Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

andrewwynn wrote:

as mad as i am at apple for this ludicrous situation, i'm going to have to side with musicvan here; it is absoultely impossible to make a bug-free update, 100% impossible. That said, it's just plain moronic in my opinion to send out an update to 40,000,000 users that you can not un-do. Plenty of times in the past everybody has had a similar problem where a new update 'just didn't take' and the answer was to just 'undo'... didn't apple invent UNDO?

Totally agree, its a frustrating situation for all concerned but I do not have time to spend rebuilding my phone data for every possible workaround listed here, most of which appear to have a placebo effect! The only 2 options open to users are wait for a fix or return to 3.0.x firmware. I will wait for a fix. If in the unlikely event that a fix does not arrive then I will walk away to a product that can actually work as its intended specification and make phone calls as required, some people actually want a product that maintains communications not one that random decides to forget this fact.

It must be a heck of a problem if it is taking so long to fix.

The only proper solution is to get the phone swapped to a 3.0.

If this problem affects 10% of phones, then even if everyone upgraded to 3.1 then that would leave 99% of customers placated if not actually happy.

genius swapped mine no worries despite it being 3 days out of warranty.

If you are in warranty - get it swapped.

so far as i can tell; no placebo effect here!

05.11.07 modem and 3.1 and MMS upgrade and havn't had even a little bit of a hicucp all night (maybe going on 14 hours now).

I've added and deleted 1400 contacts 2-3 times, viewed dozens of emails and quite a bit of web.. added/subtracted some contacts which sync'd immediately and properly both ways to/from m.me and my mac.

It may just be, that a clean install of 3.0 before upgrading to 3.1 is the fix.. did anybody else that retrograded try a clean upgrade to 3.1 afterwards?

it is complicated of course, because i actually rolled-back the baseband which is 100x as difficult as just the basic 3.0 roll-back.

i'll find out i a couple days if it keep working and i can dump my 100 apps back on and it stays stable.

I was only trying to find out what the EULA says before upgrading to 3.1, and apparently you only get the EULA ONCE.. if you re-install; no alert, no warning just starts the backup (without asking) and starts installing (without asking). .. happy accident because now i have 3.1 and MMS and it's running a lot better than 3.01 which was buggin me for months with the slow to respond slide to answer.

oh; and it's about 60 sec to the home screen and 70 'til i can actually 'do anything' on boot; when the phone was borked, it probably took 4-5 minutes to hard reset, lots of spinning on the black screen with the apple!

so; i do agree that if you're i the unlucky boat and have the infamous 3.1 bug.. downgrading is the only thing that will get the phone useful again, but it might just be a stepping stone.

(did have some nervous moments there when after the hang during install, got 1601 and 1610 errors before i tried from a clean user)..

if 'the fix' does end up simply being able to do a clean re-install of 3.0 before upgrading to 3.1, there will be a very large quantity of egg on the faces of the folk who decided to make the call to disable the ability to downgrade.

The real question is: if that hack does work.. do you need to successfully reboot in 3.0 or just install it? I read that by the time 1015 error happens, the firmware is already on the phone.. maybe an attempted boot, another restore for good measure (3.0) another attempted boot and then a restore to 3.1 might actually work w/o having to unlock/jailbreak, etc. Man i would hope that would work; it would be a huge relief for anybody stuck..

Anybody out there with a comatose 3G with an hour or two for experimenting. (i'm definitely not brave enough to try it on my phone unless it re-enters coma mode).

-awr

-awr

after 3 weeks, i found the first 'news' on the subject:

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/category/apple-2-0/

I have given up trying to reset/restore/downgrade. Called apple and the phone is going back to be checked/repaired/replaced. We will see what happens

Mine does the same thing. I took it into apple this past Wednesday and they said that it's a problem with the 3.1 update and I would just have to wait till the next update comes out with in the next few days or restore it back to the software it had when I bought it.

nothing new to add, except my 3G iphone with 3.1 often (every couple of days) just dies, usually when locking the screen or something.

My wife's iPhone 3G is also having the same 'coma' problem. Tried everything suggested in this forum but does not help.

tuaw.com also had some mentioning a while ago:

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/15/iphone-3-1-problems-flood-our-tip-box/

I also send the URL for this forum link to macrumors.com and appleinsider.com!

loster wrote:
Mine does the same thing. I took it into apple this past Wednesday and they said that it's a problem with the 3.1 update and I would just have to wait till the next update comes out with in the next few days or restore it back to the software it had when I bought it.

Did an Apple Store state that there would be an update to resolve the 3.1 issue in the next few days?

Quick update: working fantabulously. I'll wait 'til tonight to attempt adding apps back on.

It's seriously like the phone had an exersism. Oh bonus: 18 hrs and 75% battery left.

Add me to the list of iPhone users that are having this problem.

I understand that the problem only affects a small number of iPhone users, but I really do think that Apple could have done more testing to prevent problems of this magnitude from happening. This isn't a minor problem at all. Don't get me wrong, I love the iPhone and what the phone can do, **** I have a developers account for the thing! But this is just unacceptable.

I hope that they do release a fix soon, but until then I will contact an Apple store about this and a minor problem I am having with my MacBook and see what can be done.

Same here, and I do not think that only a small number are affected. I contacted Apple Support that the phone's guarantee had expired 18 days ago. They agreed to make an exception when I described the problems I was having (and mentioned I am an Apple user since 1991 - fact). They sent a new iphone in exchange, which I restored from my phone's back-up and installed to latest software. Bad choice - the new phone showed the same symptoms (with the exception that now it recognized WLAN networks, which the old one did no longer). I called Support again, and they informed me to exchange the phone for a second time and that I should NOT upgrade to the new software, and that they were working on getting it fixed. Will receive the replacement replacement today, and see what'll happen this time.

If you type in feedback in the search bar at the top of this page you can follow the link to the iphone feedback page. Obviously Apple knows of the issue and reads this thread, however if we all send formal feedback describing our issues in detail it may speed up the process of getting a fix.

It seems like a waste of time but all we have is time to sit and wait for them to get their ** together. I just wish the media or AT&T would show a little more interest and help us out a bit. Someone needs to force Apple to come clean and own up to their mistake.

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**** workable kludge ****
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Seriously... Much less painful thank the downgrade solution.

as previously mentioned in this forum!
If you have a bunch of music or audiobook, use the ipod application to play it at no volume in the background. The alarm clock works, the phone rings and the battery consumption seems reasonable.

Yes, I want my phone to be fixed, but for those whose life or livelihood depends on the phone, try this.

The same thing is happening to me. My phone goes totally dead and then somehow flutters back on. It has been happening since the 3.1 upgrade. Very upsetting and needs to be addressed as soon as possible.