Comments on: Force Quit a Stuck Application on the iPhone / iPod Touch

By: Slick50

Slick50 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:30:23 +0000

worked great even with the new 4th Gen ITouch

By: Cambi

Cambi — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:54:33 +0000

Thanks worked perfect!

By: Vance

Vance — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:45:43 +0000

Thx Dave you were spot on and big help.

By: Dave M.

Dave M. — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:14:02 +0000

I don’t understand why this procedure is never reported correctly.

With OS 3.0 and higher, no matter what phone (and probably iPod touch) you have, you have to hold the sleep button down until the red “Slide to power off” slider appears, then press and hold the Home button.

My wife has the original iPhone 1G and I have the iPhone 3G. Both phones are running OS 3.1. We also have an iPod touch, but it’s not been updated to OS 3.0. On both of our iPhones, the sleep button has to be used to force quit an application.

The use of the sleep button is due to the iPhone 3GS’ Voice Control feature, but its an OS thing, not a hardware thing.

By: Jim C.

Jim C. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:21:58 +0000

Force quit on the iPhone 3GS is slightly different, since holding down the Home button for any length of time will only cause Voice Control to activate. On the 3GS you do the following with the “stuck” application still onscreen:

1. Hold down the sleep button until the red “slide to power off” slider appears (don’t swipe it)
2. Release the sleep button, but then hold down the Home button until you see the “stuck” application disappear, and returns to the App icon menu screen.

It’s one extra step over force quit on the iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod touch, but achieves the same effect for those of us with the iPhone 3GS.