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Why Can’t I Pull Down My Notification Bar iPhone?

By: Author Jason Kendell

Why Can’t I Pull Down My Notification Bar iPhone?

Every iPhone model has a notification center that you can access using the swipe down gesture from the top of the screen. Sometimes, however, issues can prevent you from pulling down your notification bar.

If you’re unable to access the notification bar, you may have disabled the notification center on the lock screen. You may also be experiencing a temporary system issue that can be resolved with a simple restart or a force restart.

Let’s look into how to fix the notification bar on your iPhone. 

Why can’t I pull my notification bar down on my iPhone?

Notification bar is turned on by default on the iPhone both on the lock and unlocked screen. If you can’t pull down your notification bar, here are a few reasons that may be causing the issue:

1. Disabled notification center

If you can’t pull down your notification bar on your iPhone, your notification center may be disabled.

Although you do have the option of enabling the notification center on the lock screen, there is no option to enable/disable it on the UNLOCKED phone. 

See the next section for how to enable notification bar access on the lock screen.

2. A temporary system issue

A temporary glitch may prevent you from pulling down the notification bar. It may be caused by an iOS issue, a recent update, or a system application.

  1. Wrong gesture to open notification center

If you’ve been using iPhones for some time, you may be used to opening the notification center by swiping the screen from top to bottom. However, it doesn’t work the same on the lock screen.

To access the notification center on your iPhone lock screen, you need to swipe in the middle of the screen. Some users are in the habit of swiping it down so accessing the notifications on the lock screen might feel unintuitive.

How do I fix the notification bar on my iPhone?

Try the following to fix the notification bar on your iPhone:

1. Allow notification access when the iPhone is locked

Check your settings to see if the notification center is enabled on your lock screen. If it is not, turn it on and see if it resolves the issue.

To turn on notification center within the locked screen:

  1. Open “Settings” > “Touch ID & Passcode” (for iPhones with a home button) or “Face ID & Passcode” (for iPhones with Face ID).
  2. Scroll down to the section “Allow access when locked”.
  3. Turn on “Notification Center”.

After turning it on, you should now be able to access the notification bar on your lock screen as well. Just swipe in the middle of the lock screen to view your notifications.

2. Restart your iPhone

Restarting your phone is often an easy way to fix the notification bar:

  1. Press and hold the power button on your iPhone.
  2. A “Slide to power off” option appears.
  3. Slide the slider from left to right to switch off your phone.
  4. Wait a minute or two and then turn it back on by pressing and holding the power button.
  5. The Apple logo appears and your iPhone restarts.

After restarting your device, pull down your notification bar and see if it is working. Trying accessing the notification center on your lock screen as well.

3. Reset settings

Notification bar access issues sometimes get fixed with a reset. To reset your iPhone settings:

  1. Open “Settings” > “General”.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom and tap on “Reset”.
  3. Tap on “Reset All Settings”

Check if your notification bar works normally again.

How do you lock swipe down on an iPhone?

If you are playing games on your iPhone, the swipe down feature can get in the way of some game gestures. 

There is no option on the iPhone to lock the swipe down feature. However, one workaround is to enable “Guided Access”. Guided access restricts the use of your phone by locking the screen to the current app. 

By default, with guided access enabled, you will not receive notifications, your swipe gestures will be disabled, and you won’t be able to use the side buttons.

However, you can modify the guided access options to customize it. Here’s how to enable guided access:

  1. Open “Settings” > “Accessibility”.
  2. Scroll down and tap on “Guided Access” under the “General” section.
  3. Toggle on “Guided Access”

To start a guided access session on your phone,

  • Triple press the home button for iPhone 8 series.
  • Triple press the power button for iPhone X and later.

You can also modify the guided access settings by triple pressing the home button (for iPhone 8 series) or triple pressing the side button (for iPhone X and later).

You can enable/disable touch, volume buttons, keyboard, sleep/wake button, etc. You can also end the guided access session from this menu.

Why is my notification bar stuck halfway down my screen?

If the notification bar is stuck halfway down your iPhone screen, it is likely due to a system glitch. Try one of these methods to resolve the issue:

1. Force restart your iPhone

Simple restart may not work in this situation as the “slide to power off” slider may bring down the notification bar so you may not access it to shut down your phone. If that’s the case, you can try force restarting your iPhone.

Force restart stops all running processes and restarts the phone. As a result, if a process is hindering proper functioning of the notification center, that process will be ended with a force start.

  • To force restart iPhones with Face ID, iPhone series 8 and SE (2nd generation):
  1. Quickly press and release the volume up button
  2. Quickly press and release the volume down button
  3. Press and hold the power button until the Apple logo appears.
  • To force restart iPhone series 7:
  1. Press and hold the volume button and power button at the same time.
  2. Release both buttons when the Apple logo appears.
  • To force restart iPhone series 6 and SE(1st generation):
  1. Press and hold the power button and home button at the same time.
  2. Release both buttons when the Apple logo appears.

2. Reset settings

Resetting your iPhone settings can fix the stuck notification bar. This approach is only applicable if you’re still able to use your phone even with the notification bar stuck on your screen.

See the section “Reset Settings” earlier for how to reset your iPhone settings.

3. Use third party software to send iPhone to recovery mode

If none of the above methods work for you, try putting your phone in recovery mode using  ReiBoot – download the tool on your PC, then connect your iPhone to the PC.

This software will put your iPhone to recovery mode and then restart it. When the phone restarts, exit recovery mode on your PC. Your phone should now be back to normal.

Why can I slide my iPhone screen down?

The iPhone feature called “Reachability” allows you to slide the screen to bring items that are on the top half of the screen down to the middle of the screen using a single hand.

This feature is designed for users not used to large screens and helps them use a large iPhone with one hand.

Read on for how to prevent this screen behavior.

How do I get rid of half screen on iPhone?

The half screen on the iPhone results from the “Reachability” feature as explained in the previous section. If you want to get rid of this half screen on your iPhone, you need to disable “Reachability” from settings:

  1. Open “Settings” > “Accessibility”.
  2. Scroll down and tap “Touch”.
  3. Toggle off “Reachability”

How do I remove the notification bar from the lock screen on my iPhone?

If you want to remove the notification bar from the lock screen of your iPhone, you need to disable it as follows:

  1. Open “Settings” > “Touch ID & Passcode” (for iPhones with a home button) or “Face ID & Passcode” (for iPhones with Face ID).
  2. Scroll down to the section “Allow access when locked”.
  3. Turn off “Notification Center”.

The notification bar will no longer appear on your lock screen when swiped.

Why can’t I swipe up to access the control center on my iPhone?

By default, control center is enabled with a swipe up gesture on iPhones. If you can’t access the control center with a swipe up gesture, it has probably been disabled from the settings.

1. Allow access to control center within apps

If you can’t access the control center on your iPhone with a swipe up within apps, the control center may have been disabled.  To enable control center access within apps:

  1. Open “Settings” > “Control Center”.
  2. Toggle on “Access within apps”.

You will now be able to access the control center with a swipe gesture within apps.

2. Allow access to control center on the lock screen

If you can’t access the control center with a swipe up gesture on your lock screen, make sure the option is enabled.

  1. Open “Settings” > “Touch ID & Passcode” (for iPhones with a home button) or “Face ID & Passcode” (for iPhones with Face ID).
  2. Scroll down to the section “Allow access when locked”.
  3. Toggle on “Control Center”.

You should now be able to access the control center on the lock screen as well.