Alex Ruben
How To Eliminate Grey Circles or Dots on Your iPhone: Complete Guide
If the grey circle or dot keeps showing up on your iPhone screen, it can be pretty annoying, especially when you’re trying to focus or get things done. Usually, it’s the Assistive Touch button that gets turned on either by accident or for accessibility reasons. The good news? Turning it off is straightforward, but sometimes those settings hide just enough to make you think it’s harder than it really is. This guide walks through the quickest way to disable it, so you get your clean screen back. Because of course, iPhone has to make it a little tricky sometimes.
How to Fix the Grey Circle on iPhone
Open the Settings app and find Accessibility
This is the first step. The menu that controls all those accessibility features is where Assistive Touch lives. Usually, it’s tucked away in the main Settings, but it’s not always obvious how to get there quickly. You want to:
- Grab your iPhone, go to Settings.
- Scroll down until you find Accessibility (not Accessibility Shortcut unless you’re already familiar with it). Tap on it.
This is where Apple keeps the stuff that’s usually turned on for folks who need it, but sometimes it sneaks in even if you didn’t mean to turn it on.
Navigate to Touch settings where Assistive Touch is located
Inside Accessibility, look for Touch. It’s usually a bit lower in the list. Tap that – this is the hub for all touch-related features, including Assistive Touch.
- Locate Touch and tap it.
Here’s where you can toggle Assistive Touch on or off. If you’re already there and see the circle, this is probably the step that will fix the problem.
Turn off Assistive Touch to remove the circle
Once inside Touch, find AssistiveTouch. This is usually at the top of the menu and has a toggle switch. You’ll want to:
- Tap on AssistiveTouch. You’ll see a switch next to it.
- Slide the switch to off — it’ll turn from green to gray. On some setups, it might just flip immediately, but sometimes iOS acts quirky, and you have to toggle a couple of times or restart. Not sure why it works, but sometimes a reboot clears the cache or resets that toggle.
And that’s it. Once disabled, the annoying grey dot should disappear almost immediately. If not, give your phone a quick restart and see if it’s gone. Seriously, a restart often fixes these sneaky little bugs.
Extra Tips & Common Pitfalls
If the circle stubbornly refuses to vanish, double-check that you didn’t accidentally turn it back on because of some shortcut or app. Sometimes, if you just recently enabled any accessibility feature and didn’t fully disable it, the icon might persist. Also, check if you’ve got Accessibility Shortcut set to toggle Assistive Touch — that can cause it to reappear after a reboot. To check that:
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.
- If AssistiveTouch is selected here, tapping the side button (or whatever shortcut you set) will re-enable it. Just uncheck it if you don’t want it on.
On some iPhones, especially if you’ve used accessibility a lot, disabling it might require a second effort or even toggling the toggle a couple of times. It’s kind of weird, but that’s iOS for you—never straightforward.
Wrap-up
Getting rid of that grey circle on your iPhone is mostly just about navigating through the Accessibility settings, turning off Assistive Touch, and maybe rebooting. It’s not always obvious where everything is, especially if it’s hidden behind shortcuts or other tweaks, but once you know the path, it’s fast. Just remember: check the toggle, be aware of shortcuts, and restart if needed. Hopefully, this shaves off a few hours for someone.
Summary
- Open Settings > Accessibility.
- Go to Touch.
- Disable AssistiveTouch.
- If it still shows, restart your iPhone and check shortcuts.
Conclusion
Disabling the grey circle from the iPhone screen is usually just a handful of taps away. Sometimes, a restart or checking that the shortcut isn’t set to toggle it on accidentally makes all the difference. This isn’t always obvious at first glance, especially if you weren’t expecting it, but it’s generally a quick fix. Just remember: don’t panic if it takes a couple of tries, Apple loves to make things not as straightforward as they could be.