Resolving iPhone Stuck on Black Screen

I’ve recently been developing an iOS app using Apple’s Xcode program. After getting it working on the iOS simulator, the next step was to get it provisioned and working on a physical device. I plugged in the iPhone, clicked ‘Run’ and the app did start to load as expected.

After a few seconds however, the app crashed (I suspect to a memory leak or similar) and the iPhone in question was just stuck on a black screen. The phone was still working in the background as it was making sounds, Siri would activate if I held the home button, and the phone would vibrate when switching it to silent mode. Nothing I tried however would show the screen again.

The Solution

Fortunately the solution was simple. By pressing and holding the power button, then pressing and holding the home button simultaneously for a few seconds, the device instantly started to reboot, this time with the screen displaying as normal.