How to Hard Reset or Force Restart All iPhone 13 Models

Apple's iPhone 13 mini, ‌‌iPhone 13‌‌, iPhone 13 Pro, and ‌‌iPhone 13 Pro‌‌ Max come in the same sizes as last year's iPhone 12 series, and they share the same design elements with Apple's 2020 models, such as an all-screen design and no Home button on the front.

If you're upgrading from a device with a Home button, keep reading to learn how to power on and off, force a restart, enter DFU mode, enter recovery mode, activate Emergency SOS, and temporarily disable Face ID. Below you'll find step-by-step guides for performing the button combinations of all of the above functions, along with explanations of what the more obscure ones do and why they might one day come in useful.

How to Hard Reset the iPhone 13 (All models)

During this process, you will see a slider to power off the iPhone. You're going to want to ignore it and continue holding down the Side button until the screen goes black. At that point, the Apple logo will pop up, and after the restart is complete, the screen will activate once again.

Using the force restart process prevents you from having to shut the ‌iPhone‌ down entirely, which takes several more steps.

If you do want to shut the ‌iPhone‌ down, you can do so by going to the General section of the Settings app, scrolling down to the bottom, and choosing the Shut Down option.

iPhone 12 Button Basics

Apple changed many of the physical button functions on its smartphones with the launch of the ‌‌iPhone‌‌ 8 and ‌‌iPhone‌‌ X, so if you're upgrading from a device that pre-dates these 2017 models, you'll want to familiarize yourself with them.

Face the screen of your new ‌‌iPhone‌‌ and you'll see that there are two volume buttons on the left-hand side, and a single Side button on the right-hand side. With no Home button to speak of, these three side buttons work in combination to undertake all of the necessary functions.

Other Useful Things to Know

How to Power on iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

To turn on your new ‌‌iPhone‌‌, press the Side button once. If the Apple logo doesn't appear on the screen, the device may need charging – plug it into a power outlet using the supplied Lightning cable, and let it charge for at least a few minutes before trying again.

Press and hold the Side button along with the Volume Up or Volume Down button until two sliding buttons appear on the screen.

How to Power off iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

How to Activate Emergency SOS on iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

Activating Emergency SOS on your ‌iPhone‌ automatically calls emergency services and sends a text message with your location information to the people in your emergency contacts. For this reason, you should only use it when you're in danger or facing a genuine emergency. Note that you'll need to enter your ‌iPhone‌'s passcode to reenable ‌Face ID‌ and unlock your ‌iPhone‌ after performing Emergency SOS.

If you don't want Emergency SOS to automatically call emergency services when the Side button is pressed, make sure to disable Auto Call via Settings -> Emergency SOS -> Disable Auto Call.

How to Disable Face ID on iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

Disabling ‌Face ID‌ on your ‌iPhone‌ makes it so your passcode has to be entered to unlock it. By disabling facial authentication, a police officer or malicious person can't unlock your ‌iPhone‌ simply by holding it in front of your face.

Troubleshooting Functions

Apple changed the process of activating the following troubleshooting functions with the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 8 and ‌iPhone‌ X, so if you upgraded from a device that pre-dates these 2017 models, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with them in case you run into problems.

How to Enter Recovery Mode on iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

Entering recovery mode can help if you're having trouble updating or restoring your ‌iPhone‌ over the air. For example, if the screen shows the Apple logo for several minutes but no progress bar appears, you can try putting the device in recovery mode and restoring it with iTunes. Here's how it works.

How to Exit Recovery Mode on iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

Simply press and hold the Side button until the "Connect to iTunes" screen disappears, and your ‌iPhone‌ should reboot back into iOS.

How to Enter DFU Mode on iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max

The forced restart procedure described above can help if an ‌iPhone‌ is freezing, throwing up errors, or has stopped responding completely. DFU mode (standing for Device Firmware Update) on the other hand restores an ‌iPhone‌ if a restart or entering standard Recovery Mode doesn't solve the problem you're experiencing.

DFU mode lets the device interface with Finder or iTunes, update the firmware, and restore the OS without automatically installing the last downloaded version. It's useful for installing older versions of iOS if a beta persistently hangs your phone, or if a jailbreak goes bad.

Before following the steps below, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer.

If you're using iTunes, you should see a message dialog saying "iTunes has detected an ‌iPhone‌ in recovery mode. You must restore this ‌iPhone‌ before it can be used with iTunes". If you're using Finder, you should see a similar message. If you don't see the message, repeat the steps above.

Once you've closed the recovery prompt you can go ahead and restore your ‌iPhone‌ back to factory settings by selecting Restore iPhone on the ‌iPhone‌ Recovery Mode screen. Once restored, your ‌iPhone‌ will automatically exit out of DFU mode and boot up to its activation screen.

How to Exit DFU Mode

If you enabled DFU mode and want to manually exit out of it, here's how it's done.

Your ‌iPhone‌ should now have exited DFU recovery mode.