Don’t fumble in the dark when your iPhone’s flashlight isn’t working, follow these troubleshooting tips to fix it instead.

Long gone are the days when you need to search for a flashlight in some forgotten drawer or storage box, worry whether you still have the correct batteries to turn it on, or groan in frustration when it’s not bright enough anyway. Nowadays, you can just turn to the multi-functional iPhone you have in your hand. That is, provided your iPhone’s flashlight is working.

It’s a massive hindrance when your iPhone’s flashlight stops working and you see a grayed out flashlight icon. So let’s look at the different solutions you can use to fix it.

Low Power Mode disables some features on your iPhone to conserve battery power. When it’s activated, the color of your battery level appears yellow instead of green. The Low Power Mode prompt automatically comes up when your battery percentage falls below 20 percent. If you want to save battery life, you may also choose to keep your iPhone in Low Power Mode all the time.

But your iPhone’s flashlight is often one of those features that gets disabled by this mode. To turn off Low Power Mode, go to the Settings app, select Battery, and tap to toggle off Low Power Mode.

Even after you turn off Low Power Mode, you may find that your iPhone’s flashlight still doesn’t work. This may be simply because your device doesn’t have enough battery power left to support the feature at that moment. Therefore, you should plug your iPhone into a power source and start charging it.

The flashlight feature should start working again once your iPhone has sufficient power.

When your iPhone gets too hot, the flashlight may stop working. It’s not advisable to continue using an overheating iPhone. If your device exceeds a particular temperature limit, it will eventually shut down until it cools off. You’ll also see a warning appear on screen if the temperature gets too high.

To let your device’s temperature lower down naturally, place your iPhone in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Do not attempt to put your device into the fridge, though, as this will cause damage to it. Just find somewhere that’s naturally cool and shady. Once your device cools down, your iPhone’s flashlight should start working again.

To fix the issue of your iPhone’s flashlight not working, one potential fix is to remove the flashlight option from the Control Center and then add it back again. Here’s how:

Your iPhone’s camera’s flash function uses the same light as the flashlight. If you have the Camera app opened, it’s normal to see the Control Center’s flashlight icon grayed out. This is because you can’t use both features at the same time.

To solve this, just exit the Camera app and access your Control Center again. You should see that the flashlight button can once more be selected as usual.

If you can’t turn on your iPhone’s flashlight from the Control Center, a workaround is to turn it on in the Camera app by activating the flash function. Here’s how:

To get rid of glitches that stop your iPhone’s flashlight working, you can also try turning your camera flash on and off. The steps are the same as the workaround to turn on your iPhone’s camera flash as discussed in the previous solution. But instead of leaving the Flash set to On, toggle between On and Off a few times.

iOS updates usually come with fixes for performance bugs and various glitches. So, perhaps all you need to do to fix your iPhone’s flashlight it to update your device to the latest version of iOS. Check out our guide on how to update your iPhone if you’re not sure what to do.

If the above methods don’t solve the problem and your iPhone’s flashlight still isn’t working, the next step you should try is to restarting your iPhone.

The method you need to follow varies depending on the iPhone model you have. But in general, you can go to Settings > General > Shut Down, then hold the Side button to restart your iPhone once it powers off. If you’re not sure what steps you should use, you can refer to our guide on how to restart your iPhone.

Besides updating and restarting your iPhone, you can also try restoring your iPhone to a previous backup from when the flashlight was still working as usual. However, when you use this method, keep in mind that you will also lose any new data that was added to your device since you made that backup.

If all else fails, the last solution you can attempt is to reset your iPhone’s settings. Just make sure you don’t tap Erase All Content and Settings—that would delete all the data on your device. If you don’t do that, rest assured that you won’t lose any content from your iPhone.

Take note that the reset process can take a long time, especially if you have a lot of data on your iPhone. So if you’re stuck in the dark and in urgent need of a flashlight, don’t rely on resetting your iPhone right there and then!

If your iPhone’s flashlight wasn’t working, we hope this list of fixes has helped you resolve the issue effectively. However, if the issue persists, it’s best for you to contact an Apple Authorized Service Provider. A technician will then examine your device and determine the potential hardware repairs that are needed.

Denise is a freelance writer. Her first Apple gadget was the iPhone 6, which she happily adored for 7 years. Visit her website for her portfolio and blog, where she also writes about business and social causes.

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