iPhone stuck on apple screen

I bought mine at a local O2 shop - getting to the Apple Store is a hassle - so any non-hardware replacement solution would be good. Surely this is a software problem?

Bill.

I had a similar experience - I got my phone replaced with ease.

The sad/pathetic thing however, is that it's absolutely NOT a hardware problem. It's a problem relating to a leftover bit of code from pre-2.0 software, basically a watchdog process that forcibly kills and then restarts key system functions when they are unresponsive for more than two minutes. The problem is, once you start installing too many apps, that two minute limit isn't enough - so the phone crashes. The solution is quick and easy, but cannot be discussed on the forums due to forum rules.

Hi,

I'm on my 4th iPhone replacement now because of various defects. I have had 3 black and now finally a white one, which is flawless compared to the black 16GB ones. The only reason I mention this is because the black ones all crashed on me giving me infamous silver apple and of course I ended up restoring the entire lot as the backups failed too. My white one however (touch wood), has not done it yet and I have nervously installed apps and app updates over my wifi which other than taking an age to install, all has been ok. This was since the 2.0.2 update mind, so I'm not sure if they changed something. I believe it must be a software issue although the behavior has not exhibited itself on the white one yet. We'll see....Cheers.

So now I understand the issue - too many apps causes a design fault within the OS, so (as I've discovered) cutting down to the minimum Apps is a temporary workaround - although there's no easy way to know how many is 'enough' - until of course the phone bricks again.

I can't see any point in replacing the phone (other than as a sneaky way to get new hardware), as once you start installing Apps again, the same proble will occur.

I have cut down my Apps from 30ish to 10ish and will stay away from any Wifi based updates, only via iTunes. It also appears from these posts that this is a Wifi based problem, and not an iTunes problem.

Bill.

I just had this issue yesterday - had to restore for the first time - some some information of course - but could be worse.

When I spoke to the apple rep - they told me - do not install or update app's via the phone - always do it through itunes until they come out with their fix this month (September). That is where I always ran into problems - adding or updating app's vie the phone first.

I have not tried this yet - but that is what they told me.

To summarise:

1. Updating over Wifi with too many apps, causes an internal software failure of the iPhone
2. This failure will repeat even if you reboot, giving the Apple Logo Screen of Death
3. Out there on the Internet is a way of fixing this which is technical, and according to the post I read, breaks your Apple warranty

4. My approach for now is this:
- Restore your phone
- Limit the number of Apps ( I have 10 or so )
- NEVER use the update function on the phone via WiFi or 3G / EDGE
- Always let iTunes do the App Updates, it avoids the big problem
5. Wait until a software update removes this issue

Bill.

Their answer was incomplete. AFAIK, the only relatively safe way to avoid these issues is to not install any applications at all. In general, your iPhone will also crash if you install via iTunes only.

Oh, and there are several serious probelms in the iPhone 2.0.x OS...

Pirx07 wrote:

the only relatively safe way to avoid these issues is to not install any applications at all.
---> So far, once the Apps are on the phone, they work, your advice seems extreme.

In general, your iPhone will also crash if you install via iTunes only.
---> Can you provide examples and background? According to my source iTunes uses a different procedure to perform the update which avoids the specific 2min timeout fault.

Oh, and there are several serious probelms in the iPhone 2.0.x OS...

---> Can you elaborate?

Bill.

Hi Bill,

I agree with Pirx07 - it is not wise to install ANY 3rd Party Apps at this time.

iPhone OS X 2.0.2 is very, very buggy and it is not a question of if your iPhone will crash to an endless Apple logo, but when. I have tried everything, and I mean everything, to have my iPhone running with 3rd Party Apps, and each time I try, my iPhone gets flakier and flakier until - BOOM! My iPhone crashes to an endless Apple logo, and I have to perform a DFU Restore, and if I try to restore from a Backup (that has usually taken hours to complete) it is ultimately corrupt.

A few weeks ago I did a clean installation of 2.0.2, and before I did it I removed all Applications from iTunes. I have since been using it every day with no 3rd Party Apps installed and it is performing very well - no slowdowns, no crashes, and most importantly I can rely on my iPhone functioning as a phone. Let me repeat - with no 3rd Party Apps, my iPhone is very stable and very reliable.

I didn't make this decision lightly - I have spent the best part of £100 on various Apps since the App Store opened (I spent £11 on BeatMaker, a truly fantastic App). But I was in Spain in early August on a 2 week holiday - 3 days into the holiday I performed an update of a 3rd Party App using iTunes, and it crashed into an endless Apple logo.

I couldn't perform a DFU Restore because I wasn't in the UK (iTunes couldn't register my iPhone in Spain), and I had paid £50 for a data abroad plan from o2 that was non-refundable because I'd begun to use it.

So I learnt the hard way - 11 days abroad with no mobile phone. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed and I missed a few important work calls because I was unavailable (the nature of my work requires that I have to be contactable even on holiday!)

I look at it this way - I need my phone, first and foremost, to function as a phone. If there are variables (Apps) that threaten this, then I will remove them. I think I have removed the root problem, and until Apple release a fix for this situation I will not install ANY 3rd Party Apps, and I will recommend to my friends not to install any either.

Regards,

Jamie

+So far, once the Apps are on the phone, they work, your advice seems extreme.+

Once the apps are on the phone, they may or may not work, depending on how much memory is available at the time you start them, and how much the application requyires when running. If you run out of memory, not only will the application will, but the whole OS may freeze.

+Can you provide examples and background? According to my source iTunes uses a different procedure to perform the update which avoids the specific 2min timeout fault.+

The 2-minute timeout fault applies to any configuration change of applications, including a simple re-ordering of the icons, and changed settings of the application. You may see the apple logo of death during a reboot at any time, not only after installing or updating applications.

+Can you elaborate?+

In addition to the timeout issue, memory management of the OS is botched as well. The timeout issue leads to (some of the occurences) of the Apple logo of death, bugs/design faults in memory management lead to application and OS crashes (which then require a reboot, which leads to the logo of death). Bottom line, if you have enough applications, or large enough applications installed on the iPhone, the phone may crash at pretty much any time. This should go without saying, but I find this situation, and the way it is handled by Apple entirely unacceptable. You may draw your own conclusions.

My phone has been bricked most of this weekend - I'm so darn frustrated with this phone at this point in time.

I spent 3 hours at the mall today - waiting to talk to a genius - as I could not get my phone to boot - or even itunes to recognize it. They were able to get it restarted and restored -but once I came back home to synch it again - same **** thing - a brick.

It was interesting that the apple genius vaguely eluded to the fact that I may want to try starting out with fewer apps on the phone to try to isolate the problem app - but maybe he was trying to tell me that too many apps are in fact a problem - who knows. But that's what I'm gonna do at this point - I've spent too much time on this issue - i'm very annoyed.

Please apple fix this problem. I have had my iPhone for 4 weeks now. For the first 3 weeks I had absolutely no problems. However, last week I was updating an app (Free Sudoku I believe) and bam, the iPhone was stuck on the Apple logo. Now, ever since that moment, I have been through 7 restores since last week, and each time I attempt to put my 3rd party apps on the phone it craps out.

I have now resorted to using the phone with the default apps only, despite investing well over $50 into 3rd party apps.

Apple please fix this as you have a great product but the bugs are just too much.

Quite the most unacceptable fix I've heard yet. Adding third party apps is one of the selling points of the device.

Imagine if you were advised that the only way to run a Mac is by trashing your additional software and only using the OS and associated applications supplied with the machine.

Oh yes, I agree with you. You should complain to Apple about this...

Yup same thing. I have had this happen to me several times.

I have restored the phone, I have set up as new phone. I have done everything. It still randomly turns itself off and shows the apple logo. Its a huge pain having to restore this phone so often.

I have removed a few apps and it seems to do nothing. I have used no apps. And still nothing. Its lame.

I hate losing texts so often. its a pain as well.