iPhones are usually great devices to own, but even the best phones will still have a few errors that will show up now and again. One such issue is when the screen of your iPhone turns black. The phone still works fine, but there is no display. This problem is commonly called the iPhone Black Screen of Death and many iPhone users have complained about this issue happening to them.
The reason why your iPhone screen is black but the phone still works is simple. Your iPhone usually goes black when the device comes across a critical system error and is forced to shut down. It might also be the case that your device may have some hardware issues, in which case you should definitely send it for repairs. The Black Screen of Death could also be because of a software issue.
However, before you worry and send your phone off for some really expensive repairs, here are a few tricks you could try. These may work and get your device back to a normal working condition. Let us know if these quick, easy fixes work for you!
Doing a Hard Reset
Often doing a hard reset on your phone may be enough to get the display working fine again. To do a hard reset on your iPhone, follow these steps, depending on the device you have:
For iPhones 8 and newer:
- Press the “Volume Up” key first. Immediately after this, press the “Volume Down” key and the Power button on the phone. Hold both keys down until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
For the iPhone 7 series:
- Press the “Volume Up” and “Volume Down” keys together. Keep pressing them until the Apple logo appears. This should take approximately 10 seconds, give or take a few seconds.
For iPhones 6 and older:
- Press the Power button and the Home button down together, until the Apple logo appears.
If any of these methods have worked for you, congratulations! You’ve sorted your phone out. If the Apple logo has not yet appeared, but the phone is still working (if you can hear notification sounds and Siri is responding to you too), the next options are for you.
Drain Your Phone’s Battery
Sometimes, you may think that the device is not working, when all that has happened is that the battery is dead. Allowing your iPhone’s battery to drain is another way to get your device to reset on its own. Sometimes, letting your phone die and then plugging it into charge will automatically reset the phone, after which the display will come on too.
This may seem like the most ridiculous sounding solution, but sometimes it is the easiest solutions that work that fastest.
Using iTunes
This solution should only be done as a last resort since using this method will WIPE ALL YOUR DATA on the phone.
To use iTunes to fix the Black Screen of Death on your iPhone, follow the instructions below.
- After installing and launching the last version of iTunes on your computer, connect your unresponsive iPhone to the computer, using the appropriate cable. This is usually the cable that comes with the phone.
- If iTunes recognizes your phone, you might see a pop up that says something like “The software on iPhone needs to be restored to factory settings updated”. Click on the button that says “Restore”. This will restore your phone to its default factory settings and will hopefully turn the phone back on.
- If iTunes does not recognize your phone, hold down the power button and try to get the phone to restart. This might result in the pop up mentioned above that says “The software on iPhone needs to be restored to factory settings updated”. Click on the button that says “Restore”.
Hopefully, this solution will work for you and will get your phone’s display on again. You can always back your phone up with the last backup from iTunes or iCloud.
Once your phone is on, do check if the Black Screen has occurred after you downloaded a new app. If this is the case and you can live without the app, consider deleting it and using another app for the same purpose instead.
Hardware issues will need repairs
If you have noticed that your phone has the Black Screen of Death after you have recently dropped your iPhone, it is possible that the LCD cable (which is the display data connector) has become dislodged from the device’s logic board because of the impact of the fall. This will require you to get the phone professionally repaired.
If you have recently dropped your phone in water or any liquid and are now unable to use your iPhone because of the Black Screen of Death, this too will require a professional to repair your phone. It is possible that the LCD of your phone may be broken.
In both these cases, I do recommend getting the help of a professional to repair your phone, instead of trying to do it yourself. The best solution would be to go to an Apple recognized repair store or to the Apple store closest to you.
This is especially true if you own one of the latest lines of iPhones since Apple has now made it a little difficult for third party, non-Apple recognized repairs to be done on your iPhone. There are also several YouTube videos on this subject if you were unaware of this fact and would like to read more on this.
If you use a non-Apple affiliated repairperson, and they use non-Apple products, there’s a good chance that your device will stop working or will throw up random error messages. Apple may also refuse to service your device if it has been opened by a third party repair person.
This is why I would recommend getting Apple repair to look at your device if none of the above methods worked for you. It will prevent a whole lot of extra heartache for you!
Hopefully one of the above solutions will work for you so that you don’t have to pay for extra repairs. Till next time!
