It happens to the best of us. You’re scrolling through an old photo album or trying to open a heavy app on your aging device, and suddenly, everything stops. The screen is a brick. No swipes work. The home button feels useless. Honestly, the iPhone 6 is a legendary piece of hardware, but it’s getting up there in years. Knowing an iPhone 6 how to reboot strategy is basically a survival skill if you're still rocking this classic 4.7-inch display.
Most people panic. They start mashings buttons randomly. Don't do that. You might accidentally trigger an Emergency SOS call if you aren't careful, though that's more of an issue on newer models. For the iPhone 6, the solution is mechanical. It’s about a specific physical handshake between you and the internal logic board.
The classic two-button salute
If your phone is totally unresponsive, a standard "slide to power off" isn't going to happen. You need a hard reset. This doesn't erase your data—don't worry. It just cuts the power to the processor and forces a fresh start.
To perform an iPhone 6 how to reboot maneuver when the software is frozen, you have to hold down the Home button (that round circle at the bottom) and the Power button (located on the right side of the device) simultaneously.
Keep holding.
Seriously, keep holding. People often let go too early because they expect a vibration or an instant change. It usually takes about 10 to 15 seconds. You’re waiting for the screen to go black and then for the silver Apple logo to pop back up. Once that logo appears, let go of both buttons. Your phone is now performing a "cold boot," clearing out the temporary cache and stuck processes that caused the hang-up in the first place.
Why your iPhone 6 keeps freezing
Is it just old? Maybe. But usually, there's a specific culprit. The iPhone 6 only has 1GB of RAM. In 2026, that is incredibly tiny. Modern apps are resource hogs. When you try to run something like a heavy mobile game or even just a bloated social media app, the RAM gets saturated.
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Sometimes, it's the battery. As Lithium-ion batteries age, they lose their ability to deliver peak power. If the processor asks for a burst of energy to handle a task and the battery can't provide it, the system might just seize up or shut down. If you find yourself needing to reboot once a day, your battery health is likely below 80%. You can check this in Settings > Battery > Battery Health, though on older iOS versions, this info might be a bit buried.
Dealing with a broken Home button
What if your Home button is crunchy or just flat-out dead? This is a common failure point for the iPhone 6 series. If you can't click the button, the "two-button salute" won't work.
You're kinda stuck, but there's a workaround if the screen is still somewhat working. You use AssistiveTouch.
- Go to Settings.
- Tap General, then Accessibility.
- Turn on AssistiveTouch.
- A little floating gray circle appears.
- Tap it, go to Device, then More, and you'll see a "Restart" option.
If the screen is totally frozen and the buttons are broken, you basically have to wait. Let the battery drain until it dies. Plug it into a charger, and it will auto-boot once it hits about 3-5% charge. It’s slow, but it’s the only way to force a reboot without functional physical hardware.
The "Black Screen of Death" vs. a simple freeze
There is a difference between a frozen screen and a phone that won't turn on. If you try the reboot and nothing happens—no Apple logo, no light—you might have a hardware issue. On the iPhone 6, "Touch Disease" was a real thing. The touch controller chip would sometimes come loose from the logic board due to the phone bending slightly in pockets.
If the screen stays black even after holding the buttons for 30 seconds, try plugging it into a computer. If iTunes or Finder recognizes it, but the screen is dark, your backlight or display assembly might be toast. If the computer doesn't see it at all, it's likely a power rail failure or a dead battery.
Troubleshooting steps for a stubborn reboot:
- Check the lightning port. Lint builds up in there. If it can't charge, it can't reboot. Use a wooden toothpick to gently scrape out the pocket gunk.
- Use an OEM cable. Cheap gas station chargers often fail to provide the consistent voltage needed to kickstart a dead device.
- Heat check. If the phone is burning hot, it won't reboot. It’s in thermal protection mode. Put it in a cool spot (not the freezer!) for twenty minutes and try again.
Software updates and stability
The iPhone 6 is capped at iOS 12.5.7. Apple stopped giving it major OS updates years ago, but they still occasionally drop security patches. If you haven't updated to the final version available for this hardware, do it. Many of the "freezing" bugs were smoothed out in the later iterations of iOS 12.
Also, look at your storage. If you have 0.5GB of space left, your phone is going to crawl. iOS needs "breathing room" to swap files. Try to keep at least 2GB of free space to prevent the system from choking.
Next Steps for a Healthy iPhone 6
If a hard reboot didn't solve the lag, your first move should be a "Reset All Settings." This doesn't delete your photos, but it resets your WiFi passwords and system preferences, which often clears out deep-seated software glitches. If the freezing persists, back up your data to iCloud immediately. Persistent freezing on this specific model is often a precursor to total NAND (storage) failure or the aforementioned Touch Disease. If you see flickering gray bars at the top of the screen during a freeze, that's a confirmed hardware flaw with the logic board, and no amount of rebooting will permanently fix it. In that case, it’s time to look into a screen replacement or, more realistically, an upgrade to a newer model that supports modern app architecture.