeated regular starts and force starts about 20 times over a period of four hours. Gave up then started a help ticket at T-Mobile. An hour later I tried the regular starts and force starts again in desperation. Golly gee the Apple logo came on! I had installed an update to 18.0.1 the day before then the phone was shut off for the evening. We have decided to not turn off this phone nor a second iPhone 16 until we get word that this hardware defect/ software bug has been fixed. Fortunately, I am retired so I feel really sorry if this happens to any employed person because it is a huge waste of time.

My NEW iphone 16 has had issues turning on as well. I've had to force restart (vol up vol dn, press and hold power button for 10 + sec) several times to finally turn on. 100% charge. First time I've ever had this issue with any iphone through the years. Initially, I thought that it was a power cord or charging pod and that the phone had no power. But now that I have read these comments I'm thinking that it's a manufacturing issue. Hopefully it's a software correction Apple can make in the near future and not a hardware issue. Thanks to all for helping me gain perspective on this one!

My first 16 Pro had the same problem--and it happened twice where it took hours and a lot of fiddling to turn the phone on. The apple store ran diagnostics and found no issues. I pushed for a replacement phone and received one about 3 weeks ago, and this morning, the new 16 Pro won't turn on either. The store manager said he didn't believe that the issue with the first phone was hardware related, but I have to believe, based upon all of these posts with the same issue, that it is.

I bought my iPhone 16 Pro a couple of weeks ago. I started having the same problem after updating to iOS 18.1.1. It’s happened the past two mornings in a row. For now, it seems I will have to charge my phone while it is powered on.

Over the years, I’ve had to do forced restarts on everything from an iPod with a hard disk to iPads and iPhones, but only occasionally. Never two days in a row. This is a bug.

Everyone who has this problem should submit feedback to Apple at Product Feedback - Apple. The more reports with details that they get, the more seriously they’re likely to take this.

i just submitted my report.

I have a new iphone 16 pro max it would not start in the morning, after i turned it off the night before, finally got it going by plugging it into the computer. So I took it to Apple after having it for a month, they turned it off in store and could not restart it, so they replaced it with a new one, which was a real bore as we live a long way from a store, and the whole experiece takes a while.

Then today guess what its happened again. Nightmare. An expensive nightmare as these phones aren't cheap. This time i cant get it to work at all, any ideas?