Why Is My iPhone Working but the Screen Is Black?
If the phone still rings, the expensive parts are fine and your photos are safe. Work through this in order — the free fixes come first.
What This Actually Means
Your iPhone rings. It vibrates when a message lands. Maybe it still shows up on your computer or connects to the car. But the screen stays black no matter what you press.
Start with the good news, because it is real. A phone that still makes noise is a phone that is still running. The battery works, the logic board works, the storage with all your photos on it works. Whatever is wrong sits between the phone and your eyes, and that is the cheapest part of it to put right.
From here there are only two possibilities, and the rest of this page is about telling them apart.
The first is that the software has crashed. The phone is on and answering calls, but the part that draws the screen has stopped. This is the more common of the two, it costs nothing to fix, and the fix takes about thirty seconds.
The second is that the display itself has failed, or come loose, or lost its light. That needs a repair, but it is a repair to the screen and not to the phone, and your data is not part of it.
Work through this page in order. It is written so that the free things come before the ones that cost money.
Check These Four Things First
Two minutes here saves an appointment at a repair shop, and one of these four is the answer surprisingly often.
Charge It for Half an Hour
A phone that has run completely flat can look dead for a while and can still buzz or chime as it wakes. Plug it into a wall socket rather than a laptop, leave it alone for thirty minutes, then try again.
Use a different cable and a different plug if you have them. A cable that charges slowly enough to keep a phone at nothing is a cable that looks exactly like this problem.
Turn the Brightness Up
It sounds too simple, but a phone with brightness at zero looks black in a lit room. Ask Siri to turn the brightness up, or open the Control Centre by swiping from the top right corner and drag the slider up blind.
If Siri answers you, the phone is definitely running and this is not a hardware fault.
Listen for a Voice
If your phone starts talking when you touch it, VoiceOver is switched on, and VoiceOver has a setting called Screen Curtain that turns the display off on purpose while everything else keeps working.
Triple-click the side button to turn VoiceOver off. If that does not do it, triple-tap the screen with three fingers, which is the shortcut for the curtain itself.
Look for the Faintest Picture
Take the phone into the darkest room you have and hold a torch close to the screen at an angle. If you can just make out the time, or the shape of your icons, the phone is drawing a picture and only the light behind it has gone.
That single test decides a lot, and the section on it below explains why.
Force Restart Your iPhone
This is the fix. If the screen is black because iOS has crashed, a force restart brings it back, and it works often enough that it is worth doing before anything else.
A force restart is not the same as switching the phone off and on, which you cannot do anyway without a screen. It cuts power to everything and starts again, the way pulling a plug out of the wall does. It does not delete anything. Your photos, messages and apps are all exactly where you left them.
The buttons are different on different iPhones, and pressing the wrong ones does nothing at all, so find your model below.
On an iPhone 8 or anything newer — that covers the X, XR, XS, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and the second and third generation SE — press volume up and let go, press volume down and let go, then press and hold the side button. Keep holding. It can take twenty seconds before the Apple logo appears, and most people give up too early. Let go when you see it.
On an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, hold volume down and the side button together until the Apple logo appears.
On an iPhone 6s or older, and the first generation SE, hold the home button and the side or top button together until the Apple logo appears.
If the logo comes up, you are done. If nothing happens after a full minute of holding, try it twice more before you move on — a phone that is very low on battery sometimes needs charging for a while before a restart will take.
The Torch Test: Is the Screen Dark or Is the Light Off?
This is the most useful thing on this page, because it separates two faults that look identical and cost very different amounts to fix.
A screen has two jobs: draw the picture, and light it up. On many iPhones those are separate parts, so one can fail while the other keeps working. When the light fails, the picture is still there — it is just sitting in the dark where you cannot see it.
To check, go into the darkest room in the house, wait a few seconds for your eyes to settle, and shine a bright torch onto the screen at a low angle. Then look closely.
If you can faintly make out the time, the shape of the icons, or the slide-to-unlock text, the display is alive and the backlight behind it has died. That is a real repair but a smaller one, the phone is otherwise fine, and nothing has happened to your data.
If the glass stays completely blank under a bright torch, the display itself is not drawing anything, and that usually means the screen has failed or its cable has come loose.
One thing to know before you trust the result: this test only works on an iPhone that uses an LCD screen. That is the iPhone 8 and everything before it, the XR, the 11, and the second and third generation SE. Those have a backlight that can fail on its own.
The iPhone X, XS, 11 Pro, and every iPhone from the 12 onwards use OLED screens, where each pixel makes its own light and there is no separate backlight to lose. On one of those, a black screen under a torch points at the display or its connector rather than a lighting fault.
What Causes This
Six things account for nearly all of it. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you whether to keep trying or to book a repair.
iOS Has Crashed
The most common cause by a distance, and the reason force restart is the first thing to try. The phone keeps running underneath — calls still arrive, alarms still sound — while the part that draws the screen has stopped responding.
Nothing is broken. A force restart clears it.
A Drop Loosened the Cable
The screen connects to the board with a small ribbon and a clip. A knock can pop that clip loose without cracking the glass, which is why a phone that looks perfect can go black after a short fall.
The giveaway is timing. If it went dark within a day of a drop, this is the likely answer, and it is one of the cheaper repairs.
The Backlight Has Failed
On an LCD iPhone, the small circuit that powers the backlight can blow, usually after a drop or a bad charger. The screen carries on working and you simply cannot see it.
The torch test above finds this one.
An Update Went Wrong
A phone that went black during an iOS update, or shortly after one, may be stuck part way through. It is running, but not far enough to draw anything.
A force restart is the first move. If that fails, the recovery mode section below is the next.
Water Got In
Water reaches the screen connector before it reaches much else, so a phone that still rings while showing nothing is a common way for water damage to appear.
Do not charge it and do not use rice. Turn it off if you can and get it opened by someone who can dry and clean it properly, because the damage keeps spreading while it sits.
A Previous Screen Repair
If the screen has been replaced before, a cheap panel or a connector that was never seated properly will do exactly this, sometimes months later.
Worth mentioning to whoever looks at it, because it changes where they check first.
If a Force Restart Did Not Work
The next step needs a computer, and it comes with one choice that matters more than anything else on this page, so read the whole section before you start.
Recovery mode lets a computer reinstall iOS on a phone that cannot show you anything. Connect the phone to a Mac or a PC with a cable, open Finder on a recent Mac or the Apple Devices app on Windows, then do the force restart sequence for your model — but instead of letting go at the Apple logo, keep holding the button until the computer says it has found a phone in recovery mode.
Since you cannot see your own screen, the computer is your only signal that it worked. Watch its display rather than the phone.
Then comes the choice. The computer offers Update and Restore, and they are not the same thing at all.
Update reinstalls iOS and leaves everything else alone. Your photos, messages and apps stay. Choose this one.
Restore wipes the phone completely and sets it up as new. It will fix almost anything software can break, and it will take everything with it unless you have a backup. Only choose Restore if Update has already failed and you are certain your data is backed up somewhere.
If the computer does not detect the phone at all in recovery mode, try a different cable and a different port first. If it still sees nothing, the problem is not software and no amount of reinstalling will help.
Will I Lose My Photos?
This is what most people are actually worried about, so here is a straight answer.
A force restart deletes nothing. It is the same as the phone losing power for a second. Everything comes back exactly as it was.
A screen repair deletes nothing either. Your storage is a separate part of the phone and a repair shop replacing a display never touches it. Take a backup first if you can, but the risk here is very low.
The one thing that does erase a phone is choosing Restore in recovery mode, which is why the section above says to choose Update instead.
If your phone is genuinely beyond repair, your photos may still not be lost. Anything set to sync with iCloud is already off the phone, and you can sign in from any browser or another device to check. The same goes for anything that was backed up to a computer.
Getting It Looked At
If the phone still rings but nothing brings the screen back, it needs someone with it open in front of them.
Take the useful facts with you. Whether it responds to a call, whether Siri answers, whether anything showed under a torch, whether it was dropped or got wet, and whether the screen has been replaced before. Those five answers save a technician a good deal of guessing, and guessing is what you are paying for.
Apple and its authorised repairers will use original parts and keep any remaining warranty intact, which matters most on a newer phone. Independent shops are usually cheaper and are often the better choice for an older phone, or for a backlight repair, which is fiddly board work that not every shop takes on.
Ask what specifically is being replaced before you agree. There is a real difference in price between reseating a loose connector, repairing a backlight circuit, and fitting a whole new screen, and a shop that quotes for a new screen without opening the phone first has not looked yet.
Before you pay for anything on an older phone, it is worth asking what the phone is worth. A screen repair that costs more than the handset is a decision rather than an obvious yes.
The Same Problem on an Android Phone
If you landed here with a Samsung, a Pixel or another Android that is ringing behind a black screen, the thinking is the same and only the buttons change.
On most Android phones, hold the power button and volume down together for about ten to twenty seconds until it restarts. On a Samsung, hold volume down and the side button. Some phones need the power button held on its own for thirty seconds.
Everything else on this page applies. Charge it properly, listen for whether it is running, try the torch test in a dark room, and treat a drop or water as the likely cause if the timing fits.
One extra thing Android gives you: many phones will start in safe mode, which loads without any apps you installed. If the screen comes back in safe mode, an app was causing it, and uninstalling the most recent one usually settles it.
Once the Screen Comes Back
When the display is working again, whether after a restart or a repair, it is worth five minutes to check that all of it came back properly. This is exactly the moment when a fault is still easy to raise with whoever did the work.
Look for dead pixels, dark dots that never light up. Look for stuck pixels, coloured dots that stay the same while everything around them changes. On a new panel, check the edges in a dark room for light leaking in, and check for any patch that looks a different shade from the rest.
The tests below fill the screen with one flat colour at a time, which is the fastest way to see any of it. They take a couple of minutes and they run in the phone browser, with nothing to install.
Dead Pixel Test
The full check, stepping through the colours that find each kind of faulty pixel.
White Screen
Shows dark dots, dust under the glass and any patch that is dimmer than the rest.
Black Screen
Shows bright dots and light leaking in at the edges of a replaced panel.
Stuck Pixel Test
For a coloured dot that will not change, with a fixer that sometimes frees it.
Screen Color Test
Nine colours one after another, which covers the whole panel in a couple of minutes.
Display Test
The wider check for a phone screen, colours and brightness included.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my iPhone working but the screen is black?
Either iOS has crashed while the phone keeps running underneath, or the display has failed or come loose. The first is far more common and a force restart fixes it. The fact that the phone still rings means the battery, the board and your data are all fine.
How do I force restart an iPhone with a black screen?
On an iPhone 8 or newer, press volume up and let go, press volume down and let go, then hold the side button until the Apple logo appears — this can take twenty seconds. On an iPhone 7, hold volume down and the side button. On a 6s or older, hold home and the side button.
Will a force restart delete anything?
No. It is the same as the phone losing power for a moment. Your photos, messages and apps all come back exactly as they were. The only thing that erases a phone is choosing Restore in recovery mode.
My iPhone rings but the screen is black. Is the phone broken?
Not the phone itself. Ringing means it is powered, running and answering the network. Whatever is wrong sits between the phone and your eyes, which is the cheaper half to repair.
How do I know if the backlight has failed?
Go into a dark room and shine a torch on the screen at an angle. If you can faintly make out the time or your icons, the display works and only its light has died. That test applies to LCD iPhones — the 8 and earlier, the XR, the 11 and the SE 2nd and 3rd generation.
What is the black screen of death on an iPhone?
The name people use when a phone keeps running but shows nothing at all. It is a description rather than one fault, covering a crashed iOS, a loose display cable, a failed backlight and a broken screen.
My iPhone went black after I dropped it. What now?
A knock can pop the display connector loose without cracking the glass. Force restart it first in case it was only a crash. If that does nothing, the connector or the screen needs looking at, and it is one of the cheaper repairs.
Can I get my photos off an iPhone with a black screen?
Usually yes. A screen repair never touches your storage, so the photos come back with the display. Anything set to sync with iCloud is already off the phone and you can reach it from a browser right now.
What is the difference between Update and Restore in recovery mode?
Update reinstalls iOS and leaves your data alone. Restore wipes the phone completely. Always choose Update first, and only consider Restore if Update has failed and you know you have a backup.
Why did my screen go black after an iOS update?
The phone may be stuck part way through the update — running, but not far enough to draw anything. Force restart it first. If that fails, connect it to a computer, put it in recovery mode and choose Update.
My phone is on but the screen is black on Android. Same fix?
The thinking is the same, only the buttons change. Hold power and volume down together for ten to twenty seconds on most Android phones. Android also has safe mode, so if the screen returns there, a recently installed app is the cause.
Should I check anything once the screen is working again?
Yes, especially after a repair. Run through a few full-screen colours and look for dead pixels, stuck pixels and light leaking in at the edges. It takes two minutes and it is much easier to raise then than a month later.