T-Mobile random iPhone restart issues appear to be fixed

By Harish Jonnalagadda
published

Update: The T-Mobile iPhone crash issue appears to have been fixed. Let us know if everything is back to normal for you, or if you're still experiencing any problems.

If you're encountering random reboots on your T-Mobile iPhone, you're not the only one. Several users on social media are reporting that iPhones on the Uncarrier are flashing blue for a second, and randomly rebooting every 20 to 30 minutes. The issue doesn't appear to be limited to a particular model, with iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners mentioning that they're facing the same issue on their devices. A particular version of iOS also does not seem to be at fault, with reports of both iOS 8.1 and iOS 8.3 being affected.

According to the discussion on Apple forums (opens in new tab), it looks like the issue is caused by the Wi-Fi calling feature T-Mobile rolled out last year. Disabling Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE seem to fix the issue for a few people on the forums.

A Redditer contacted T-Mobile, with the carrier recommending the following solutions:

  • Hard restart - hold the power and home buttons down for 10 seconds until the device restarts.
  • Clear out your old text messages.
  • Do a full factory restore in iTunes, then restore from backup.

The Redditer also wrote, "the sense that I got from the technician is that a) they suspect memory problems, and b) they're getting a lot of calls about it."

Source: Apple forums (opens in new tab), Reddit; Via: MacRumors

Harish Jonnalagadda
Harish Jonnalagadda

The clumsiest man in tech.

10 Comments
  • It’s a feature….
  • Really though. Be interesting to find out what the deal is. One the one hand I’m thinking something like a carrier settings update or them doing something with cell Towers. The majority seem to be T-Mobile but it’s not limited to them.
    My 5S has been erratic lately, not that ofetn but often enough to annoyme. No reboots or blue screen but when signal gets low the call is dropped and Phone.app hangs, not allowing me to end the call. I have to select AeroPlane mode and that ends it.
  • I have three iPhones on AT&T. I never had any issues like this. Sent from the iMore App
  • Happened 4 times in a row to me yesterday on my 6. Did a hard reset and disabled wifi for the rest of the day and had no further issues. Made a wifi call for 45 minutes last night and everything seemed normal. I had my iPad handy when it was crashing and was able to catch it on video! T-mobile wifi calling has never really been that stable for but then again, neither has their network. But, the price is right and the international data can't be beat.
  • Nothing of the sort has happened to me yet. iPhone 6. Sent from the iMore App
  • I am on Verizon and I have seen Carrier Update pop-up only on my iPad Air2, nothing on my iPhone 5s. I hope this is fixed for them hopefully in 8.4. Sent from the iMore App
  • I started noticing this yesterday. I'm also getting some randomized issues calling out while the T-Mobile Wi-Fi feature is active. I assumed it was something related to that. I did a hard boot myself last night. I only noticed it because 1Password kept asking for my master password instead of my fingerprint. And later in the evening I actually viewed the blue-screen / reboot. :) So far it's been pretty good after the hard reset.
  • My iPhone 6+ on Verizon was doing this after I first got it after it launched. Getting the phone replaced stopped the long boot loops, but other short boot loops persisted until a couple of weeks ago when I did a full restore to new iPhone and downloaded my apps one by one from iCloud. Phone is running great now. Just get me the funk off Verizon! Sent from the iMore App
  • Glad it has been fixed so I won't keep getting interrupted by th
  • This was recently happening to my boyfriend's iPhone 5S. He told me around a week and a half ago that his phone was getting the BSD. I thought that was crazy because I'd never heard of such a thing. I web searched and saw that if he reset the iPhone it would stop. He really had a horrible time of it though since his Apple ID was so old that the iPhone wouldn't recognize it. He had to call Apple Support more than once and did a lot of yelling and screaming before everything was finally normal again. Sheesh!