What happens when you reset your iPhone?
When your iPhone feels sluggish, an app won’t close, or something just seems off, the first thing people suggest is “try resetting your iPhone.” It sounds drastic, but the truth is far less dramatic than it might seem. A simple reset is one of the safest troubleshooting steps you can take, and understanding what actually happens during those few seconds can help you decide when it’s genuinely useful.
A reset—properly called a soft reset or force restart—is essentially just forcing your iPhone to turn off and turn back on. Your apps, photos, messages, and all your personal data stay exactly where they are. It’s not wiping or erasing anything. It’s just rebooting the device, much like restarting your computer when things get weird.
How to reset your iPhone
The steps vary slightly depending on your model, but the goal is to force a restart without using the screen.
For iPhone 8 and Later (including iPhone X, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15)
- Press and quickly release the Volume Up button.
- Press and quickly release the Volume Down button.
- Press and hold the Side button (on the right side).
- Keep holding the Side button even when you see the power-off slider. Only let go when the Apple logo appears on the screen.
For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus
- Press and hold both the Volume Down button and the Sleep/Wake button.
- Release both buttons when the Apple logo appears.
For iPhone 6s and Earlier (including SE 1st Gen)
- Press and hold both the Home button and the Sleep/Wake (Top or Side) button.
- Release both buttons when the Apple logo appears.
The process usually takes about 10 to 15 seconds. Once the Apple logo appears, your phone is rebooting fresh. After it boots back up, your phone should feel snappier, as the system has cleared its temporary workspace.
What actually gets cleared
Here’s what makes a soft reset useful: when your iPhone restarts, the operating system closes every running app and clears the device’s RAM (random access memory). RAM is the super-fast temporary memory your phone uses while apps are actually running. When you turn off the phone, everything stored in RAM evaporates like water on a hot sidewalk.
This means any temporary glitches, stuck processes, or corrupted data that an app loaded into memory gets wiped away. If an app was consuming too much memory and slowing things down, resetting clears that out. If an app crashed and left some broken data in RAM, it’s gone. This is why a reset often feels like it “fixes” things.
The operating system itself goes through its startup routine fresh, which can also clear certain temporary system caches that sometimes build up and cause problems. It’s a form of gentle housekeeping.
What doesn’t change
This is the important part: everything on your iPhone’s permanent storage stays put. Your apps are still there. Your photos, videos, and messages are untouched. Your settings, your home screen layout, and your saved WiFi networks all survive a reset completely intact.
Because your data is written to the phone’s flash storage (the permanent kind), it doesn’t vanish when the power cuts out. This is why a reset is so safe. You’re not deleting or modifying anything; you’re just bouncing the system.
Some people confuse a soft reset with other types of resets. If you go into Settings and choose “Reset,” you’ll see options like “Reset All Settings” or “Erase All Content and Settings.” Those are different beasts entirely because they actually delete things. A soft reset done via the button method does not.
When a soft reset actually helps
A reset is genuinely useful in specific situations. If an app is frozen and won’t respond, a reset will close it and clear whatever was making it stuck. If your phone feels slow but you can’t pinpoint why, a reset can clear out temporary junk that accumulated in RAM. If WiFi isn’t connecting properly, or Bluetooth feels finicky, a reset can fix transient connection issues.
It’s also a decent first step before doing anything more drastic like backing up and restoring your phone through a computer, or considering a factory reset.
When it won’t help
A soft reset won’t fix broken hardware. If your screen is cracked or your battery is dying, a restart won’t change that. It won’t remove malware (though restarting is still a good idea), and it won’t fix a corrupted file on your storage drive. That data is still there, corrupted.
A soft reset also won’t fix problems caused by your actual account or software configuration. If you’re locked out of your Apple ID, if a specific app has a persistent bug, or if your email isn’t syncing because of account settings, restarting won’t help.
The takeaway
A soft reset is safe, easy, and often effective for clearing temporary glitches. It’s the digital equivalent of taking a step back and trying again. If your iPhone is acting odd, it’s a reasonable first thing to try before reaching for bigger solutions. Just don’t confuse it with erasing your phone—you’re not erasing anything at all.