Apple’s iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max are different sizes compared to last year’s iPhone 11 series, but they still share some common design elements with the 2019 models. ‘Apple, such as an all-screen design and no Home button on the front.
If you are upgrading from a device with a home button, keep reading for how to turn on and off, force a restart, enter DFU mode, enter recovery mode, activate SOS from emergency and temporarily disable Face ID. Below are step-by-step guides for performing the button combinations of all of the above functions, along with explanations of what the more obscure ones do and why they might one day come in handy.
IPhone 12 Button Basics
Apple has changed many of the functions of the physical buttons on its smartphones with the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, so if you are upgrading from a device prior to these 2017 models, you will want to familiarize with them.
Face the screen of your new iPhone and you will see that there are two volume buttons on the left side and a single side button on the right side. With no home button per se, these three side buttons work in combination to perform all necessary functions.
How to turn on iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
To turn on your new iPhone, press the side button once. If the Apple logo does not appear on the screen, the device may need to be recharged – plug it into a power outlet using the supplied Lightning cable and let it charge for at least a few minutes before trying again.
Press and hold the Side with the button Turn up the sound or Lower the volume until two sliding buttons appear on the screen.
How to turn off iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Press and hold the Side button with the Turn up the sound or Lower the volume until two sliding buttons appear on the screen.
- Release the physical buttons and swipe right slide to turn off button at the top of the screen.
How to activate emergency SOS on iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Activating Emergency SOS on your iPhone automatically calls emergency services and sends a text message with your location information to people in your emergency contacts. For this reason, you should only use it when you are in danger or facing a real emergency. Note that you will need to enter your iPhone passcode to reactivate Face ID and unlock your iPhone after running Emergency SOS.
- Press and hold the Side button as well as one of the Volume knobs, so that you basically squeeze on either side of the device.
- Keep pressing until the SOS emergency countdown starts on the screen. You can either wait for the countdown to complete or drag it to immediately call emergency services and alert your emergency contacts.
If you don’t want Emergency SOS to automatically call emergency services when you press the side button, be sure to turn off the automatic call via Settings -> Emergency SOS -> Deactivate automatic call.
How to turn off Face ID on iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Disabling Face ID on your iPhone causes your password to be entered to unlock it. By disabling Face Authentication, a police officer or attacker cannot unlock your iPhone just by holding it in front of your face.
- Press and hold the Side button.
- Press and hold Volume button.
- Press the To cancel button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
Troubleshooting functions
Apple changed the process for enabling the following troubleshooting features with the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, so if you upgraded from a device prior to these 2017 models, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with them in case you run into problems.
How to hard reset iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Press and quickly release the Turn up the sound button.
- Press and quickly release the Lower the volume button.
- Press and hold the Side until the Apple logo appears, then release the Side button.
During this process, you will see a slider to turn off iPhone. You’re going to want to ignore it and continue to hold the side button down until the screen goes black. At this point, the Apple logo will appear, and once the restart is complete, the screen will activate again.
Using the force restart process saves you from having to shut down iPhone completely, which requires several additional steps.
If you want to turn off the iPhone, you can do so by going to the General section of the Settings app, scroll down and choose the To close option.
How to enter recovery mode on iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Entering recovery mode can help you if you are having trouble updating or restoring your iPhone over the air. For example, if the screen shows the Apple logo for several minutes but no progress bar appears, you can try putting the device in recovery mode and restoring it with iTunes. Here is how it works.
- Using the Lightning cable that came with your iPhone, connect the device to your computer. If you’re using a Mac running macOS Mojave or earlier, or if you’re connecting to a PC, make sure the latest version of iTunes is installed.
- On a Mac running macOS Catalina or later, open Searcher. On a Mac with macOS Mojave or earlier, or on a PC, open itunes. If iTunes is already open, close it and then reopen it.
- With the iPhone connected, force restart with the following steps, but don’t release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. Instead, wait for the recovery mode screen to appear.
- Press and quickly release the Turn up the sound button.
- Press and quickly release the Lower the volume button.
- Press and hold the Side until you see the recovery mode screen, then release it.
- If you’re using iTunes, select your device from the iTunes sidebar. Otherwise, select your device from the Finder sidebar.
- When you see the option to restore or update, choose Update. Your computer will try to reinstall the software without erasing your data. Wait for your computer to download the software for your device.
How to exit Recovery Mode on iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Just press the Side until the “Connect to iTunes” screen disappears, and your iPhone should restart in iOS.
How to enter DFU mode on iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
The force restart procedure described above can help if an iPhone freezes, throws errors, or has stopped responding completely. DFU (for Device Firmware Update) mode restores an iPhone if a restart or entering standard recovery mode does not resolve the issue you are having.
DFU mode allows the device to interface with Finder or iTunes, update the firmware and restore the operating system without automatically installing the latest downloaded version. This is useful for installing older versions of iOS if a beta version hangs your phone persistently or if a jailbreak goes wrong.
Before following the steps below, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer.
- Turn on your iPhone if you haven’t already.
- Connect it to your computer using a Lightning to USB cable.
- On Macs running macOS Mojave or earlier and PCs, make sure iTunes is running. On Macs running macOS Catalina or later, make sure Finder is running.
- On your iPhone, tap the Turn up the sound button immediately followed by Lower the volume button.
- Then, hold down Side button (or power button) until your iPhone screen goes black.
- Release it Side button then hold both Side button and Lower the volume for about five seconds.
- Now release the Side button, but keep pressing Lower the volume button.
- Wait at least five seconds for Finder or iTunes to recognize that DFU recovery mode has been activated.
If you are using iTunes, you should see a message stating “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before you can use it with iTunes ”. If you are using Finder, you should see a similar message. If you don’t see the message, repeat the above steps.
Once you close the recovery prompt, you can go ahead and restore your iPhone to factory settings by selecting Restore iphone on the iPhone recovery mode screen. Once restored, your iPhone will automatically exit DFU mode and restart on its activation screen.
How to exit DFU mode
If you’ve turned on DFU mode and want to exit it manually, here’s how.
- press the Turn up the sound button on your iPhone and quickly release it.
- press the Lower the volume and release it.
- Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears on your iPhone screen.
Your iPhone should now have exited DFU recovery mode.