Imagine fumbling in the dark with your lights off, only to reach for your iPhone and realize that the flashlight icon is greyed out. This can be a nightmare scenario, primarily if you rely on your phone for everything, from navigating your home to finding lost keys in the dark. Fortunately, there are several ways you can fix this issue and get your flashlight working again.
What Causes an iPhone Flashlight Not to Work?
There are several reasons why the flashlight tool is not working on your iPhone. Some of these causes are:
Step 1: The most common reason is that the flashlight app has been disabled on your phone.
Step 2: Battery Power: If your battery power is low, the flashlight will not work because the battery can not power the flashlight feature on your phone.
Step 3: There is water damage to the phone that has affected its internal parts.
Step 4: The iPhone's brightness is set to low.
Step 5: The flashlight app itself may be malfunctioning. To test this, try another app that uses the camera flash (like Camera) to see if that works. The problem is likely with the flashlight app itself and not your iPhone's hardware or software if it does.
Here are a few simple steps you can take to fix the issue.
1. Check Your Settings
If your iPhone flashlight is not working, you may have a software issue. Check your settings first. You might have accidentally turned off the flashlight in your phone or changed the settings to make it unavailable.
The first step to troubleshooting is to check your iPhone's settings. To do this, navigate to Settings > General > Accessibility >AssistiveTouch and turn on AssistiveTouch (if it isn't already). Then tap on Device > Flashlight and ensure it's turned on. If it is, try turning it off and then back on again. This should resolve any issues with the feature working correctly on your device.
2. Check Your Battery Levels
If your iPhone's battery level is low or depleted, it may not be able to power the LED flash fully when you want to use it as a flashlight. Ensure that your device has at least 20% of its battery life left before attempting to use its LED flash feature as a light source.
3. Check iPhone Overheating
This is one of the most common problems that can cause your iPhone flashlight not to work. If your iPhone is overheating, you will see a red exclamation mark on the screen, and the device will shut down. The reason why this happens is that added heat can damage some components inside your device.
To fix this issue, you need to let your phone cool down before turning it back on again. You can also use a fan or place it under a stream of cold water to get rid of excess heat. But make sure not to use too much force as this may damage some internal parts of your phone.
4. Check for an update
Using an older version of iOS or any other software update may cause issues with how your iPhone functions, including its flashlight feature. To fix this issue, go to settings > general > software update > download and install any available updates related to your device software.
5. Restart your iPhone
If your iPhone flashlight is not working correctly and nothing else seems wrong with it, restarting your device may help solve the problem. Press and hold down both Sleep/Wake Button and Home Button for about 10 seconds until an Apple logo appears on the screen, then release both buttons. This will restart your device without having to go through DFU mode or restore from backup, which can take quite some time depending on how much data needs to be synced up after every reboot
7. Hard Reset iPhone
If facing this problem, you must hard reset your device first. Press and hold down the Home button with the power button for 10 seconds or until your phone reboots. Let go of both buttons and wait ten seconds for your phone to reboot. When your phone boots up, all your data will be erased, but it is recommended that you back up everything before doing this step.
8. Close the Camera App
Close the Camera app on your iPhone to ensure it doesn't consume resources and prevent your flashlight from working. This is a common reason why the flashlight does not work on iPhones.
9. Close All Apps in the Background
You can also close all apps running in the background to prevent them from consuming resources and prevent your flashlight from working. You can do this by double tapping on the Home button, swiping up all open apps with two fingers, and then tapping on the red minus sign next to each app to close it completely.
10. Change Your Control Center Settings
To do this, go to Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls. Here you can change what appears on your screen when you swipe up from the bottom, including the flashlight button. You can also add different controls, such as an additional switch, music player controls, and more. Once these changes have been made, try using your flash again.
Conclusion
The flashlight problem is a minor issue, but it can be a little annoying when the flashlight on your iPhone doesn't want to come on. Start by trying the most straightforward fixes, like checking if the flashlight app is enabled, checking battery levels, and restarting the phone before hard resetting your device. Are you still stuck on getting the flashlight working on your iPhone? Contact a certified Apple devices technician for further troubleshooting.
