Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

"As of Tuesday, this became a known issue to Apple Tier II Tech Support.
I recommend calling in and ask to speak to a product specialist regarding a firmware bug which locks up the phone. They are collecting information to try and resolve the issue."



I talked to one of the specialists last weekend and they knew about the problem. The guy I talked with was the rudest person I've dealt with at Apple thus far. He was completely unhelpful and only served to make this situation more unpleasant for me. I thought Apple was supposed to be famous for its customer service. I guess not!

I also dealt with someone at a Tokyo Apple Store who was a so-called "specialist". He was also extremely rude unlike the regular genius bar staff and the store manager. Apple needs to let these people know that they are not as "special" as they think they are, and they need to mandate some kind of company-wide customer service training. Very unprofessional behavior!

Hey Apple, please tell me how to DOWNGRADE my phone, your 3.1 update is by far one of the crappiest upgrades I've yet to encounter. 3 shutdowns, battery halfway gone and whenever I switch on wifi the whole thing starts to freeze up for about 2 secs ever 2 mins, all in one morning. GOOD JOB!!!!!

I called tech support about this issue and they said it's the battery and I'll have to pay $80 to fix it.

I setup an appointment at the Genius bar, they tried to sell me a new phone at a discounted rate.

I'm hoping for an Android phone on Verizon soon.

Anyone think that this could possibly be fixed via the update coming hopefully tomorrow with the MMS update. I highly doubt that this issue would have anything to do with it, but 3.0.1 did set the phone up for being ready for MMS.

Just an idea...

i guess i'll chime in as well. i am having the random freezes and blackouts where i lose calls and finally get stuff working to find waiting voicemails even though my ringer was on and the iPhone was with me the whole time. ***.

Has happened to me a few times. Before this happens my contacts list goes blank.

Same here with my 3G: shorter battery life, random coma, forced restarts, all since 3.1. Don't know if this has been mentioned: my screen gets noticably Less bright at times, as if auto brightness is broken.

Angry people, I was with you, same problems after 3.1 update. The updated ipcc (iPhone carrier configuration) file that will allow MMS that is scheduled for release tomorrow will fix your phone. I found the fix on another web site, my phone is now sending and receiving pics and has not disconnected or fallen comatose on the network since the upgrade. Under the settings, general, about, tab it shows my carrier as AT&T 5.1, used to show 5.0 with the 3.1 firmware update. I am very happy at the speed I am experiencing and having my old iPhone back, working like it was when new. Be patient!

No, the MMS carrier configuration file will not fix the firmware issue. I am not in the United States, like a number of the people complaining of this issue, and have had MMS capability since 3.0 was released.

Could the people in the USA please remember that there are millions of iPhones not in the USA and that AT&T's shoddy network isn't likely to cause this issue to occur worldwide?

For those that are out of the warranty period, if you want a sure fire fix that will make sure you are unaffected by the new coma-mode feature - at least until Apple acknowledges the fault with their firmware and issues a fix:

1) Power off your iPhone.
2) Take the specialized sim removal tool and remove the sim card.
3) Insert the sim card into a reliable phone.
4) Power on the reliable phone.
5) Enjoy advanced features such as MMS, whilst also being able to enjoy such simple features as being able to answer the phone or make a call without restarting your phone.

In my case the P.O.S. carrier branded phone, that I found wet with dew on a field one day, works perfectly every time. In the mean time, I feel like a total moron for wasting around US$900 on an iPhone that died just over a year after I bought it.

For the record, I loved my iPhone and everything it could do. If Apple pulls their thumb out of their *** and fixes this problem I will continue to love it. Until then, it's in the crap drawer and I will never buy another Apple phone again.

I called Apple today and they are overnighting me a new iPhone 3G.

I told them I am having the same problem as 85 pages worth of other people online. It was pretty simple, really.

You can count me in on this issue too, very frustrating.

After updating my iPhone 3G 8GB to v3.1 I'm experiencing random freezes during the day (1-3 per day). It's never locked up while in use, just while sleeping. I've also not been able to isolate anything helpful regarding this issue, it just seems to "happen".

I have 2 gmail and a yahoo email account setup to push/fetch every hour, and Yahoo IM running in the background but that's about it, everything else is pretty standard on my iPhone.

Also it might be worth mentioning that I had an issue the other day with Wifi. I have my iPhone setup with a wireless access point (Linksys WRT54GS v7) using WPA2 authentication and it's been working fine up until I updated to v3.1 about 3 days after the update my iPhone was giving me a "Unable to join the network 'my SSID here'" and after re-entering the password about 10 times and rebooting my iPhone, "forgetting" the network and re-adding it, my final resolve was doing a Network Settings Reset and all seems well for now.

The two issues may be isolated, but I can't confirm or deny that.

I have all the faith in the world in Apple, I don't just love their products, and services, but I love the Apple way of life. It's unfortunate when something like this makes its way past all the quality control checks but just like any production environment it happens.. All we can do is be patient while Apple makes the magic happen..

Just to say "me too"!

iPhone 3G bought early september last year from swedish company Telia.

Upgraded to 3.1 last thursday. On friday I had my first black screen. Couldn't get it back working so went to a Telia store where the clerk showed me how to reboot the iPhone (hold home + power). This solved the issue temporarily. I had a few repeats over the weekend. Early this week I had a black screen where the iphone wouldn't boot after doing a reboot. I did a complete reset by holding home and inserting a USB cable. The iphone was back, it did not solve the black screen issue however.

Every time the iphone has gone down it seems to be related to music stopping in the iPod function or me unplugging the earphones.

Just a quick update.
I had ALL the problems everyone here is talking about. Apple Store replaced my phone (still under warranty) last week and it came with 3.0. I didn't update.
I've had NO PROBLEMS since. NONE!!! SO, it IS the 3.1 update. Let's hope Apple fixes it tomorrow?? Good luck!

I have the same problem as the bazillion other people with and iPhone 3G. Mine is of the 8 gig variety and from what I have read consider myself to be one of the lucky ones in that my only does this once or twice every 3-4 days as opposed to those who have this happen more frequently. Doesn't matter how many times its still annoying. C'mon Apple show us you have a fix for this!!!!