I just got an iPhone 17 and can’t figure out how to power it off because the side buttons aren’t doing what I expected. I need help finding the correct steps to turn off my iPhone 17 so I can restart it and fix a problem.
Press and hold the Side button and either Volume button at the same time.
Keep holding until the power-off slider shows up. Then drag the slider.
If the screen is frozen, do a force restart instead:
- Press Volume Up, then let go.
- Press Volume Down, then let go.
- Press and hold the Side button.
- Keep holding until the Apple logo appears.
Another option:
Settings > General > Shut Down
Apple changed the button behavior a while ago, so holding only the side button often brings up Siri. That part trips up a lot of ppl.
If Face ID is on, the combo button method is the normal one now. If it still wont turn off, the phone might be frozen and the force restart steps above are the fix.
Yeah, Apple made this weirdly unintuitive. @viaggiatoresolare already covered the normal shutdown paths, so I’d look at one thing they didn’t really get into: your Side button setting might be mapped in a way that makes it feel broken.
Check this:
Settings > Accessibility > Side Button
If the press-and-hold timing is set oddly, or if Siri is tied to what you’re expecting to be a power action, it can confuse the whole experiance. You can also go to:
Settings > Siri
and turn off “Press Side Button for Siri” if that’s what keeps popping up every time. I kinda disagree with the idea that this is just “how it is now” and you should adapt. If Siri hijacking the button is annoying, disable it.
Also, if you only need a restart and the phone still responds, you can shut it down, wait 10 seconds, then plug it into power to boot it back up. No need to keep fighting the buttons again.
So basically:
- check Side Button settings
- disable Side button for Siri if needed
- power back on by plugging in or holding Side button after shutdown
Apple loves making basic stuff feel like a scavenger hunt lol.
One thing not mentioned yet: you can shut down the iPhone 17 from Settings even if the buttons are acting weird.
Go to Settings > General > Shut Down
Then drag the slide to power off slider.
That’s usually the easiest workaround when the Side button behavior is confusing. After it turns off, turn it back on by holding the Side button, or just connect it to a charger.
I’ll mildly disagree with @viaggiatoresolare on one point: this is not always a Side button/Siri issue. Sometimes people are expecting the old single-button power-off behavior, but newer iPhones use a combo or the Settings menu instead, and the hardware is totally fine.
If your screen is frozen and you can’t use Settings, then what you want is a force restart, not a normal shutdown:
- press Volume Up
- press Volume Down
- then hold the Side button
- keep holding until the Apple logo shows up
Pros of using the built-in shutdown route in ‘’:
- no button guessing
- works even if Siri keeps intercepting presses
- good for testing whether the issue is software or button-related
Cons:
- useless if the screen is unresponsive
- a little buried in menus, because Apple loves hiding basics