10 Tips to Fix iPhone Control Center Won't Swipe Up/Down

User Concern

“Why won't my Control Center pull down on my iPhone 16 on iOS 18? When I swipe down from the top right on the home screen, it brings up Siri Suggests instead of Control Center. How can I fix this?”

The Control Center is an important aspect of your iPhone or iPad, making it easy for you to access WiFi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb, Apple TV remote, QR scanner and other controls in one place.

Normally, you can swipe on the iPhone or iPad screen to access the Control Center quickly. However, sometimes you may be unable to open it when swiping up or down on the screen.

We understand how distressing it can be when the Control Center doesn't work correctly. In this article, we are going to explain why Control Cneter is not working on your iPhone/iPad and what you can do to fix the problem with ease.

How to Access Control Center on Your iPhone?

As we mentioned above, you can easily access Control Center from any screen on your iPhone or iPad, even you're in an app, watching videos or palying games.

If you're using an iPhone X or newer models, just swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open Control Center. If you're using iPhone 8 or older models, you can open it by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

Why Is My iPhone Swipe Up Not Working?

Before we get to the various solutions you can try when iPhone Control Center won't swipe up or down, it is important to understand why this can happen. This will help you avoid the problem in the future and select an appropriate solution.

• There are some incorrect settings on your iPhone or iPad, like problematic options in the swipe-up menu that could crash the swiping feature.
• A broken touchscreen sensor can cause problems and prevent you from being able to swipe up or down properly.
• The Control Center may stop working properly if an iOS update fails to install on your iPhone.
• It is also possible that the iPhone itself has software glitches that preventing you from opening the Control Center.
• You may also experience this issue on an iPhone that is running low on memory as well.

How to Fix iPhone Control Center Won't Swipe Up or Down

The following solutions are useful when the Control Center won't open on your iPhone or iPad:

1. Enable Control Center on Lock Screen

If the iPhone Control Center won't swipe up from the lock screen only, you need to check if you have enabled it for the lock screen. Here's how:

• Open Settings and then click on "Touch ID & Passcode". Then enter your passcode.
• Ensure that the "Control Center" is turned on under the option of "Allow Access When Locked".

2. Enable Access within Apps

You could also try accessing Control Center from "within an app". But you must first enable this option. Here's how to do it:

• Open Settings on your iPhone.
• Tap on "Control Center" and turn on "Access within Apps".

3. Clean the iPhone Screen

There may be too much dust on the surface of your iPhone if you haven't cleaned the device for a very long time. You can clean the surface of the device with a dry and clean cloth.

4. Take Off Phone Case or Screen Protector

There are some incompatible phone cases and screen protectors that can cause issues with the iPhone screen including Control Center not working problems. Therefore you can try to remove the case, the protector or both them and check if the Control Center issue is resolved.

5. Turn Off VoiceOver

You can also fix this Control Center won't swipe up or down issue by turning off "VoiceOver". To do that, follow these simple steps:

• Open Settings and tap on "General".
• Hit on "Accessibility" and turn off "Voice Over".
• Return to the Home screen and swipe up/down to see if you can access the Control Center.

6. Restart/Force Restart iPhone

Restarting your device may help to eliminate some of the settings that are causing the iPhone Control Center not working issue. Here's how to restart your iPhone:

• For iPhones without Home Button - Press and hold the Power and Volume Down button until the slider appears. Drag the slider to turn off the device, then press and hold the Power button again until you see the Apple Logo.
• For iPhones with Home Button - Press and hold the Power button until the slider appears. Drag the slider to turn off the device and press the power button again until the device restarts.

If simple restarting the device doesn't work, you should try to force restart it. Here's how to do that for the various iPhone models:

• For iPhone 8 or later - Press and quickly release the Volume Up button and do the same with the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Power button until the device restarts.

• For iPhone 7 and 7 Plus - Press and hold the Power and the Volume Down buttons simultaneously until the device restarts and you see the Apple Logo.

• For iPhone 6 and earlier - Press and hold the Home and Power buttons together until you see the Apple logo appears on the screen.

7. Reset the Control Center Items

There may be some items on the Control Center itself that could be preventing it from swiping up or down. Resetting the Control Center items may therefore fix the device. Here's how to do it:

• Go to Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls.
• Look for the unresponsive control in the "Include" section and remove it.

Once you've removed the problematic control, the Control Center should work.

8. Reset All Settings on iPhone

Resetting all settings may work to fix this iPhone Control Center not working issue because it will remove all preference settings including those that may be causing the iPhone Control Center to malfunction. Here's how to do that:

• Open Settings and then tap on "General".
• Tap "Reset > Reset All Settings". Then enter the passcode when prompted.

When the device restarts, check to see if the iPhone Control Center can be opened normally.

9. Restore iPhone via iTunes (Data Loss)

If you have tried all these methods above and the Control Center is still not working on your iPhone, you can try to restore the device via iTunes. Before doing that, you should make a backup of your iPhone or iPad as the restoring process will erase all data on the device.

• Connect your iPhone to the computer via USB cable and launch iTunes.
• Click on the device icon when iTunes detects the iPhone, and then tap on "Restore iPhone".

10. Fix iPhone Control Center Won't Swipe Up without Data Loss

Some settings can damage your iOS system and you may need a tool that helps to fix the swipe up not working on iPhone issue. Lucky for you, we have FoneGeek iOS System Recovery. This tool is designed to fix this issue and any other iOS issues, such as iPhone stuck on white screen with black Apple logo, iOS upgrade stuck on Recovery Mode without causing data loss.

It is easy to use and has a 100% success rate for repairing all system issues. Plus, this tools works well on all iPhone models and iOS versions, including iPhone 16/15/14 and iOS 18/17/16. And this program is highly recommended by CNET, Software.Informer, Filehorse, GetDroidTips, Lera Blog and many other media sites.

To fix this iPhone Control Center won't swipe up issue without data loss, follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Download, install and run the program on your computer. Select "Standard Mode" and then connect your iPhone to the computer using USB cable.

Step 2: Follow the on-screen instructions to put the device in DFU/recovery mode. The program will detect it and offer a firmware suitable for the device. Click on "Download" to download the firmware.

Step 3: When the firmware download is complete, click on "Fix Now" and the device will begin repairing the device. Keep the device connected to the computer until the process is complete.

The device will restart when the process is complete and the problem should be fixed. You can check the positive reviews of FoneGeek iOS System Recovery from our purchased users here:

FAQs about the Control Center on iPhone

Q1. How do you get Control Center on iPhone without swiping?

You can bypass swiping to open Control Center on iPhone via Assistive Touch. Pressing the Power button for 3 times to activate Assistive Touch feature. Then click on Assistive Touch icon and tap on "Control Center" to get Control Center on iPhone.

Q2. How do add buttons to Control Center on iPhone?

Go to iPhone Settings and click on "Control Center" option. You can see several features under the "More Control" option. Hit the green "+" icon to add buttons to the Control Center.

Conclusion

Try the solutions above one after the other until one of them works. You can use the comments section below to let us know if you were able to fix the iPhone/iPad Control Center won't swipe up problem. Questions on this and any other topic are also welcome and we'll do our best to help.