There's nothing more frustrating than a smartphone power button that no longer works. Over time, the buttons on Android and iPhone phones sometimes end up wearing out and becoming unusable. But what should you do if your button no longer responds and you absolutely need to restart your phone? Don't panic, there are several simple and effective tips to help you restart a phone without the power button!
How to Restart an iPhone Without the Power Button
There are two main methods to restart an iPhone, depending on whether it is on or off.
Turn off from Settings
In the Settings app, there is an option to turn off your iPhone. You can use this, and then – as explained below – plug it in to restart it.
Just go in Settings > General > Power Off (at the very bottom of the settings). After tapping “Power off”, you will need to swipe to confirm the power off.
AssistiveTouch
For many years, Apple has included a lot of Accessibility features on iPhone to allow as many people as possible to use their device comfortably. Among these, the function AssistiveTouch allows you to display a small virtual joystick on the screen that can be customized to perform different actions. We will use this to create a shortcut to redémarrer your phone.
First, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch on your iPhone.
Then go to AssistiveTouch and activate it at the top of the screen.
You will then see a floating button appear on the screen. From here, you can decide how you want to configure the reboot shortcut. You can add it to the shortcut menu by selecting Customize Parent Menu.
Choose one of the shortcuts and replace it with To restart.
For even faster access, you can also add it to the Custom Actions. Choose Single tap, Double tap or Long press and select To restart.
To use it, simply tap the floating button and select Restart, or use the custom action you created.
Your iPhone will turn off and restart!
Plug it in
If your iPhone is already turned off, don't worry. iPhones automatically start when connected to a power source – once they have enough charge.
So all you have to do is plug it in or place it on a wireless charger and wait for the iPhone to turn on. It's that simple.
How to restart an Android smartphone without the power button
Android devices are a little less flexible but offer several methods to restart a phone without a working power button. We'll start with the simplest and work our way down to the more complex methods.
Quick settings
The simplest way to restart an Android device without a power button is to use the quick settings panel. This menu contains switches for WiFi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode and many other customizable shortcuts.
All you need to do is swipe down once or twice – depending on your device – and tap the power icon.
Accounts Manager To restart the menu.
And that's it!
Connect your Android smartphone
The following method is a bit hit and miss. Some devices will turn on if you plug them into a power source. This doesn't always work, but some devices will boot up after a while if they stay plugged in.
If the device is already on and you just want to wake the screen, this method works too. Almost all Android devices will wake the screen when connected to a power source. From there, you can use the Quick Settings method mentioned above to reboot.
ADB (for the initiated)
The most technical method to reboot a phone without a power button is ADB (Android Debug Bridge). ADB is a utility provided by Android to developers to help them debug their applications.
This method only works if the device is already turned on.
The first step is to install and configure ADB on your PC. To do this, you can easily find detailed guides online, especially on Google's developer site.
Once that's done, you can enter a command to restart your phone or tablet.
In the Command Prompt window, run the following command:
adb reboot
The device will turn off and restart. You are saved!
And there you have it, now you know how to restart a phone without the power button. Fortunately, you have several options if the power button no longer works on your Android or iPhone device. Sometimes, there is nothing to do, but in some cases, you are not without a solution. Either way, you should probably consider getting the device repaired.
