If your iPhone starts behaving strangely—apps freezing, things running slowly, or something just not working right—what should you try first?
A. Call your most technical friend.
B. Hold the side button for 10 seconds.
C. Go to Settings → General → Shut Down, then turn it back on.
D. Hold the side and volume-down buttons, then slide to power off.
E. Both C and D.
Answer: E — Both C and D
Before you start changing settings or calling for help, try shutting your iPhone down completely and turning it back on.
You can shut it down through Settings → General → Shut Down, or on modern iPhones you can hold the side button and either volume button until the “slide to power off” screen appears.
Once the phone is completely off, turn it back on by holding the side button until the Apple logo appears.
A restart can clear temporary glitches and is one of the easiest troubleshooting steps to try when your iPhone isn’t behaving normally.
One important exception: If the iPhone is completely frozen and won’t respond, that’s a different procedure called a force restart—we’ll save that one for another question.