iPhone 3.1 Bugs: Got Random Freeze or Shut Down?
Post one bug, and everyone demands you post another even more frustrating one. Our bad, should have had this up already. Seems iPhone 3.1 users, mostly iPhone 3G users from what we can make out, are experiencing random freezes and complete shutdowns of their iPhones, and nothing, not reboots, not restores are fixing it.
TiPb did hear a few accounts of freezes during the 3.1 beta on all versions of the iPhone, but that's the point of betas -- to identify and fix bugs before the software goes primetime.
Seemingly random, intermittent bugs, however, can be some of the toughest to figure out, especially for users, so if you're suffering from randomly freezing or shutting-down iPhones, let us know which device, and any pertinent details like clean 3.1 install, restore from backup, etc. and if you've stumbled onto any fixes of the more-than-temporary variety, please do share.
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Same as above, though I want to say two issues.
The freezing problem, which is just annoying, though it doesn't freeze up during a phone call. Well it doesn't hang up at least for me and I make long phone calls.
The battery life is definitely shorter.
Have an iphone 3gs and a 3g, updated both to 3.1 and the 3G is having these frozen problems, my 3GS works fine....I thought it was only me....hope they fix it soon..
32GB 3GS here. After the 3.1 update over the weekend, I had two instances where the phone/data stops working. The phone does not freeze, but I can't make/receive calls nor can I send/receive data. A reboot solves the problem. Had absolutely no problems before the update.
Like I said earlier in this thread, it's the hardware. The 3G simply isn't capable of handling OS's 3.0 and above. It's the equivalent of running Windows Vista Premium on a low spec PC, we all know how that turned out.
My 3G 8GB iPhone has been shutting down/crashing on average 3 times a day since the very moment I updated to 3.1. Battery is not as good as before. iPhone is warmer than before.
I cannot trust my iPhone anymore and Apple seems to be doing nothing.
This has happened to me twice in a week so far. I literally set my phone down and hit the power button to close it. Pick it up no more than 2 minutes later and its shutdown. Hafta hold Power button and the Home button. It's a bummer honestly. My wifes iPhone is freezing a lot and rebooting since 3.1.
I am using 8GB 3G. Once the safari froze but this is not my main issue. The biggest problem I have is that some of the covers in albums list do not show. they show in cover flow mode and when i am playing music. this is only a problem in vertical album list view. Anyone experienced this by any chance?
The battery life is a little bit shorter. I don't have big change. My 3g and wifi always on
3GS semi-bricked 2x now. Both times, it just restarted after 5-6 minutes.
8GB 3G - I was having no problems with 3.0. It was working really well actually. Immediately after 3.1 update I started having random shut downs/freezes. Sometimes if I wait long enough, it just unfreezes itself. But most of the time I have to do a full reboot and it works again. I read a couple of articles saying it may have something to do with WiFi so I started turning off Wifi. It's only happened once or twice since I started doing that. Still it's super frustrating. And I'm mad that Apple has blocked the ability to downgrade back to 3.0. Next time I won't be so quick to upgrade
This is enough for me to wait for 3.1.1 And I was upgrading today. phew.
I figured this was a 3.1 problem. It never happened before the up-grade. I can get my 3G to lock-up at will. All that I need to do is take it off of the charger (USB or wall) and let if go to sleep. It will not come out of sleep. After a reset it is OK until I charge it again.
Installed 3.1 last week on my 8GB 3G...since, locks-up 2-3 times a day on a good day - 5-7 on a bad day. Have to do the double-button reboot. Never had this problem until update to 3.1. Surprised no software update yet...WiFi on, but not always connected when this happens
Thanks, I thought I am alone. After installing 3.1 on my 3G, the phone started to just freeze and shut-down randomly. I thought perhaps it's one of the apps running but no. I had to call Apple and tell me to do a "hard reset" by turning the phone off, which I obviously do all the time and but the glitch is still persistent.
iPhone 3G, OS 3.1 upgraded from 3.1b3. Had this problem when I first installed the beta, and it keeps happening. Seems to happen sometimes when I get text messages, but just now I was talking on the phone, got a dropped signal, then the phone went to sleep and is apparently off. I plug it into iTunes and XCode and never see a crash report. Gotta try to restart it now.
I have never had my phone freeze. I installed software 3.1 now it freezes all time. I thought maybe my phone was broken but now I can see it is the software update. I hope they fix this. I also use my phone as a alarm it use to be very realiable now I cant trust it and I have to use another alarm.
Yes , my iPhone 3G randomly shutsdown , freezes . More shutdowns then freezes . This is bad on apples part, when it shutdown for no reason i had my wife call me and it was in fact shutdown and the call did not wake it . This is crazy of all things an update that makes the iPHONE not take calls bc it randomly shuts off. Unacceptable and this should be a seriouse run to fix it situation . if my wife needs me my iPHONE better not be shut off without me knowing . it's not only a annoying bug but in an emergancy I can't wait 5 mins for my iPhone to boot up because apple is sitting back and ot sling anything about this bug. After 2 years This one really makes no sense . Should be fixed right away -- this makes apple look like Microsoft .
Add me to the list...My 3G after updating also has 1.) Frozen and 2.) randomly restarted....ughhhhh....fix please!
I have 3G, freezes a few times since 3.1 install. Also, an annoying thing since then was my yahoo mails...after I read or delete a mail, it sometimes re-appear as new.
I have had no issues with freezing or having to reboot.
Wow glad I'm not the only one going crazy from this problem. Have the 3G and it happens all the time, even if I just check the time and don't unlock the next time I go to use the iPhone it has been dead; reboot required. I've restores as new and not run any 3rd party apps for 2 days and it still happens. It is the 3.1 update for sure.
I had the shutting down problem, as well as a problem with the phone switching back and forth from the E to 3G network over and over with the phone not moving, this is at home where I have never seen the E network symbol for as long as I have had my 3G. Another problem I was experiencing was loss of carrier signal it just fluctuated up and down all day long after the upgrade. What I did was this I did a complete clean restore of 3.1 no backup (most of mine had jailbreak info in them) after restore did a sync to update all contacts and info. After I did the restore I have had full 5 bars with carrier signal 98 percent of the time no shutdowns and so far only the 3G network symbol. I did all this last night around 7 so let's see if it's a permanent fix so far so good.
Same problem here, but only on the 3G. Installed 3.1 and now it goes into a coma 3-4 times per day. Tried every idea I could to no avail. Finally downgraded OS back to 3.0.1 and haven't had a single problem since. However, I upgraded my OS on the 3GS to 3.1 and have no such issues at all on it. Seems as though it is hardware related since it rarely, if ever, happens to anyone on the 3GS.
Similar symptoms as everybody else here since upgrading to 3.1. The phone will sometimes be not wakable from locked until, and sometimes an application (typically Safari) will hang. In both cases, a force reboot is required. I also have had calls/texts/push notifications not come for hours, and then flood me upon a (hard or soft) reboot.
Same here. Mine crashes about once a day. No pattern or recipe that I can identify. I've also had the Mail app die on me quite a few times since installing 3.1.
I'm holding off on updating my wife's phone until we see a fix for this.
Add me to the list!
3.1 upgrade to my 3g 16 gb and now I get 4-5 random lock ups a day.
I have an iPhone 3G and since 3.1 it randomly shuts down about twice a day.
I do a hard reset by holding the power and center buttons and it reboots.
This has been frustrating me as well. It seemed like maybe it had to do with the mute switch but I'm not sure. It just happend right now and i noticed my iPhone was warm, as if it had been using up a lot of battery. It's been happening since I did the upgrade (happened within minutes after i first upgraded).
EVer since update to 3.1, I have maybe half a dozen times a day a complete apparent lockup. iphone will not wake up. If I wait long enough, then I can press power button or home button to wake up.
No problems here.
Apple get your S*** together this is getting old every release of os or software theres a problem. Dont make me switch to Microsoft everything...... you monkeys
no random freezes that ive noticed, but my iphone has shut down atleast 3 times since ive updated.. i thought it was just my phone at first, but im glad to hear its not just my problem, which means apple will probably have an update out soon enough to fix it (maybe along with the Sept 25th MMS drop date)
Happens to me about twice a day. Usually upon performing a hard reset and typing in my passcode, I get an instant email. It may be a coincidence, or perhaps MobileMe/Mail related. I have a 16GB 3G with 3.1 installed.
I know this is probably a dumb question, but how do you revert to 3.0.1 ?
This has been happening to since I updated to 3.1. All I have to do is reset my phone and everything seems fine but it will shut down multiple times through out the day.
I was listening to my music and my iPhone 3GS running 3.1 just randomly shut down
I have been having intermittent shutdown problem 3 times a day. How can I got back to the previous version?
Same issues here. I believe I updated to 3.1 on Sunday and since then, I've had to somehow get the phone to reboot anywhere between 3-5 times. It seems like at least once a day and it has to be a 3.1-related issue. It certainly never happened before. This is kind of reminding me of my old Blackberry Curve... come on Apple - get it together... I love my phone, but I use it as a work phone, so it needs to function 100% of the time, not 99.9%.
More precisely, it would not wake up from standby. I have a 3G.
I'm definitely getting random freezes and it won't wake up from standby for periods of time that range from a few seconds to an hour or so. I've been able to wake it up by calling it, once or twice though.
Battery life is shorter too. I'm really regreting going to 3.1 so far.
3g here. Updated earlier this week. Battery seems to drain a bit faster but not too noticeable. Only had one freeze where the home button would not turn on the screen. After several minutes of holding down the home button and/or the power button, the phone came back without a reboot.
Like most - I thought it was due to my phone abuse... I had some shutdowns on 3.0 but now on 3.1 it's happening a lot.. 3g 16gb model.
My iphone 3G freezes randomly about 2 times a day since OS 3.1. It reboots (without PIN request) when pressing on/off and home botton for 15 seconds or by random too. Horror!!! APPLE PLEASE DO FIX THIS FUCKING BUG!!! I was in the Apple store in Zuerich and they didn't know about this problem, but the other customers did. Kind regards!
my iphone 3g shuts down randomly. to power it I need to hold for few seconds home and sleep buttons
No solve with reset and backup restore
Same deal... 3G user. Experienced numerous shutdowns and comas every day since the update. This is unacceptable software behavior. I simply cannot have a phone that I can't trust and depend on. This has cost me to lost money and customers from my business. I've never jailbroken the phone, haven't even downloaded any apps at all. This is bulls*it. Smells like the beginning of a class action law suit...
@Karen:
It is possible, but its not pretty. http://jaxov.com/2009/09/revert-back-from-iphone-firmware-3-1-to-firmware-3-0-1/
The above reversion leaves you running the 3.1 baseband and the 3.0 (or 3.0.1) OS, but it solves the coma problem.
If you can suffer thru the coma syndrome for a while, I would expect that a fix will be coming from Apple in a few weeks. I'd be tempted to live with it for the duration.
You can hurry that along by sending links to this story and the Apple discussions thread to the Mainstream Press.
3G user, never had a problem with the phone until 3.1. My problem is different, when I drive to a new geographic area I have no service until I reboot the phone. My screen may say full bars and 3G but I cannot send or recieve texts, calls, or connect to the internet. I generally change geographic areas 2 or 3 times a day and this is a major hassle.
Well thank god for jailbreaking. I have been waiting to upgrade to 3.1, only because my 3GS is jailbroken. Otherwise I'd have upgraded already. Now I'm glad to have something holding me back from jumping in too soon on these upgrades. I'll sit tight until 3.1.1, and redsn0w.
Same problems with 3.1 freezes here to... :-/
On the first charge after the 3.1 update, my iPhone got Really Hot, more so than I've ever noticed before. The first shutdown came about 10 minutes later, and nothing would make it come on for nearly an hour. Since then, I've had a daily shutdown, but it reboots if I hold both buttons down to reset. Very frustrating, as I don't do anything in particular to shut it off. I never had this problem once before 3.1.
My 3GS after 3.1 randomly started freezing up to the point I have to restart the whole phone to get it to work again. Ive had dropped calls since I bought the phone so I took it in and got a new phone last night and today once again, FREEZE crash restart. So its not just limited to 3G phones. Now my 2G phone works no problem on it, but today its screen decided to die in once place toward the top. So now I cant email as the touch area for the To: is no longer responsive yet the rest of the screen works fine.
Since updating to 3.1, I have been experiencing the same issues, the phone goes to sleep mode and will not wake up from it. My girlfriends iPhone is also having the same issues.
I have the same problem and it is so infuriating! Can have full bars and not be able to make a call or get calls. Also no texts, no VVM, data. Only way to "fix" it is reboot. I have to reboot almost everytime I go to use the phone. Many times a day ever since upgrading to 3.1. I have missed dozens of calls and only get the messages after a reboot. Unacceptable! Apple has really screwed us by not only releasing this but not allowing us to downgrade to the previous version. Atleast that way we could have a usefull device. Come on apple, fix this!
Same here. Random lock ups. Esp. when going into standby while third party apps are running. Battery life is horrible. iPhone 3G with 3.1
Has happened to me almost daily since 3.1. Never happened before. Keeps happening to me at the worst possible times.
I have a 8gb 3g. Since upgrading to OS 3.1, I haven't experienced any freezes where I had to reboot, but a really bad lag (4-5 seconds) after pressing the home button to wake it or sliding to unlock it. Also, very laggy when trying to open apps or making a selection with the touch screen. It does seem like a memory issue, which Dragonfly posited earlier.
One thing that seems to have helped was turning off notifications. Plus, it doesn't seem to like it if the phone goes to sleep with an app running. I try to hit the home button before turning it off.
I have also had this issue. I am glad to read that it is a software issue and not because I dropped it the other day. Mine turns off about twice a day and I have to reboot! Hopefully a fix will come soon! I have also noticed my battery life has not been as good.
I have a 3g 16GB running 3.1, and it has been randomly been shutting down completely. I have to hold down the Power Button and Home Button simultaneously to get the phone to restart, once the Apple symbol appears on my screen, I release both buttons and it boots up fine (until the next crash). Only been happening since my 3.1 upgrade, never happened before...
This is why I NEVER update immediately! I always wait about a week and see what everyone else is experiencing and dive in if it's cool. But seeing that there are widespread problems with OS 3.1, I'll be sticking to OS 3.0 and my MMS which I've had working since April!
iphone 3G, upgrade from 3.0.1 to 3.1 Random shutdown and battery drain.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/17/iphoneupdateproblems/
Finally. Some press on this issue. Maybe the register will embarrass the US press into covering this issue!
Drat. Underscores strike again the link for the above is: http://tinyurl.com/n5y3d2
Today I experienced a totally random shut down. Thought it had bricked. 20 minutes later I was able to restart it and it acted like nothing was wrong. That NEVER happened before 3.1.
I've had the iPhone for two weeks. Worked fine for about three days, then it started to randomly shut off. I have a pregnant wife who's 8 months at home so I cannot afford to miss her calls when it's time. Happened 5 times last week. Took it to the Apple store last Saturday and they uploaded clean software. Since then it not only keeps shutting down, when I open up the iPod, it shows that I have no songs or videos, yet when I go to the "About" section it shows that most of my memory is taken. I'm VERY disappointed with this POS. Today I put my SIM card back on my BlackBerry (and I realized how much I missed my CrackBerry) and this iPhone is going back!
my says called failed everytime
I have 3gs 16gig with 3.1. A few times a day if I try to make a call it will show making a call but never dials. So I have to shut it down then back on and then it will dial. So frustrating. Internet is the same issue. It starts browser but never loads a page. If i restart the phone it will then procede normally.
I have had to restore twice as a result of my 16GB 3G freezing up, shutting down and not turning back on. I'm glad this isn't just me having an issue, hopefully it will be corrected soon.
Iphone 3g 16gb. Freezing and is very very hot.
iphone 3g. After 3.1 update many random crashes a day. After restore I realize the only date I could restore was a year ago. the other files are un openable. Still crashes many times a day. I noticed when screen was blacked out I could take pictures or at least hear the camera shutter but not every time. I made the double tap go to favorites instead of camera to see if that helped .. still crashes but I cant hear the shutter. hard resetting like 4 to 6 times day. lost a year of voice notes and music ideas.
No freezing or random shutdowns. But as soon as I upgraded I started losing carrier signal even though I had 5 bars. Outgoing calls would wait 3 minutes trying to connect then call would cancel. Only way to fix it was to restart the phone. Apple Support told me to get AT&T to replace the SIM card and this seems to have worked (over 24 hours without recurrence).
I am experiencing some failed calls. Also I charged the phone for over 2 hours and the phone showed the battery only 2/3 charged. But after a restart battery meter went to 100%.
iPhone 3G / 16mb / AT&T / Not jailbroken
Had this happen to me for the first time today. iPhone 3G 16GB. Was running the StockWatch app when the screen blanked and clicking the off/on button had no effect. Luckily, was able to get it back to life by power cycling (power + home buttons), though it only worked after I tried that after about 2 minutes of waiting.
I have about 160 apps installed.
I think I might need to start taking the advice of those who have posted above and start treating each software update like all other operating systems and wait a week or so before updating to see if anyone is having any issues. Previous to this the software updates have been fine.
My 3G has been unstable and freezes at least 3 times per day now since upgrading to 3.1. I never want to hear any Apple fan boys complain about Windows crashes anymore. I promise you my Windows 7 laptop is waaaaaaaaaaay more stable than my phone is now!!!!
Yes I am also going through all of the above. I called AT&T support and they are totally clueless. I'm stupid for even thinking they might have a idea of whats going on with 3.1 issues. Good way to waste 30 minutes, next time I'll just bang my head against the wall.
iPhone 3GS won't wake from sleep...appears to be related to camera...a few times after using camera once going to sleep phone will not wake up....have to restart by holding the sleep/wake button and the home button together. At times the camera is unavailable until a restart as well.....very frustrating...anyone else with same issue?????
Wow! This problem is obviously really widespread. I have a 3gs and have had no problems, other than I can no longer find where to turn off shuffle mode.
Happening to my wife's 3G 8GB. Seems to be completely random happening during no particular operation. We have since restored the software but did also restore from a previous backup. Don't know if it has solved the problem yet.
Also seeing this since 3.1 update on 3G. Have to reset to get it to wake up.
Had this problem once so far and it was kid of weird. BAM! shutdown. In the middle of a game. And then BAM! I turned my 3G back on and it didn't happen again.... BAM!
A one owner, in as-new condition 16GB 3G iPhone and until attempting the 3.1 firmware upgrade, it used to work perfectly. It's now a brick, stuck in "recovery mode". Apple Support Centre staff have been of no help. Technical advisory docs TS1275, HT1808, HT1224 and HT1766 have all been thoroughly tried. The restore-from-recovery-mode has been attempted 5 times from 3 different computers (two iMacs and one Windows). The iPhone has now been sent for "repair" to the NZ agent, who has confirmed the phone cannot be repaired. Now we're waiting forever for Apple NZ to make a decision about what should be done, because the iPhone is unfortunately 66 days out of warranty. Not a good look Mr Jobs - particularly that it turned into a brick only after following YOUR technical advisory that the iPhone should be upgraded to v3.1 !!!!
Lol meant to say "kind of weird" and btw, it was in total randomness that this occured. I have tried setting up the same situation with all the same variables but no same outcome has occured. Could this possibly be a PNS bug? Maybe two or three push notifications arriving at the exact same time and cause mondo problemō in da iPhone??? Who knows.... Apple! BAM!
Me too. 3G. No clean install. Doesn't happen when actively using it. It goes to sleep and doesn't wake up. I'm pretty sure it's not a shutdown (turning it on doesn't work, must hard reset).
I have and Iphone 3G black my phone also shutsdown but I cant get it to boot up without pressing both buttons thus resetting the phone. I noticed this too since upgrading to 3.1. Looking forward to a fix soon too. Wish I could go back to 3.0
Ive tried restoring phone to new state and a saved state only worked for 24 hrs then back to problems.
First Issues Ive had since I bought the phone hope this is not an indicator of things to come....
WOW I was gonna upgrade tomorrow lol not anymore!!!
Confirmed here.
Just happened to me again!
Since I was busy, I just put it down and walked away. Ten minutes later I picked it up and tapped the sleep switch and it came up normally!?!?
So next time this happens to you, just give it 10 or 15 minutes and see if it recovers.
this just happened to me! i was looking to see if its common
My 3G has been freezing and locking up and all around actiung strange since 3.1. Flick scrolling through podcasts isn't smooth anymore and podcasts appear out of order often.
The other day I thought it bricked or about ten or fifteen minutes then it just came back on.
Geez that was alot of scrolling... Anyway, eveytime I open the app store I have to log in. I didn't have to do that before upgrading to 3.1. Is it something I'm doing wrong or a bug? I've logged out and logged back in already.
Been experiencing frequent moments when the phone is unresponsive once sleep mode has been activated. This takes 2 minutes until the phone becomes responsive.
One time it woke up and every time I pressed either the power or home button it would take a screen shot of the iphone. Any fixes to this yet?
freezes when trys to sync itunes 9 with iphone 3.1 have 3Gs. spent 3 plus hours at genius bar. seems to be ipone 3.1 and not itunes 9. People at apple store have no idea how to fix
OMFG!!!. - Was thinking of upgrading this weekend. Won't now. Thanks for the warning.
Yep, same here. 16GB 3G. Loses coverage constantly, reboots at random, and today showed a nifty terminal-esque screen complaining about a kernel panic, yay! DFU and a fresh reset later, I tried using web apps and NO third party apps, but made NO difference. I was running the betas and noticed the same issues... I was eagerly awaiting the "stable" update in anticipation that this would be fixed, but to no avail.
And I'm amazed safari hasn't crashed during the posting of this comment considering it crashed 5 times just through the process of reading the other 190 comments.
Between Apple and AT&T, I'm really wishing I just stayed with Sprint and my broken HTC Mogul
Same problems as everyone els on my 3G. Turned off the Safari anti-fraud preference and - fixed. At least for now. Probably worth trying since it is so easy. My phone was nearly completely frozen and barely got to the preferenace settings. Rebooted. Like new.
3.1 had been generally okay for me since install. Still had some of the UI glitchiness of 3.0 but I'd learned to live with that. Also had some issues with signal reception at home which has previously always been strong.
But this morning SMS sending kept failing. I shutdown and on reboot it just got stuck on the Apple logo. Had to hold down Home and Power button to re-reboot. Now seems okay again.
(3G 8gb on O2 UK)
Have a 8 MB 3G NOT jailbroken, and since installing 3.1 my phone has twice gone into this "coma" state. Just like everyone else, I can wake it up by holding down the power button and the home button at the same time - but I've got to hold it for quite a long time before I'll see the Apple. Once rebooted the phone works like nothing ever happened to it. I am sure Apple will have a fix for this shortly. My other concern is that this might be coming from downloading and installing the AT&T 5.1 config file so I can get MMS working early. When I first installed the 3.1 it came with the AT&T 5.0 settings. I found the link to install the 5.1 from a blog post here several days ago - since installing the 5.1 and getting MMS that's when these random shut downs have occured.
Same problem as that. Brand new out of the box, upgraded to 3.1 as part of the activation, did a sync with iTunes 9 on a mac book pro (new version) and the phone died after some random usage. Tried restoring it from a backup and it happened again. Tried restoring it as a new phone, same problem, just shuts down. Contacted Apple support (they never heard of it) so am sending the phone back. Just hope the new one comes with OS 3.0. Will not be upgrading until 3.1 is patched.
Have a 3GS. It freezes when locked. Hold down the power button and voila. Still annoying, though.
My apps don't start after a 3.1 upgrade. All default apps work, but when I try to run an installed app (any of them) they start for 2 sec and then I get dumped back to home screen. Also experience the random shutdown once.
Me, too: random shutdowns.
Since upgrading to 3.1, I've had a few crashes, but the most infuriating bug I've encountered is the schizophrenic shuffle. Shuffle decides to randomly turn off 5-10 times a day. One minute the songs are playing randomly, the next they are playing in sequential order.
Still no word from apple? Unbelievable!