Your iPhone may occasionally become frozen, in the sense that it won’t respond to your commands. You push a button on the screen, and nothing happens. The screen is frozen and there’s nothing you can do.

Has this happened to your iPhone recently? If so, you are not alone. This has happened to me too. Below, you will find a list of the steps I took to fix the problem. These steps also match up with the advice given by Apple, in the troubleshooting section of their website.

Important note: Always consult your owner’s manual before troubleshooting your iPhone, whether it’s for a frozen screen or any other problem. And don’t do anything that would void your warranty.
How to Fix a Frozen iPhone

Here are the steps recommended by Apple to fix a frozen iPhone screen:

  1. As with any computer or electronic device, you should first try to restart the device. Besides being the easiest troubleshooting technique, this will fix the majority of cases where the iPhone is frozen and won’t respond. It sounds simple, I know, but restarting your iPhone will correct many of the known issues associated with the device.
  2. To turn the device off, you need to push (and hold) the sleep/wake button until the red slider shows up on your screen. Next, move the slider with your finger until the iPhone turns off — the screen will go dark when this happens.
  3. Turn your iPhone back on by pressing and holding the sleep/wake button. Hold the button until the Apple logo appears on the screen, and then release.
  4. This will fix the majority of cases where the iPhone screen is frozen and unresponsive. If it restarts but is still frozen, try holding down the Home button for about eight seconds. This should close down any applications that aren’t responding, which is usually what causes the screen to freeze up in the first place.
  5. After closing down any applications (step 4), try to restart the iPhone again (step 2).
  6. Did this fix the problem? If not, you may need to reset your device. To reset your iPhone, you will need to press the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time — and hold them for 10 seconds or more.  Keep holding the buttons until the screen goes black. You may see a red “power off” slider while holding the buttons — that’s okay. Keep holding them until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
  7. The steps listed above will fix the majority of cases where the iPhone screen is frozen up. If you are still having problems after performing these steps, try the following…
  8. Is your iPhone screen still frozen at this point? If so, you are screwed! Just kidding. You might just need to remove some of the content that’s on your device. Did this fix your frozen iPhone screen, or is it still acting up? Or, you might have to reset all of the settings for your device (different from the reset process in step 6). To do this, tap “settings” on your screen … then “general” … then “reset” … and then “reset all settings.”
  9. Lastly, you might also want to restore your iPhone through your iTunes program. To do this, connect your phone to iTunes through your computer, and then click on “Restore” in the summary area.

If you are still having trouble after all of this, it’s probably time to contact an Apple expert for assistance. Hopefully, the steps I’ve outlined above will fix the problem for you, and you’ll never have a frozen iPhone screen again. We can at least hope for a perfect world, right? Good luck.