You've probably been there. Your iPhone is acting like it has a mind of its own. Apps are crashing before they even fully open, the screen is stuttering, or maybe your battery is draining so fast you can practically see the percentage dropping. Naturally, you think back to that old PC trick or your friend's Android: Safe Mode.
But here’s the thing—and honestly, this is where most people get tripped up—iPhones don't really have a "Safe Mode" in the way you’re thinking. Not a native one, anyway. If you go digging through the Settings app looking for a toggle, you’re going to be searching for a long time.
Apple’s philosophy has always been about "it just works," which is great until it doesn't. Because they lock down the operating system so tightly, they didn't see the need for a user-facing Safe Mode for the average person. However, if you're dealing with a glitchy device in 2026, there are actually three different ways to achieve that "safe" state depending on what's actually wrong with your hardware.
How to Put iPhone Into Safe Mode (The Jailbreak Reality)
If you've ever jailbroken your phone—which, let's be real, is way less common on iOS 18 or iOS 19 than it used to be—you actually do have a traditional Safe Mode. This is a special state where all those custom tweaks and unofficial themes are disabled so you can uninstall whatever broke your phone.
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To get there on a jailbroken device, you basically need to perform a specific dance with the buttons. You shut the phone down completely. Then, you hold the Power button to turn it back on. The second that Apple logo pops up, you mash and hold the Volume Up button. You have to keep holding it until the lock screen appears. If it worked, your wallpaper will probably be gone, replaced by a gray background, and you'll see "Safe Mode" written somewhere. This is the only way to get a "true" Safe Mode environment where third-party system modifications are paused.
But what if you're like 99% of people and your phone is strictly "stock"?
The "Stock" iPhone Alternative: Force Restart
When your phone is frozen and you can't even get to the slide-to-power-off screen, you aren't looking for Safe Mode; you're looking for a Force Restart. This is the closest a normal iPhone gets to a "system flush." It cuts the power to the processor and forces the kernel to reload from scratch.
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For anyone using an iPhone 8 or anything newer (which is basically everyone in 2026, including the iPhone 17 and iPhone 18 models), the sequence is specific. You have to be quick.
- Press and let go of Volume Up.
- Press and let go of Volume Down.
- Press and hold the Side Button (the big one on the right).
Don't let go when the screen goes black. Don't let go when the "Slide to Power Off" bar appears. You keep holding that side button until the white Apple logo finally blinks back onto the screen. It feels like an eternity—sometimes up to 20 seconds—but it works.
When Things Get Scary: Recovery Mode vs. DFU Mode
If a force restart didn't fix the ghost in the machine, you’re moving into "tech support" territory. This is where we talk about Recovery Mode. This isn't just a reboot; it’s telling the iPhone to wait for a computer to send it a fresh copy of iOS.
You'll know you're in Recovery Mode because the screen won't show the Apple logo; it’ll show a picture of a laptop and a USB-C cable. To get here, you connect your iPhone to a Mac or PC. You do the same button combo as the Force Restart (Up, Down, Hold Side), but you keep holding the side button even after the Apple logo appears. Keep holding until that "connect to computer" graphic shows up.
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Then there’s DFU Mode (Device Firmware Update). This is the "nuclear option." It’s a very low-level state that doesn't even load the iBoot bootloader. The screen stays completely black. If your screen is black but your computer says "An iPhone has been detected in recovery mode," you’ve hit the jackpot. This is usually reserved for when the software is so corrupted the phone won't even start the boot process.
Common Myths About iPhone Safe Mode
There is a ton of bad advice out there. Some old forum posts say you can put an iPhone in safe mode by holding the "Home" button—well, most iPhones haven't had a physical home button in nearly a decade. Others claim that "Low Power Mode" is a type of safe mode. It isn't. Low Power Mode just throttles your CPU and stops mail from fetching; it won't help you fix a crashing app.
Kinda frustrating, right? Apple prefers you to just factory reset the whole thing via iCloud if things go south. But understanding these hardware overrides gives you a bit of power back.
Actionable Steps to Fix Your iPhone Today
If your phone is acting up and you were looking for how to put iPhone into safe mode, follow this specific order of operations to save your sanity:
- Check for Rogue Apps: If the glitches only happen in one app, delete it. Don't just "remove from home screen"—actually delete the data and reinstall it from the App Store.
- The 15-Second Hold: Perform a Force Restart (Volume Up, Volume Down, Hold Side) even if you think the phone is off. Sometimes the screen is just "black" but the system is hung.
- Reset All Settings: Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset All Settings. This is the "Safe Mode Lite." It doesn't delete your photos or messages, but it wipes out all your system preferences, Wi-Fi passwords, and Bluetooth pairings. It's a pain to set back up, but it fixes 90% of weird software bugs without a full wipe.
- Check Storage: Believe it or not, an iPhone with less than 5GB of free space will start acting like it's broken. It needs "breathing room" to swap files. Delete those 4K videos of your cat and see if the performance returns.
If you’ve tried all that and the phone still won't behave, it's time to plug it into a laptop and use the Recovery Mode steps mentioned above to "Update" the software. Choosing "Update" instead of "Restore" in Finder or iTunes will try to reinstall the OS without wiping your personal data.