Tips For Troubleshooting and Fixing iPhone Black Screens

A black iPhone screen can be a real problem if you need to check work emails or make an important call. Usually though, these black screens are just temporary software glitches that you can fix yourself. They’re not permanent hardware failures and your photos, contacts and apps are all still safe on your phone as you troubleshoot the problem.

You can usually fix the problem in just a few minutes. A force restart will solve about 70% of software-related black screens. Plugging in your charger handles most of the others. For the more persistent software problems, recovery mode usually works. Even some of the problems that seem to be hardware-related will actually respond to basic troubleshooting. We’ll go through each fix from easiest to most technical.

Let’s go through some proven ways to get your iPhone screen working again!

Why Your iPhone Screen Goes Black

Your iPhone screen can go black for a few different reasons and each one needs its own way to fix it. Software crashes are by far the most common cause. When your phone tries to install an iOS update (especially the one big yearly release that Apple puts out) the whole installation can just freeze up right in the middle of the process. What’s actually happening is that your phone is technically still powered on but the display has become completely unresponsive and won’t respond to anything you do.

Battery problems are actually one of the most common reasons for a black screen on your phone. Your device can completely die on you even though it was showing 20% battery life just an hour ago. Cold weather makes the whole situation even worse because lithium batteries lose their charge way faster when the temperature drops. I’ve seen phones shut themselves off at 40% battery when it gets below freezing outside.

Physical damage can be tricky and isn’t always obvious right away. You might drop your phone from waist height and everything seems to work just fine afterward. Even that fairly minor drop can jostle the display connector loose inside the phone’s housing. The screen could continue to work normally for days or weeks before the connection finally fails and everything goes dark. Water damage can be especially tricky because the symptoms almost never appear immediately. Your phone might get splashed at the pool and continue to work perfectly for a few days afterward. Then the screen suddenly goes black because the moisture has finally made its way to a sensitive internal component. The damage occurred days ago but it just took time for the effects to become visible.

An iPhone screen can also go black when the processor gets overwhelmed with too much work at once. Running lots of apps at once or leaving your phone in direct sunlight for hours will spike the internal temperature to dangerous levels. The phone will actually shut down the display on its own – it’s protecting the hardware from permanent damage. Once everything cools back down to a safe temperature the screen usually comes back on by itself without you doing anything.

The Right Force Restart for Your iPhone

Your iPhone model actually determines the exact way that you’ll need to use for a force restart. Apple has changed the button combinations quite a bit over the years and the method that works just fine on your friend’s phone might do nothing at all on yours.

With iPhone 8 and all the newer models the process follows a specific sequence – press the Volume Up quickly and follow with the Volume Down quickly and then hold down the Side button. The order does matter with this one. You can’t simply mash all the buttons at once or try to skip around the sequence. The best way is to tap those volume buttons fast like you’re typing out a short text and then quickly grab that Side button and hold it pressed down.

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus owners get an easier option. The process just means that you’ll hold down the Volume Down button and the Side button at the same time – there’s no multi-step sequence or timing to worry about.

Anyone with an iPhone 6s or an earlier model is going to need to use the Home button combined with the Power button. Press them down together and then wait for the magic to happen.

Almost everyone who tries a force restart makes the exact same mistake with the button timing. The buttons need to stay pressed down for what seems like forever – at least 10 to 20 seconds. The screen will go completely black during this process. But hold them anyway. Only release them once the Apple logo shows up on the screen – it takes more patience but it works reliably every time.

A force restart is pretty different from just powering your phone off and back on again. What it actually does is like yanking the power cord on everything that your phone is currently running and then starts the whole system from scratch. This total reset is why it can successfully fix a black screen situation when nothing else seems to work.

Before attempting this fix it’s worth checking that your buttons are functioning right. Give each one a quick press to make sure they’re not stuck or damaged in any way. Pocket lint and debris have a habit of working their way into those button mechanisms and can cause problems. And if the force restart doesn’t solve your problem after giving it a few attempts, your battery might actually be completely drained and need some time on the charger first.

Fix Your Dead iPhone Battery Issues

A dead iPhone is probably one of the worst tech problems to run into when you need to use your phone immediately. Usually though, the fix is actually pretty simple – you just need to charge it back up. The battery has likely drained down so low that the phone can’t even display anything on the screen anymore. For the first 15 to 30 minutes on the charger, your phone won’t give you any indication that it’s even there. No lights, no sounds, nothing at all. Those 30 minutes feel endless as you wait there and think about whether your phone is actually broken permanently this time. A bit of patience here though can save you from an unnecessary trip to the Apple Store.

The type of cable you use matters all the time. A certified Lightning cable and adapter are your best bet for reviving a completely dead iPhone. We’ve all bought those convenience store cables at some point and they work fine for day-to-day charging when your phone still has some juice left. The problem is that they usually don’t deliver the steady power needed to wake up an iPhone that’s completely drained. Once your phone recognizes the charger and starts accepting power, you’ll either see that familiar battery icon pop up on the screen or hear the charging chime – it’s how you’ll know you’re back in business.

Power sources can act up when your iPhone is completely dead. The outlet in your kitchen that you plug into each day might not actually work this time and you should test a different outlet in another room just to be safe. A computer USB port is worth a shot as well, though the charge will take quite a bit longer than with your usual wall adapter. Wireless charging pads are also an option when your particular iPhone model has that capability built in.

When the battery health drops below 80%, weird behaviors start to happen with your phone. You could be scrolling through your apps with the battery indicator at 20 or 30% and then boom – black screen, dead phone. The problem is that your iPhone can’t accurately tell how much juice is left anymore. These sudden shutdowns make it seem like your phone is completely broken. But it’s just the battery losing its ability to communicate properly with the rest of the system.

Cold weather brings in another layer of problems with iPhone charging issues. An iPhone left in a car overnight during winter months won’t be cold – it’ll be too cold to accept a charge at all. The lithium-ion battery inside needs to be within a certain temperature range to work the way that it should. Let the phone sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before trying to charge it. A cold battery that won’t accept a charge can easily look like it’s a dead phone when the battery is protecting itself from damage.

An hour of charging with no response at all usually means you’re looking at something worse than a drained battery. At that point the problem has likely moved past basic power problems and into hardware failure or physical damage that needs professional attention.

Check Your Phone for Physical Damage

Your iPhone could be completely dead, or the display problem could be making it look that way. A quick way to find out which one you have is to listen closely for any sounds as you press the buttons. Go ahead and try to activate Siri, or see if you feel any vibrations as you flip the mute switch back and forth. Hearing sounds or feeling the phone respond will tell you that the phone itself is actually working just fine – it’s only the screen that needs attention.

A loose connection inside the phone can sometimes be the culprit behind a black screen. One way to test for this is to gently press around all the edges of your screen. Just apply some light pressure near each corner and then work your way along the sides. The display might flicker back to life for just a second, and if it does then you’ve identified the problem. What’s going on here is that the internal connectors have worked themselves loose over time and it means that a trip to the repair shop is probably in your near future.

Water damage has this way of showing up when you’d least expect it. Your phone can work just fine for a few days after it gets wet and then one morning it just fails completely out of nowhere. Check your camera lens to see if there are any small water droplets trapped on the inside. As you’re at it, grab a flashlight and check your charging port for any green or white crusty buildup around the edges. These two signs are telltale indicators that water has made its way inside your phone at some point, even if you have no memory of it ever being wet.

About that old rice trick everyone always mentions – it barely helps. Rice doesn’t actually absorb much moisture from electronics, and the starchy dust it leaves behind can make your problems worse. Silica gel packets are much better if you actually need to dry out your device fast.

Check your screen closely under bright lighting. Run your finger slowly along all the edges where the screen meets the frame of the phone. What you’re looking for are tiny hairline cracks or small places where the screen has started to separate from the body. I see these problems start out very small all the time. But they have a tendency to get worse in a hurry once they start.

Steps to Fix Your iPhone Screen

Recovery mode is one feature that can save the day when your iPhone screen decides to go completely black and nothing you try will bring it back. Sometimes the software on your phone gets corrupted (this happens in lots of cases) and when a normal restart or a force restart won’t help, recovery mode is usually the most reliable way to fix the problem without having to take it in for repairs.

The recovery process requires a computer with either iTunes or Finder installed and ready. Apple changed the process a few years ago, so Macs with newer operating systems take care of everything through Finder. But Windows machines and older Macs still need iTunes for the job. Whatever program you use, make sure it’s updated to the latest version first. Old software versions are notorious for crashing mid-recovery and you don’t want to start the whole process over from scratch.

Once your software is ready to go, grab a cable and connect your iPhone directly to the computer. The next part is the same button combination you’d use for a force restart, except this time you need to hold those buttons even after the Apple logo shows up on the screen. Hold them down until the recovery mode screen finally pops up. At that point, your computer should detect the phone and give you 2 different options for moving forward.

The Update option will try to reinstall iOS but leaves all your data, photos, apps and settings right where they are. The Restore option does something very different – it wipes everything from the phone and then installs a brand new copy of iOS from scratch. You should try the Update option first because all your personal data stays safe and in most cases it actually fixes the software problem that caused the black screen anyway.

Recovery mode can fail for a few different reasons and it’s frustrating when it happens. Your computer needs enough free storage space for the entire iOS installation file which runs a few gigabytes. If your internet connection drops out, the download will fail repeatedly and you’ll have to start from scratch each time. And older versions of iTunes don’t always work right with the latest iPhone models.

The time commitment can be all over the place as well. Most updates wrap up in about 15 to 45 minutes. But restores can take 2 hours or more and sometimes even longer. Whatever happens, don’t unplug your phone in the middle of it. Once you break that connection, the whole recovery process dies and you have to go back to square one.

Recovery mode can fix a bunch of different black screen problems on iPhones. Usually it’ll fix those small software bugs and corrupted system files that are causing the problem. The problem is that when your iPhone has serious file damage or hardware failure behind the black screen – recovery mode can only do so much and it won’t be able to fix those kinds of problems.

Trade Your Old Phone for Cash Today

The most helpful lesson I’ve picked up over the years about phone screens is that patience really pays off if you take the time to work through each possible fix methodically instead of quickly assuming the worst has happened. A phone that’s been completely black for 2 straight days and won’t respond to any of your attempts to revive it is cause for concern. The same goes for one that shows the exact same black screen problem no matter what you try, or a device with obvious physical damage that needs specific tools to repair.

In cases like these you have really valid reasons to take it to a professional repair shop and that’s what you should do. It’s actually worth it to keep a quick list of what ended up solving the problem because these problems have a funny way of showing up again months later when you least expect them.

Once you get comfortable with these basic troubleshooting steps and know what works in each situation a black screen stops being this serious crisis that ruins your whole day. It just turns into a minor inconvenience that you can fix in a few minutes.

Of course there comes a point where all the troubleshooting in the world won’t bring your phone back to life. Maybe your device has taken one too many tumbles onto concrete or maybe the battery just can’t make it through even half a day anymore after years of everyday use and charging cycles. When you decide it’s time for an upgrade to something newer and more reliable, we at ecoATM give you a convenient way to convert that old phone into instant cash at any of our 6,000+ kiosks across the country. 

The machines automatically test your device right there as you wait and give you same-day cash or electronic payment options, so the entire transaction is quick and eco-conscious and also helps fund that shiny new phone you’ve had your eye on.