The Lure of the Siren Song: Or How to do a Forced Restart on the iPhone 8

Since the release of iOS11, one problem a lot of us are having is that the new Siri voices can cause our phone to go silent. Usually, the only way to get speech bak when this happens is to hit that trusty little home button and the lock screen button simultaneously for about eight slow seconds before the phone will be forced to restart. Or, that's how it was until the iPhone 8.

Last night, almost like clockwork, my new iPhone 8 Plus decided that it had been cooperative for far too long and that a Voiceover crash was long overdue. Therefore, I went through the old procedure to force the phone to restart! Nope! Not happening! Instead, when you use that key combination now, you take a photo with the camera. I tried this several times, which only meant I had several photos to go delete later. Undaunted, I decided to try something else. I decided I'd try and hold down the lock screen button while also pressing down one of the volume buttons. If that didn't work, I'd try the other volume button! Let the experiment begin!

So lock button and up volume button. The first few seconds, everything went fine. Just as I was beginning to hope, however,

WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!

Knowing of the new emergency features in iOS11, I immediately realized what was happening. In a panic, I pressed the home button as quick as I could. Thankfully, the siren stopped! At this point, instead of relaxed and nearly asleep, adrenaline is now coursing through my body and I'm thinking, "oh spit! The cops and paramedics, and maybe the fire department, are gonna show up!" After a few seconds to catch my breath and let my heart beat return to normal, I decided "what the heck! In for a penny; in for a pound." So. This time, I try the lock button and the down volume. Whew, everything is going gr--

WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!

Oh double spit!

Well, at least I'll get double the attention when the authorities show up!

Press the home button again! Siren cuts out! Apparently, there's a countdown before it actually makes the call in case of numbskulls like me!

Now I'm wide awake and straining to listen for approaching sirens. In the meantime, however, I still had a problem. How do I force my phone to restart to get speech? Sadly, I get out of bed and grab the ole laptop and fire it up. After about ten seconds typing in my question to the Google search engine, I have my answer.

So, if you have read this long-winded entry, here is the simple way to force your phone to restart. Quickly press the volume up button and release it. Then quickly press the volume down button and release that. Next, hold down the lock screen button as before for about eight slow seconds. VOILA!!! The phone will shut itself down. I am guessing this is that starting with the iPhone X there will be no home button so they had to re-design how to force restart the device.

20-30 seconds later, my phone had speech again. I shut down my laptop, laid back down, and straining my ears for sirens or stealthy footsteps from the local squat unit, I quickly and peacefully drifted off.

I hope you enjoyed my experience, but even more, I hope this helps.