So I left the phone on the counter overnight at around 50% and I didn't plug it in. The next day, the phone was dead and completely unresponsive to anything. I've already had this issue once, but without beta, and I managed to solve it by a hard reset. This time, however, the phone is completely bricked; I can't enter recovery mode, DFU mode, reset, charge, nothing. I suspect something broke when the phone was trying to update to the next beta overnight. I don't really know what to do. I want to get the phone working and off the beta, but I can't because nothing works right now.
iPhone 11PM Bricked Overnight While Running iOS 18 Beta
I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you had a backup.
Does it show any signs of life at all?
It sounds like the phone might be low on battery, since nothing works. Just checking, did you try to plug it in for a while (for example 1-3 hours) and try again?
I can't enter recovery mode, DFU mode, reset, charge, nothing.
Keep in mind when the device is in DFU mode, nothing will be displayed on the screen. You'll need to connect it to a computer, and timing is important.
You might want to check out the instructions here for recovery mode or contact Apple Support.
For recovery mode, at the last step, keep holding the power button until you see the recovery mode screen.
For DFU mode (which isn't documented in the link above), timing is really important, so it can take a few tries to get it right.
I've been charging it for the whole day with different cables, bricks, and outlets. I'm gonna leave it overnight just to be sure.
If you charged it for more than an hour already, it should be more than enough.
Nope, no signs of life at all.
Maybe there could be a hardware issue as well, for example either a power or a screen issue. When you're following these steps, you should see the Apple logo on the screen at certain points - and if you don't, it's either a hardware issue or an important part of the boot process being broken (iBoot). If it's the latter, DFU mode should still work.
Here are some detailed explanations for that, if you're interested. I'll use some technical terms here - we're on the DevForums after all 😁.
iBoot is the stage 2 bootloader that loads iOS / Recovery Mode on your iPhone. It can be changed and upgraded. I believe the Apple logo is shown during this stage.
BootROM is the stage 1 bootloader that loads iBoot or DFU.
I think DFU can't break during updates, since it's essentially Boot ROM code waiting to be recovered via USB. So if you really cannot enter it at all, it's a clue that it could be a hardware issue.