Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

Upgraded to 3.1 a week ago (there was an installation error and the phone was wiped, had to restore from backup). Yesterday, got the random shutdown. Had to hard reset it. Happened again this morning. Again, hard reset got it working.

Other weirdness... when I reboot from the hard reset, the phone will chime and a badge will pop up on my mail app. I use Gmail and don't have any push notifications activated. I don't know why it's checking for emails without me opening the mail app.

Talk time seems lower as well.

I have been monitoring this issue ever since I upgraded the very first day 3.1 was released. I have 2 iphones both experiencing the all the system instability issues such as the hanging, unable to receive and/or make calls, texts, battery life, etc. The more I use my iphone during the day the more it crashes, the more I have to reboot. This weekend it hung 8 times in one day. I have performed all the suggestions offered by others including a system restore with a new profile account to no avail. There are obviously 1,000's of people experiencing the same issues, look at me, I sat on the sidelines for weeks until I finally got fed up. Once this issue is resolved, I think Apple should incorporate an easy means of reverting back to a previous release, although I am sure that could open up a new can of worms that I might be missing. Yes I know I can jailbreak and revert. I am sure they are working on a resolution, but it is frustrating having to deal with this type of an issue from an apple product. I already own a windows PC, I don't want my phone to act like a microsoft appliance. I could threaten to switch to a palm pre or a blackberry and at times that though enters my mind especially for a reliable business phone, but reality is I have grown too attached to the iphone while it was working prior to 3.1 and maybe apple knows that and isn't too worried about making a statement to the regards that they screwed up and are trying to fix it.

same problem, it's happening 3 to 5 times a day...smh.

Just wanted to add my voice to the thousands of others....

Updated to 3.1 on upgrade day, and iPhone randomly becomes unresponsive and requires a hard reset to start up again.
I have not had any other issues (eg heating up)

Logged it on apple feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone_thankyou.html

(also why can't I choose iPhone OS 3.1 from the drop down box in this post - are apple in denial??!)

I am glad to have downgraded to 3.01, now all is fine. I did lose my SMS/MMS, but that's small price to pay for a working phone! I had always been the kind of person who updated or purchased my favorite software as soon as I could. I was also so anxious to have Snow Leopard before he arrives officially in Middle East; that I ended up paying $40 MORE to myus dot com so that I could have 10.6, but that too disappointed me with crashes of MS Word 2008 with 12.2.2 and still its not completely solved.

I have now learned my lesson. NEVER will I ever update to anything until I read the reviews in more than one place.

Thank you Apple

I had this problem ever since I updated to 3.1. I was at the "Genius" bar at a local Apple Store 6 times in 6 days trying to resolve this. I have done everything that they recommended but was still getting the same problem. When they switched my old iPhone 3G to another iPhone 3G, I not knowing better upgraded to 3.1 again thinking that it may be hardware related. The issue came back again. I switched to another wireless router thinking that it may be my router that's causing this. Again the issue came back. Incidentally this issue only happened when I was connected by WiFi and not when I was connected by cellular 3G. Apple Store switched me to another iPhone, but this time I stayed with 3.0.1 and the issue has not re-occurred (knock on wood). I hope Apple is listening and working on a patch to correct this issue. It drove me crazy and I'm sure that it's driving some people nuts. Good luck.

Just adding my name here as well. Been having all of the same Issues listed:
iPhone goes into a "Coma"
Battery doesn't last one full day after a full charge.
Flipping between screens is not very responsive at all..

I am having this same problem on my 3G since upgrading to 3.1 I get random shut-downs about 2-3 times a day and when I grab the iPhone it feels really hot. I thought maybe it was a problem with my phone and was considering buying a 3GS. Glad I searched around to see if others were having the same problem. I hope Apple fixes this soon.

I've been having this issue since updating to OS 3.1, but I thought my phone was just on its way out. Great to know that there's over 100 pages of other people having the same problem .

Following what another poster mentioned worked for him, I disabled 3G for the time being, and I have not had any lockup issues since then. Dealing with only Edge is quite frustrating, but not as much as not having a working phone.

Can't see how Apple can continue ignoring this problem much longer, hope they supply a fix very soon.

Updated iPhone 3G (16GB) to 3.1 on a Friday and started having random shut downs the next day. Hard reboot required to escape coma mode and the phone is very hot to the touch. Seems to happen when an App is running and the phone goes to sleep. The screen is black and the phone is non-responsive to normal wake. Turned off notifications and push since threads suggested this was a problem. Also have seen instability with WiFi (drops the WiFi connection constantly) and the battery life has greater shortened. Before the 3.1 update, the phone was very stable and now it misses calls, shuts down by itself, and drops the WiFi. Very annoying.

Yep, me too. I can confirm that I had this issue after getting the 2.2 update, and you can't imagine how happy I was when the 3.0 update fixed that issue! I didn't have a single lock up... until it returned with the 3.1 update.

Also having shutdown ("coma") problems following 3.1 install. Only 2 of the 10-15 iPhones in our organization that I know of have updated...mine is having the issue and the other is not. I've advised the rest NOT to update. This happens 5-10 times per day.

Unless you bought a 3g in the first 3 months - its still in warranty so get it back to the genius bar and get a replacement with 3.0

3.1 is a rare mess up, 10% of us have had real problems.

I had the same "coma mode" problem after updating to OS 3.1; random shut downs, problem persisted after restoring phone to original settings. I set an appointment with the Genius Bar in Phoenix and after just a few minutes, they replaced the phone, largely on their own initiative; I didn't have to even request or insist. The support guy was friendly and seemed aware of the issues discussed in this thread. (He opined that the problem is not with the software/code itself but rather how it was delievered to some users. He noted that not everyone suffers from the issue which might not be the case if the code itself was screwed up).

The new phone has 3.0.1 installed and I am going to wait until the bug gets fixed before I update (though that means I lost the momentarily obtained ability to text and receive pictures). As you might imagine, there have not been any coma mode problems with the new phone.

Maybe everyone who lives near an Apple store should do the same thing and see how long it takes Apple to finally address the issue.

Good luck everyone.

"see how long it takes Apple to finally address the issue"

I did just the same as you - despite the phone being just out of warranty.

The way they are handing out £400 phones shows they have a stack of em just ready to keep customers sweet.

if there is a 10% error rate, then 99% of customers will be trouble free after a single change of faulty machines.

Steve Jobs must be pulling out fingernails at this point - its a real "vista" moment.