Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

Hi from Belgium AGAIN! :(((
I tough my iphone was ok after a total reinstallation few weeks ago (see this thread 2 weeks ago)
but this morning...... iphone go to black screen, I restard it.... and now again NO APPLICATIONS WORKS EXCEPT APPLE APPLICATIONS !!!????
So again I take my old Nokia E61, synchronize with my Mac ..... and the iphone to the box....
If Apple don't react very soon , I put my iphone to the trash and buy a other Nokia (E90,N97,...)
and it will be my first and last phone from APPLE!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr
I'm a IT professionnal and actually I can't trust anymore my iphone. Hopefully I've another phone so I can work but.....
FIX THIS NOW APPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephane Dujourdy
http://www.diamondsoftware.net

Count me in, iphone 3G. Upgraded to 3.1 and started the random shut downs and inability to send/receive calls or text even though it shows 5 bars. I've been watching this thread for a week now and decided to create a post showing there are probably a LOT of users like me who are quietly waiting for Apple to address the issue.

I use this phone for my business and it's no longer reliable. The only way I can keep it from locking up is to disable 3G and keep it plugged into a charger.

Regards,
Mark
http://www.hawkeyemedia.com

My iPhone randomly shuts down at least five times a days, often over ten times a day. It says something about the iPhone that I don't toss it out window. I wouldn't tolerate this from any other device. AT&T says I don't qualify for an upgrade to the new iPhone until January, 2010. If Apple does not fix this, am I going to have to reboot my iPhone an extra 900 times over the next three months? This is deplorable.

Random shut down on iPhone is occurring frequently -very frustrating. It often happens just after I manually press the sleep function, only the iPhone never wakes up when I need it. It would require a full reset to recover.

This thread is simply too large for any sort of "user" error. In fact, I don't think there is anything a typical everyday user can do to screw up the iPhone. If you jailbreak your phone, that's different. Most of us on here don't do that - we just apply the updates via iTunes. I agree it is a bug in the 3.1 software that is encountered under a set of specific circumstances. I think Apple is having difficulty ascertaining those exact circumstances - that's why there is no 3.1.1 or 3.2 - yet. We only come to this forum when we have a problem - the number of posts and views of this thread, and the one about battery issues, is unusually large - and Apple monitors it - it helps them glean information about the problem.

Same problem here. I turned of WIFI AND 3G and it looks it has been working. I turned of 3g and turned on wifi and the problem came again...Now im about to to the inverse and see if 3G on WIFI off works...How is it possible that apple has said nothing about the problem? Man, it is unbelievable. Definitely wont buy back from them again if they dont improve their customer service. It is just unreal. Not a single response. How difficult can it be to let us go back to 3.0 AT LEAST????

Mr. Big J wrote:
The only fix is downgrading to 3.0. Trevor Bryant, I have been trying to help (since this is a support forum) but no one listens. I tried repeatedly to help, just like you, however I don't think anyone cares. Wait a minute, I did have one person that I was able to help. He downgraded to 3.0 and all the problems went away. I don't see any advantages from 3.0 to 3.1 anyhow. No one could say 3.1 enables MMS because it just would not be true. I have 3.0 and mms, whatever I'm just going on tangents now. I hope you have better luck helping people.

I haven't had any issues in the last 24 hours since I did the restore following my instructions on page 118. Again...the issue is the software conversion while upgrading from 3.0 to 3.1, in the process a file gets corrupt. If you follow my instructions, it restores your phone from scratch using the 3.1 software. For all of the people who are exchanging their phones, they keep having the same issue because their new phones have 3.0 software on them and when the upgrade to 3.1 the file gets corrupt again. I'm in a small group of people who Apple support is testing this fix with. I'm supposed to contact a specific Apple support tech today. Since I haven't had any issues I think Apple will start notifying more users of the fix.

Well Trevor, I've followed your instructions and I've got to say that it's the healthiest that my signal strength has been for a while. Only time will tell if it's the magic cure.

I just had this happen, too. I updated the day before yesterday. I was receiving texts just now, and then the phone went into "coma". I've tried to push each button separately, and tried pushing the buttons together. Neither worked. This morning when logging in to gmail on the iphone's safari Google said it had detected "suspicious activity" and one of the suggestions was to check for malware and virus. Could this be related?

3G; 8GB; 3.1 OS; AT&T; not tampered with; sync with Google for calendar and contacts; sync 1 gmail account and use safari to log in to the other gmail account.

My wife wanted to be able to send picture texts so against better judgement I upgraded her phone. Sure enough it went into the coma. I turned off wifi, just like on mine and it works fine. She has no Exchange or MobileMe push, only Yahoo mail, not Jailbroken or anything like that. Turning off wifi fixed it though.

Here's a question...how many people have push of any kind that are having this problem?

Sorry Trevor, 10 minutes after the restore I got the dreaded "No Service" message so all my problems have not been fixed - bummer.

The only way that I can get it to work as a phone is to switch 3G off which of course creates problems elsewhere. So I'm afraid that it's back to the Apple boffins.

Message was edited by: Stafainn

tried it...twice...failed both times. Did it on my own and went to the Apple store and had a genius put a new OS on the phone and restored as a new phone. Still crashes using bluetooth and goes into coma mode.

Even went to the Apple store again and they installed a new firmware release that isn't available to the public. Driving away from the store after pairing with my car bluetooth it crashed.

It's not a corrupt file or corrupt system image or bad application or anything but buggy firmware.

Since I won't need BT for the next 4 days that's how long I'm giving them to put out a fix. Then I'll be going to the store every day and asking for a phone swap until I get one that works. I'm still under warranty for my 3g.

Dear Monty1945,

The old "It isn't happening to me, so it must not exist." theory is asinine. With Apple supports help I have totally cleaned my phone to factory settings with 3.1 and guess what, it goes to coma mode the same as it did with my apps installed. Blaming the posters in this thread for the problems they are having is the ludicrous thing going on here. It’s a bit odd that everything was going fine for all of us until the 3.1 update don’t you think? Apple’s techs have acknowledged that there is a problem with the 3.1 installation and they are working on a fix. So take your foot out of your mouth, stop posting about threads you know nothing about (and you can figure out where to stick that jewel of a phone you have).

Just got back from an NYC Apple store to report the issue. They acted like it was the first case ever of it. Basically the blame was placed on me because apparently my two separate downloads of the update on two different computers were corrupt both times (two separate internet connections as a matter of fact) and what was causing the issue.

Apple installed their "confirmed non corrupt" 3.1 software onto my phone and sent me packing. Also due to the fact that I followed Genius Bar instructions and did a restore of my phone before bringing it in, they had no reset data on my phone to base it off of so it makes me look like I have been making the whole thing up. So anyone bringing their phones in, make sure to not restore, wipe or anything to it if it has been going into coma.

So now i plan on getting this to lock back up again once I load my contacts and such and use it as an actual phone and go back with plenty of reset data for them.

I was experiencing those problems after an update to 3.01 but after I turned the iPhone off and then back on, I reconected it to the computer and let iTunes take over and procced to do a "carrier update"
; after that, everything is working as is supposed to, meaning OK. I hope this can be helpfull for somebody.