iPhone Takes 30 Minutes To Turn On? (Speedy Tips!)

iPhones are great devices, but even I’ll admit that they aren’t without a few annoying issues.

 One such conundrum is the time that it sometimes takes for an iPhone to turn back on once it has been powered off.

It’s totally understandable that a phone (especially an older one) might need a little bit of time to reboot after switching off.

However, some iPhones sure do take their sweet, sweet time to get working again.

As in, half-an-freakin-hour or more!

This abominable timeframe tends to be even worse if the phone initially shut down due to being completely drained of battery.

So, what can you do if your iPhone takes 30 minutes to turn on?

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be all that much that you can actually do if your iPhone takes a sitcom episode to start functioning.

If a phone takes half an hour to switch on, that probably signifies a more significant underlying issue that can really only be resolved by purchasing a new device.

Still, if you are intent on squeezing every literal last drop of juice out of your current iPhone, you can somewhat maximize its speed by deleting any unnecessary apps and clearing memory space.

You can also circumvent the problem completely by preventing it from turning off in the first place! This can be achieved by charging your phone as soon as it’s needed, rather than let the battery drain away and die.

Why Don’t iPhones Turn On Right Away?

Many of us tend to use our phones until the battery is on its deathbed.

How many times has your iPhone gasped for its last few breaths in your hands while you rushed to plug it into the nearest outlet?

Each time a phone does run completely out of juice, you have to go through the inevitable waiting period of the phone gaining enough charge to turn back on again.

The technical and hardware division at Apple knows that we aren’t always too careful with our phones.

In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if they expected some degree of maltreatment of devices by the average user!

Maybe that’s part of the reason why they’ve factored in a minimum power level limit for the phone to turn back on once the battery has died.

As such, an iPhone battery needs to be charged to at least 3-5% (depending on the model) before you can reboot the phone’s operating system once more.

Once you do power it on, the device takes a little more time to reboot the OS and start functioning as normal.

While this is undeniably annoying when you have work to do, it does ensure that the battery has enough juice to keep the phone running for a longer period of time.

Why Does My Phone Take So Long To Turn On?

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that iPhones take a bit of time to turn on after they’ve been switched off.

Older models typically need more time, while the latest offerings are a little faster when it comes to restarting the OS.

Rebooting usually takes a few minutes on average, but can also take longer depending on a few different factors.

However, no iPhone should take half an hour or more to reboot! If your phone is still rebooting after 30 minutes have passed, it’s a clear sign that something is wrong with either the OS or the device hardware.

In such a case, the best course of action would be to take your phone to the nearest repair shop or technician to have it checked out.

On average, a completely dead iPhone will take around 15-25 minutes to turn back on again.

Yes, that’s a long time, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles. A phone that’s fully drained needs time to resupply power to its internal circuits and reboot the operating system.

Let’s take a closer look at this from a technical standpoint.

iPhones are made with lithium-ion batteries, just like many other modern-day smartphones.

The thing with lithium-ion batteries is that they will- in layman’s terms- start to consume themselves and lose capacity if they are fully drained of power. This can lead to a long-term disaster within your iOS device.

To combat this calamitous outcome, the devices are built in such a way that they prevent the battery from actually dying as much as possible.

What happens instead is that the power circuit monitor will cut the power supply sent from the battery to the circuitry when the battery reaches a low point.

The phone then turns off due to a lack of power supply, and at this point what is known to us as a ‘dead battery’ occurs and charging becomes necessary.

Following this, when you put a charging cable into the phone, the electricity doesn’t flow directly to the battery but to the power circuit monitor instead.

The monitor manages the input power supply and slowly charges the battery from there. Since manufacturers like to play things extra safe, they typically set a margin or lower limit that has to be reached before the power circuit can be turned on.

Even though the phone is capable of turning on its display screen immediately after it is plugged into a charging source, it is not yet able to fully function due to this margin.

By setting this restriction, manufacturers ensure that a phone has enough power to not just boot up the OS but to actually work for at least a few minutes after that. After all, booting up a system requires more power than actually running it!

Keep in mind as well that some apps run in the background from startup and consume extra power.

So, when a phone is turned on, the battery needs to have enough juice to both start up the operating system and to activate the background apps (while also allowing you to open more apps if desired).

By taking extra time before allowing itself to be turned on, your iPhone is protecting its battery, the internal circuitry, and the software as well.

How Can I Get My iPhone To Turn On Faster?

Phones can switch off due to a variety of different reasons.

We’ve already talked about battery life above, but that’s just one potential factor. An iPhone can also turn off suddenly due to memory shortage, or even severely malfunctioning apps.

Whatever the case, you can restart your iPhone and get it to turn on faster by:

• Charging it directly from the wall instead of connecting it to a laptop or car’s charger. 

• Holding the Sleep or Wake button on the iPhone if it died due to non-battery-related reasons.

• Performing a soft reset by holding the Home and Sleep/Wake button until you see the Apple logo.

• Performing a factory reset to delete all the data on the iPhone and clearing memory space.

• Getting it examined by a technician to determine if there’s a hardware problem present.

• Charging the phone before the battery dies (this will prevent the device from powering off in the first place!).

Tips To Make Your iPhone Faster

The older your iPhone gets, the slower it becomes. However, you can still make it faster using the following tips:

• Monitor the memory usage on your phone and use a battery saver to track how much power is still left in the phone. The estimate will give you an idea about how long the phone will last before it needs to be charged again.

• Close apps that you don’t use often. This will save battery and also free up RAM. Your phone will last longer and work faster when fewer background apps are running.

• Close any open tabs in Safari and clear cookies. Websites also take up space on the RAM and consume more battery. Do this for all browser apps on your iPhone as well to avoid the dreaded “Tab limit reached” message!

• Get rid of unwanted images, videos, music, and apps on your phone. If you still want to keep them somewhere, transfer the files to your Mac or an external hard drive.

• Keep your iPhone updated with the latest operating system and software.

• Incompatibilities caused by outdated software can cause a phone to slow down and even glitch significantly.

Related Questions

In Summary

Does your iPhone take 30 minutes to turn on?

That’s a bit longer than is ideal for sure, but it’s not uncommon for iPhones to take a bit more time to power up especially in situations where the battery is completely dead.

Though you will likely need to take your device to a professional technician in this situation, you can try to speed up the start-up process by keeping your phone adequately charged and periodically deleting unwanted files and apps.

This will go a long way in reducing the load on the RAM and induce the phone to consume comparatively less power when booting up.

Always use the charger provided by the manufacturer, and connect to a PowerPoint on the wall (rather than to a computer or in the car) for effective charging.

Finally, download and use a battery-saving app to track your daily phone usage and optimize your memory space as much as possible!

Apple has been the dominant pioneer of the mobile tech world for the past two decades. Learn more about what makes their iPhone an icon not just in the present day, but for the ages to come as well!