It's certainly unusual for an iPhone to spontaneously restart. Apple's smartphones, like most modern smartphones, are dependable appliances that usually "just work." But glitches happen, and it's not hard to find reports from users that cite iPhones that keep restarting on their own.
If that describes what you are going through, don't worry — no matter which model iPhone you have, from an iPhone 6 through an iPhone 13 — there are some simple steps you can take to troubleshoot and solve your iPhone glitches.
Advertisem*nt
Back up your iPhone
Before you perform any troubleshooting steps, be sure you have a reliable backup of all your apps and data. If your phone is continuously restarting so frequently that it's not usable at all, this might not be a practical step. But if you can, back up your iPhone to iCloud or your computer because, if your phone's hardware is failing, you might not get many more chances to safeguard your data and could lose everything stored on your iPhone.
Force-restart your iPhone
If your phone is stuck in a loop of endless restarts, you might be able to break the cycle by performing a hard reset. The exact steps to force your iPhone to restart will vary depending upon which model you have, but it generally involves holding the Power and one of the Volume buttons simultaneously. After the phone has been completely shut down for about a minute, turn it back on and see if that solved the problem.
Make sure the latest iOS update is installed
One of the first things you should do whenever troubleshooting a serious problem with your iPhone is to check for iOS updates. It's possible that a critical bug or some other incompatibility in your current version of iOS is causing your iPhone to keep restarting. To check, start the Settings app and then tap General. Tap Software Update. If there's an update available, you'll be able to install it from here.
Advertisem*nt
Check the iPhone's error logs
Likewise, the problem might be the result of a single app that's causing a serious error to occur. Of course, if the restart problem very clearly started right after installing a recent app, uninstall that app now and see if that solves the problem.
If not, you can still check a log that your iPhone generates to see if there's an easy-to-spot problem. Start the Settings app and then tap Privacy. Tap Analytics & Improvements and then tap Analytics Data. Here you'll see a long list of reports. They're not especially easy to read, but you should scan the most recent reports to see if a specific app is mentioned more than once. If so, it might be causing critical errors. Uninstall the app and see if that solves your problem.
Advertisem*nt
Update all your apps
Even if you don't have any leads on a problematic app, you should still make sure they're all up to date. Start the App Store app and tap your account icon at the top right. If any apps require an update, you should see a section called Upcoming Automatic Updates. Tap Update All.
Reset all your settings
Your iPhone manages a lot of settings — everything from WiFi passwords and network configurations to location and privacy settings. While it's not likely any of these settings are causing your iPhone to spontaneously restart, it's a possibility.
The most likely culprit is your network settings, so you should reset that first and see if it solves your problem. Start the Settings app and then tap General. Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone, followed by Reset. Finally, tap Reset Network Settings and confirm you want to do this.
If that doesn't solve your problem, then you can come back to the Reset menu and choose Reset All Settings. This will erase a broader range of personalized settings, so save it for a close-to-last resort.
Advertisem*nt
Reset your iPhone to factory conditions
If absolutely nothing has made your iPhone stop restarting, you're down to your final option before contacting Apple for customer support: Reset the iPhone to its factory conditions, erasing all apps and data stored on it. If the problem is caused by any sort of software glitch, this will fix your iPhone.
When you factory reset your iPhone, remember not to let iOS automatically restore your apps and data right away. Start with a "factory fresh" iPhone and see if the restarting problem is fixed. If it is, you might try to restore your data. If the problem returns, you'll need to factory reset your iPhone and then manually reinstall apps from scratch — do not restore from a backup, because the glitch causing the problem is somewhere in your data. You'll need to start fresh.
Advertisem*nt
If you've tried all these troubleshooting steps and your iPhone still keeps restarting, it's likely the problem is not software related, but you have a hardware problem. That's not something you can solve on your own, so you should contact Apple's customer support and see if the phone needs to be serviced or replaced.
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
