6 Ways to Fix Your iPhone Flashlight Not Working

The simplest smartphone utilities, including your iPhone’s flashlight feature, can often fail to work properly in a pinch. Your trusty pocket torch suddenly fails to illuminate, and you find yourself fumbling in the dark. This guide provides the simple steps to troubleshoot and revive your iPhone flashlight when it’s not working.

Your iPhone’s flashlight is actually the same light used by your device’s rear-facing camera for flash photography. You can often run into a situation where the Camera app may be active in the background, preventing the flashlight from working properly. To fix this, force quit the iPhone Camera app from the app switcher:

Tip: on an Android smartphone? Learn how to turn the Android phone flashlight on and off.

Low Power Mode on your iPhone reduces performance and disables some features to save power and extend how long your iPhone remains operable. Unfortunately, your flashlight and other power-hungry features can end up on the chopping block of disabled utilities by mistake. Follow these steps to override it.

Good to know: Low Power Mode is not an iPhone-exclusive feature. In fact, you can enable Low Power Mode on your Apple Watch to optimize it for multi-day use.

Tip: it’s always a good idea to travel with a high-capacity power bank that can keep all of your gear, including your phone, powered on for days if needed.

Sometimes the easiest solutions are the most effective. When in doubt, implement the age-old tech troubleshooting tip: the reboot.

Good to know: does your iPhone have a Home button? Check out our guide on how to reset any model of iPhone or iPad.

Software glitches can cause all sorts of issues, including a dysfunctional flashlight. If the previous steps didn’t do the trick, it’s worth checking whether there’s an iOS update available:

Good to know: updating your iPhone or iPad is straightforward, but updating your AirPods firmware can be a bit more challenging.

If your flashlight continues to be stubborn, consider a full Settings reset. Your data and content will remain untouched. This step merely resets all settings to their original state, including keyboard dictionary data, network configurations, and more.

Go to “Settings -> General -> Transfer or Reset iPhone -> Reset -> Reset All Settings.” Then, try activating your flashlight again.

Tip: looking for a clean slate? Discover how to factory reset your iPhone. This will erase everything on your device, so make sure you have a backup before you proceed.

If you’ve tried all of the software-related solutions, and your flashlight is still not working, it’s possible that the problem is with the hardware itself. Check the LED flash on the back of your iPhone to see if there’s any visible damage or debris. If there is, you’ll likely need to get your iPhone repaired by visiting an Apple retail store or an Apple-authorized repair provider.

By default, you’ll see a flashlight icon at the bottom left of your Lock Screen. Press and hold this button to turn on your flashlight without unlocking your phone. This method is often faster than using the flashlight toggle in Control Center.

If you cannot use Control Center at the moment, Siri can step in. Trigger Siri by holding the Home button (or the side button on newer iPhone models), then say “Turn on the flashlight.” Alternatively, say “Hey Siri, turn on the flashlight.”

Yes. In the Control Center, a firm press (or a long-press on newer iPhone models) on the flashlight icon will bring up a brightness slider. From there, you can adjust the flashlight intensity by dragging your finger up or down.

Image credit: Unsplash. All screenshots by Sydney Butler.

Sydney Butler is a technology writer with a background in Psychology who has written for a wide variety of technology outlets including How-To-Geek, Online Tech Tips, Helpdesk Geek, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, and many more.He has 25 years of technology troubleshooting experience as a technician and user-education practitioner.

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