I like to do things quickly on my iPhone, like play music, turn on low power mode, and access other settings in just one touch. And my iPhone’s control center is the easiest way to access all these things with just one swipe. So when I can’t customize my control center’s items, it’s a problem!
However, recently, many of our readers find that after updating, some of the control center items do not work as intended. The most common issue is that these controls seem to be frozen, and tapping on them doesn’t do a darn thing!
If you are finding unresponsive control center items on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, here are a few tips to you with the issue.
Contents
- 1 Check that Apple supports flashlight for your model iPhone or iPad
- 2 Perform a Restart or a Forced Restart of Your iPhone or iPad
- 3 How Do I Customize My Control Center?
- 4 What Do You Do When An Item In Control Center Doesn’t Work?
- 5 Not Seeing Control Center When Swiping in Apps?
- 6 How Do You Access Control Center on Your Lock Screen?
- 7 Summary
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Check that Apple supports flashlight for your model iPhone or iPad
Flashlight is available on iPhones, iPad Pros, and iPod touch (5th generation and later.)
Most older model iPads do not support the flashlight app in iOS. So you won’t find it in Control Center. That’s because many iPad models do not have an onboard LED flash which the flashlight uses.
Currently, you find flashlight on some iPad Pro models, including the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro (11-inch and 10.5-inch), and iPad Pro (9.7-inch).
Perform a Restart or a Forced Restart of Your iPhone or iPad
The first and most obvious thing to do after iOS install is to do a forced restart on your iPhone or iPad. Restarting fixes a surprising amount of problems–especially ones you notice after an update.
So let’s restart!
- On an iPad with no Home Button and iPhones X or later: press and hold the Side/Top/Power button and either volume button until the slider appears
- On an iPad or iPhone with a Home Button and iPod Touch: press and hold the Side/Top/Power button until the slider appears
- Drag the slider to turn the device off and after the device turns off, press and hold that Side/Top/Power button again until you see the Apple Logo
- With iOS 11 and above, restart using Settings > General > Shut Down
If a regular restart doesn’t help your problems, try a forced restart
- On an iPad with no Home Button and iPhones 8 or later: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and immediately release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Side/Top/Power button until the device restarts
- On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad with a Home Button, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
If the forced restart didn’t help with your specific control, the next step is to try deleting the particular control out of your settings and re-adding it back.
How Do I Customize My Control Center?
- Tap on the Settings app
- Choose Control Center
- Tap on Customize Controls
- Scroll down to More Controls
- Tap on the + sign to add an item to Control Center
- Tap on the – sign to remove an item from Control Center
Long Press for More Options
When using control center in the latest iOS, some things like WiFi, Bluetooth, Personal Hotspot, AirDrop, AirPlay, Night Shift, and others are in submenus within Control Center.
To access your flashlight intensity and these other submenus, long press (or press and hold) on a Control Center card to see these additional options.
On iPhone 6s and later, press deeply to see more controls. For an iPhone 6 or earlier, iPad, or iPod touch, press and hold to see more controls.
What Do You Do When An Item In Control Center Doesn’t Work?
If one or more of the buttons in Control Center doesn’t work when you tap it, delete and reinstall those items.
Delete an Item From Control Center
- Tap on Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls
- Find the unresponsive control in the top “INCLUDE” section
- Once you locate your control, tap on the red circle with the minus sign at the beginning of the control
- Tap on Remove to delete the control
- This process removes the control out of your control center
- Restart your iPhone and iPad
Add an Item To Control Center
- Go to Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls
- Add back the problematic control that you deleted in the prior step by pressing the green Plus (+) sign
- Swipe open Control Center
- Test and see if the item now works
Not Seeing Control Center When Swiping in Apps?
If you don’t see Control Center when swiping while in an app OR if you only see Control Center when swiping up on your Home Screen, you probably don’t have the Access Within Apps setting enabled.
Go to Settings > Control Center > and toggle ON Access Within Apps.
How Do You Access Control Center on Your Lock Screen?
You can enable or disable Control Center from showing on your Lock Screen by going to Settings > Face ID/Touch ID & Passcode and scroll to the section Allow Access When Locked.
Summary
Most of the times, the control center works without any hiccups. There are, however, times when they act slow or seem frozen.
We found that most issues with the control center were resolved via deleting and re-adding them back. This approach also worked for the various widgets that folks had problems with during previous iOS versions.
We hope this quick tip helped you with your problem. And if you’re facing other challenges with Control Center, please let us know.