Force quitting iPhone applications on firmware 2.* or 3.*

28 Jul 2009

Force quitting iPhone applications on firmware 2.* or 3.*

Author: willem In: apple, tips & tricks

Even though I’ve noticed that applications (specifically, Analytics App and TweetDeck) crash much less on the latest iPhone firmware 3.0, freezes do still occasionally occur. You can force quit an application on the iPhone using one of the methods detailed below:

iphone-slide-to-power-off

Force Quitting Applications on iPhone Firmware 2.*:

Press and hold the Home button for 10 seconds, after which the application will quit and you’ll be returned to the iPhone’s Home screen.

If an application doesn’t want to force quit you can try restarting the device by holding the Sleep / Wake button until you see a “slide to power off” message, sliding the slider, waiting until the iPhone has turned off, then holding the Sleep / Wake button for a few seconds to turn it back on.

As a final resort you can force-reboot the iPhone by holding down both the Sleep / Wake and Home buttons for a few seconds until you see a black screen with the Apple logo (or the PwnageTool logo if you’ve Jailbroken / Unlocked your device).

Force Quitting Applications on iPhone Firmware 3.*:

Press and hold the Sleep / Wake button for a few seconds until you see a “slide to power off” message. Don’t slide the slider or tap the “Cancel” button, just hold down the Home button for 10 seconds to quit the application and be returned to the iPhone’s Home screen.