Why is my new iPhone 16 not turning on?

Thanks, I found what I need now that I have upgraded from a true dinosaur to a new iPhone. The very last setting should do it - I need to turn off "Always Play Sound" (don't allow alerts when the phone is in silent mode). That should allow emergency alerts when I am using the phone but silence them at night. Of course, that will also silence tornado alerts at night... but we watch the weather and would be awake if there is severe weather nearby.

Randysea wrote:

There are 91 "me too's" to the OP and probably tens of thousands of others with the same problem. It's now happened to me twice.

Is this a bug inherent to iPhone 16s or a random defect so I should I try to send the phone back under AppleCare?

There are also 100 million who haven’t reported this problem.

Have you been charging overnight, every night, as recommended by Apple?

My iPhone 16 won’t turn on and this isn’t the first time. I know the side trick buttons but that is not working this time. My question is , What is Apple doing about this? Not how to fix it. If you are going to travel and you can’t turn your phone on, what good is it? Very disappointed with this phone and Apple.

Jessbran wrote:

The trick of vol up and then down and switch on does not work.

It will absolutely ALWAYS work if you do it correctly (the timing is important) unless your phone has a hardware problem. so if it does not work your iPhone has a hardware problem or you aren’t doing it carefully enough.

Repeating myself earlier in this thread:

The "Up, Down, Side" instructions require some precision:

• Press and quickly release VOLUME UP

     then

• Press and quickly release VOLUME DOWN

     then

• Hold the SIDE button until an Apple logo appears (15-30 seconds, sometimes longer), ignoring "slide to power off" if it appears

The operative word here is QUICKLY; and try it a couple of times, the timing is a little tricky.

Phew…Mr. Finch’s quick button restart technique worked on the third attempt. Appreciate you🙂

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you !

But I must say, after having iPhones going back to the 4, I have never had this happening before. A bit worrisome, with my 1 week old 16 Pro.

I plugged it into a charger last night and then shut it off. Unplugged it very early this morning. When I got up a few hours later, it was dead.

I've used this charger for more than year with iphone 13. No problems.

As you say, Lawrence, "Focus and Do Not Disturb setup has been made much more flexible, but this has come at the cost of much more complication."

I help several older or non-techie people manage their phones. If they want to be certain of peace at night, they simply turn their phones off and back on in the morning.

I could try telling these people: "Swipe down to see the control panel, look for the half moon in the Focus area, tap it, and you will see Do Not Disturb. This means your phone won't ring. Then in the morning, when you want your phone to ring again, swipe down to see the control panel, look for the half moon where it says Do Not Disturb, tap it, and you will see Focus. The word 'Focus' means your phone will ring."

I can assure most of these people would rather just turn their phones off and on. Plus, this will meet the NSA recommendation of turning mobile phones off at least once a week for security reasons without having to explain to them why they should do this.

Even for myself, I couldn't use a dnd schedule. I never go to bed or get up the same time two days in a row. I'd rather turn the phone off and on, too.

Science-Curmudgeon wrote:

The issue occurred the first night after purchase. There were a bunch of patches that loaded in quick succession after I got the phone home.

There have NEVER been “patches” to any iPhone (or any other Apple product). Any time iOS is updated the complete firmware is updated, never patched.

If you got a new phone that was from an earlier production run it may have had an early build of iOS 18. When you first turned the phone on it might have updated to a later build of iOS 18; that version was released on September 16, 2024.

On October 3, 2024 an update to iOS 8.0.1 was issued to fix two potential vulnerabilitities:

• Impact: Audio messages in Messages may be able to capture a few seconds of audio before the microphone indicator is activated
• Impact: A user's saved passwords may be read aloud by VoiceOver

On October 28, iOS 18.1 was released that added some features and fixed some potential vulnerabilities→About the security content of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 - Apple Support

On November 19, 18.1.1 was released to fix vulnerabilities→About the security content of iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 - Apple Support

On December 11 18.2 was released to add Apple Intelligence to iPhones that can support it→About the security content of iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 - Apple Support

None of these were a “bunch of patches loaded in quick succession” There have been only 4 widely spaced updates since the initial release in September.

If you are running a beta (a bad idea for your primary communication device) you will get very frequent updates, as bugs are reported and fixed. 18.1 is NOT the fully updated release. 18.2 is current for ALL models that can support it (iPhone XR, iPhone SE 3rd edition, iPhone 11 and everything after it). And there are beta versions higher than 18.2. If your phone isn’t offering to update to 18.2 when you go to Settings/General/Software Update something is very seriously wrong with it. That is what you need to get fixed, it can explain all of your issues.

Randysea wrote:

Your reply to elainefromocola was not really on point. You wrote:

Apple is doing nothing for the problem with your phone

unless you contact their support. This is a problem specifically for

your phone and perhaps a few others, but does not happen with around 100 million other phones.

The comparison is not to 100 million phones. It is to how many users of THIS SITE have iPhones 16s and have even thought they might find help here. So far, 130 of them have said they have the same problem. The number seems to be going up every day.

I am one of those people, as you can see by my earlier posts. I have no speedup, etc., apps installed. I also doubt they could cause this particular problem.

I will say that your comment about contacting Apple directly and describing how to do it seems helpful in theory. However, it would be even more helpful if anyone reported trying this and actually getting the problem fixed. I haven't had the problem in a week. If I do again, I will follow your approach. So thank you for that.

Actually, anyone who got it fixed probably wouldn’t bother to post about it. Why don’t you just contact Apple and see what they can do?

Very frequently people who have a problem come to this site. If even 1% of those 100 million (1 million) had the same or similar problem you would see thousands of posts about it, not a couple of hundred. 10 years ago there was a real problem that affected 5% of, and there were 15,000 posts about it. So the number of posts is a good measure of how widespread a problem is.

It costs NOTHING to contact Apple Support. Why are you so hesitant to do it? What is the point of complaining to a few user-volunteers here?

I actually contacted support yesterday about a hardware problem, and they are shipping me a replacement iPad for the one I broke for delivery Monday. They ran remote diagnostics, confirmed the problem, and covered it under AppleCare+.

I'm not hesitant to call Apple Support, and I do have Apple Care+. If the problem recurs, so that maybe a remote diagnostic will show something, I will do it, just as you suggested.

I came here first to see if this was a known problem, which obviously it is, and to see if there was a known and simple fix, which there isn't. There is just the workaround that you and a few others posted. It did work for me a few times. Since the last time, no problem recurrence. Maybe it was the upgrade to 18.2.1, though nothing I've read in the release notes says anything but "bug fixes".

Again, as I wrote, if it does recur, I will contact Apple support.

I have made 3 reports to apple support about this. Today was the first time they said they could replace my device for $32.77 (Canadian) but had no assurance this wouldn’t happen again. Their direct response:

“There is no known issues with any model iPhones in regards to the issue you are experiencing. If this issue was to arise again then it would be escalated to a senior advisor via phone support and they will be to offer you further options.”

So I declined replacement since I don’t want to potentially pay the fee and get another defective device.

I strongly recommend anyone with this issue to download the Apple Support app/make a Genius Bar appointment and report the issue every time to Apple. The more people that report it, the more likely they may recognize it as a “known issue” and either fix it or replace your phone for free.

These forums are unofficial so it doesn’t help to just post here to complain.

good luck!

The button trick worked once but, longer does. Dam quality control. Apple, like all other American companies, once they market you into their products, they iterate, meaning your customers pay the company for developing their products. And, customers waste their life, money and become frustrated and comatose to tech scams like what I'm feeling with the purchase of the new iPhone 16...it doesn't work any longer.

Actually, you would be better off with a refurbished unit, here's why.

I've worked in several manufacturing plants before. Not every single device coming off the assembly line is tested. Depending on several factors, they may test 1 out of 20 or 50 or 100 devices that come down the line. That means that 19 or 49 or 99 units of each run are not tested.

With a refurbished phone, it is thoroughly tested, each and every one. You know you will be getting a phone that works.

It is clear to me that there is a good case for a minor design flaw in the iPhone 16. I can't tell if it is in the hardware or software. I have just verified that I can always recreate the issue on power up by pressing the power button and releasing it before the apple logo appears. That much dwell on the button should not be necessary, but that's where I would be looking if I had access to the design documentation, especially the activity diagram if there is one. If there isn't, I'd build one and make certain that it is comprehensive and includes all post design patches up to and including manufacturing and software release. Implementation decisions can break good designs and are easy to get wrong if the process involves multiple handoffs.