Kill or exit an iPhone App that has stopped responding

If for some reason an iPhone App starts misbehaving, and doesn’t work as expected, even if you close the app and re-open it, you probably need to kill the App process rather than just exiting the app.

Prior to iPhone OS 3.0 you just had to hold the home button down for a few seconds and the App would get killed.

This method no longer works since iPhone OS 3.0 was released as holding down the home button for a few seconds now brings up the Voice Control feature.

Quit an iPhone App in OS 3.0

With the App that is causing you problems running, hold down the power button at the top of the iPhone until the ‘Slide to power off‘ message appears, release your finger as soon as it appears.

Now hold down the home button for a few seconds and the running App will close.

The Application state will have been reset and you should be able to open the troublesome App again without any problems.