Justin Duino
Sometimes, the physical power button on Android phones and iPhones stops working. The longer you use the device, the more likely it is that the moving parts will fail. Can I restart my phone without the power button? There are options.
How to Restart Your Android Phone Without the Power Button
Android devices have a few different ways to restart the phone without a functional physical power button. We’ll start with the easiest and work our way down.
Quick Setup
By far the easiest way to restart an Android device without the power button is the Quick Settings panel. This menu has toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, and many other customizable tiles.
Just swipe down once or twice (depending on your device) and tap the power icon.
Select Restart from the menu.
It’s all about it here!
related: How to Adjust and Rearrange Android’s Quick Settings Drop-Down
plug it in
The next method is more hit or miss. If you connect some devices to power, they will start. This doesn’t always work, but if you plug something in, they will eventually power up.
This method should also work if the device is already powered on and you just want to wake the screen. Almost all Android devices will wake the screen when connected to a power source. From there, you can reboot using the quick setup method above.
ADB
The most complicated way to restart your phone without the power button is ADB – Android Debug Bridge. However, this only works when the device is powered on.
The first thing to do is follow our guide to install and setup ADB on your PC. Once done, we can enter a command to restart your phone or tablet.
In a command prompt window, run the following command: adb reboot
The device will shut down and restart. You are all set!
related: How to Install and Use ADB, the Android Debug Bridge Utility
How to Restart iPhone Without Power Button
There are two main ways to restart your iPhone, depending on whether it’s on or off.
Assistive Touch
Apple includes many accessibility features on the iPhone. Assistive Touch places a virtual button on the screen that can be customized to perform many different actions. We’ll use it to create a shortcut to restart the phone.
First, open Settings on your iPhone.
Next, go to the Accessibility settings and select Touch.
Go to Assistive Touch and turn it on at the top of the screen.
You’ll notice a floating button appears on the screen. Now we can decide how you want the restart shortcut to work. You can add it to the shortcut menu by selecting Customize Top Menu.
Choose one of the shortcuts and replace it with “Restart”.
If you want easier access to the restart shortcut, you can choose it as the floating button’s single-click, double-click, or long-press option.
To use it, just click the floating button and select Restart, or use another custom action you create.
The iPhone will shut down and restart!
related: Make your iPhone easier to use with these hidden accessibility features
plug it in
You’re not out of luck if your iPhone is turned off. iPhones will start up automatically when connected to a power source – as long as they have enough power.
So all you need to do is plug it in or place it on the wireless charger and wait for the iPhone to power up. It’s that simple.
related: How to fix an iPhone that won’t turn on
Fortunately, if the power button doesn’t work on your Android device or iPhone, you have some options. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, but in some cases you’re not out of luck. Either way, you will eventually need to fix it.
related: Can you turn on your Android phone without the power button?
