How to Force Restart or Hard Reset the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus

Apple has changed the method to force restart or hard reset an iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus, as outlined in a recent support document.

While rebooting an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus requires pressing and holding both the Sleep/Wake and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until the Apple logo appears, restarting an iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus takes three steps.

The change appears to have been made because, on iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, pressing and holding the Side aka Sleep/Wake button and one of the Volume buttons now activates the Emergency SOS feature.

Keep in mind that Apple now refers to the Sleep/Wake button as the Side button as of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X.

How to Force Restart or Hard Reset the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus

Press and quickly release the Volume Up button.
Press and quickly release the Volume Down button.
Press and hold the Side button (aka power) until you see the Apple logo.

Powering off regularly still requires holding down the Side button for a few seconds until the "slide to power off" prompt appears. In iOS 11, there's also a "Shut Down" option in the Settings app at the bottom of the General menu.

Force restarting an iPhone is different than recovery using DFU mode, for which the steps remain the same as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8

Buyer's Guide: iPhone 8 (Caution)

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

goshya

10 months ago

What the...?

What was wrong with pressing the side button and volume button simultaneously?

Ridiculous combination.

Rating: 28 Votes

Nati-Yolie

10 months ago

This feels like the Konami code of Apple.

Rating: 21 Votes

IG88

10 months ago

What the...?

What was wrong with pressing the side button and volume button simultaneously?

Ridiculous combination.

It takes courage to take something simple and make it much more complicated.
[doublepost=1506188092][/doublepost]

This feels like the Konami code of Apple.

IPhone X procedure:
Vol up
Vol dn
Vol up
Vol dn
Side
Side
Wax on
Wax off
Sand floor
Paint fence
Sweep leg

Rating: 20 Votes

Mlrollin91

10 months ago

Cuz it's too easy to accidentally do on the plus when you're trying to just press the power button when using one hand.

How is it to easy? You are not holding the buttons down for 10 seconds when trying to only lock your screen one handed. I have never once accidentally hard reset my device.

Rating: 20 Votes

simonmet

10 months ago

With iOS 11 that activates the SOS mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208076

Pressing the sleep/wake button 5 times rapidly activates SOS on the 7 Plus.

The iPhone 7 and 8 have the same physical layout so why have they broken consistency?

Rating: 11 Votes

GrumpyMom

10 months ago

With iOS 11 that activates the SOS mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208076

I'm so confused. I thought pressing five times on the power button did that.

Or is that clicking the heels on your ruby slippers while chanting "There's no place like home"?

Oh wait, no, it's "You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you put your left foot in and you shake it all around, you do the hokey Pokey...". No that's not it either.

Damn you, Apple! :mad: It used to be so simple!

Rating: 11 Votes

DannyBlizz

10 months ago

This seems like it will unlock new features or something lol

Rating: 8 Votes

Greg McBride

10 months ago

About 45 minutes ago, my 8 Plus locked up and I had to get on a chat session with Apple Support to figure out how to force restart. Wish this article would have been pushed live about an hour ago! :)

Rating: 8 Votes