iOS 27 bug freezes iPhone screens through a swipe sequence
A gesture combination on the home screen locks the phone temporarily; a forced restart brings it back without erasing data.
Users running iOS 27 have found a software bug that freezes the iPhone temporarily, triggered by a fast series of swipes on the home screen. The trick has spread on social platforms as a prank to try on friends.
The sequence starts on the home screen: swipe down from the top-left corner as if opening Notification Centre, then, before it finishes appearing, swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Centre and close it. When it works, the phone enters a soft lock in which the camera and flashlight buttons of the lock screen stay stuck at the top of the display. Swiping between home screens stops working, some app interface elements ignore touches, and the power-off slider may not respond to a long press on the side button.
The freeze is temporary and erases nothing. A forced restart clears it: press volume up once, volume down once, then hold the side button until the Apple logo appears. The phone then restarts normally.
The bug was reproduced on other iPhones running iOS 27.0 and still appeared in the iOS 27.2 beta, which is under development. The swipe sequence sometimes has to be repeated two or three times because the timing window it needs is narrow.
