Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

andrewwynn wrote:
for now, i'm at 3.1 and very happy with the performance but i know far better than expecting the phone to work on a moments notice, not to mention i'm about 140 programs short of what i'm used to, 3000 photos short (all my 18mo son's photos) and so i'm not quite sure this is 'better'.

The main reason why I shall wait for the bug fix, do not want to spend time ripping apart my data from this expensive device thats supposed to work! Good luck with the investigation seems to be going somewhere.

3.01 is the only way to have a reliable phone, though it is quite poky in its own right. at thist moment my 3.1 8Gb 3G is quite sspeedy and i'm loving that.

I have noticed that with every major release it takes another x.x.n release to get the speed and stability performance back. Usual software lifecycle I guess!

i'm keeping it plugged into my laptop to keep the console log running for 24 hrs straight.

Keep us updated on your results. Most of the anger here is being in the dark!

I wanted to mention that the specific reason i posted a bug-report on the developer hotline was to get them to reply to me 'engineering has determined this is a known issue with report # xxx' as mentioned above. As he mentioned, not at liberty to say much but it was what I personally was hopig to see before my report got booted because i mentioned 6 or 10 things wrong with 3.1.

I take it you are a registered iphone developer? Just wondering what the developer bug report submission thing was.

Anybody with an iota of common sense can undertand that the anger in this crowd is not any kind of expectation for the s/w to be perfect, nor the hardware.. the iPhone is the worst 'phone' i've ever owned bar none... but it's the best 'over all' device ever brought to market,

Totally agree with that one, the iphone is my worst phone ever (went through the early days of poor RF performance and the thousands of threads here, no real solution with everybody either blaming the network or the phone. BUT its the best converged device I have ever used which makes up for it poor phone performance, guess Apple are playing catch up to Nokia on RF performance and will get there soon.

The anger is based on the just stunning to the point of bewilderment in the concept of no undo and NO WARNING. 3.1 is vista.

Vista got a bad press because of the huge spec required to run it and the lack of understanding from Microsoft about how to cope with the driver mess. My experience of Vista was good but then it was on a clean high spec laptop with tech knowledge, at least it did not crash everyday!

So I have been dealing with this problem on all of our 3g's since release of 3.1. I have also stated that we did see issues with 3.0...and reported them early on but were told it was ATT not apple...BS!!!

I have recently kept my 3G OUT of 3G mode to test the coma and other known issues. The first day no coma's however ever since then at least one a day and the crazy battery problem happen yesterday.

Apple has been TERRIBLE with 3.x releases and firmware updates.

There is no disputing this and it cracks me up to see the hardcore faithfull defending the rotten fruit!!

They are a tech company....and have DROPPED THE FRIIGIN BALL!!!

ATP11, there is a fix for Vista and MS has said a billion times they messed up. That is why they are rushing Windows 7 out.

kevkris wrote:
Also, I see posts from people here saying they are "certain" that Apple is working on this. How do you know this? Have you spoken to any developers directly? I've seen no one from Apple chime in here, nor have I seen anything "official" from them. So, are you speculating or do you have a direct source of contact at Apple giving you this info?

I have a response from a named person at Apple Developer Connection telling me they are aware of the bug I reported and that it is being investigated by engineering. I can't tell you more than that without breaking an NDA.

andrewwynn wrote:
That said... i've gotten that phrase on problems that have existed for years and still do.

The "bugs" you mention in your post are not bugs, but feature requests, which Apple are at their liberty to ignore. Genuine bugs are not ignored. All the ones I've reported (all genuine bugs) have been fixed in subsequent firmware releases.

i'm keeping it plugged into my laptop to keep the console log running for 24 hrs straight.

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve with this. Apple almost certainly have enough information to identify and fix the problem. Much better would be to take "StackShots" whilst the phone is in a "coma" state: press one of the volume up/down buttons whilst holding down the Home button. This will generate a stackshot (snapshot of what threads are currently running) which will be sent to Apple the next time you sync your phone. The "coma" state is fairly obviously caused by some kind of looping or deadlocked thread and a stackshot is the best way to identify which thread is causing the problem.

ATP11, there is a fix for Vista and MS has said a billion times they messed up. That is why they are rushing Windows 7 out.

Really? They may have fixed numerous issues, but not the issue I have as I have always updated to the latest version and updates. And in all the web searching I've done i've never once seen any hint or info that they have admitted to my specific issue. And, I've talked to them, and there has been no offer of windows 7 for free. How would you feel if Apple just said "were aware of the issues, and we are rolling out a version of OS for your phone which will be better, and available for purchase". We're all in agreement that the issues with our phones needs fixing. I just don't agree that Apple's business practices are any different than any other company out there. In fact, my personal experiences with them have been great, so far. I have another appointment today at an Apple store, perhaps I'll be singing a different tune afterwards, but I hope not.

hey guys, i was having all these same problems after the 3.1 update, but i found the fix on this blog, at least until Apple, or should i say AT&T can really fix the problem. The problem is the 3G network, go into your settings, shut 3G off and restart your iphone and the phone works great after that just running on edge. INternet is slow as **** on edge, but it was just as bad on 3G anyway. BUt so far no more freezez or lost of service, mysterious shutdowns or failed sms messages. The phone also runs a lot faster now.

Model: iPhone 3GS 16GB
Location: Los Angeles
Firmware Version: 3.1

Symptoms after installing 3.1:

Battery Issues - Since upgrading to 3.1, battery life has become dismal. If leaving the house in the morning at 8am, by 2pm or so, phone is down to 10 percent or less with minimal to no browsing. Before, 3.1, iPhone would last at the minimum 24 hours with medium browsing and multiple text messaging.

Texting - Text message sending is non-existent. All text messages fail on send. To alleviate situation, I must reboot phone and then it works for an hour or so. Before 3.1, text messaging worked flawlessly with text message failure once every 50 or so text messages.

Reception - Signal strength has gone from great to really bad. I've always had reception at work. Now, nothing. Calls don't come through and go straight to voicemail. Before 3.1, reception was perfect. No dropped calls, no reception problems, no phantom calls.

Syncing: Multiple problems trying to sync phone to computer. "Disk cannot be read" errors as well as freezing on initial sync. Before 3.1, never had syncing issues.

No freezing issues or shutdown issues experienced as others have stated.

I went to St. Louis this past weekend and discovered that to alleviate the situation, I have to turn off 3G (Settings>General>Network). Phone is now only on EDGE network. Works fine but it shouldn't be like this. If 3G is turned on, iPhone moprhs into doorstop/ throwing weapon.

I don't believe the phone itself is the problem. It's firmware based. Seems like there's a conflict with the firmware and the 3G network. I am an end-user and do not have a technical background.

ATP11, well good luck with taking your PHONE in once again. Apparently there is one feature on your PC that you aren't happy with. Is it by any chance the POWER button? Because if it isn't then it has ZERO relevance to this iPhone issue.


Right now my iPhone is good for absolutely NOTHING. I can't get calls (well, every third call or so I can get), can't get texts, can't be notified that I even have a voice-mail. So MY PHONE is WORTHLESS AS A PHONE. Great, I can still listen to music, but I have an MP3 player for that. Apple has effectively made the only thing this piece of junk is SUPPOSED to do unable to do it...and that is make and receive calls.

But it's cool. According to the idiot "Genius" at the Apple 800 number this is my own fault or something I have done to my own phone.

The Vista is relevant if you took the time to follow the thread. Sounds like you have had crappy service from Apple and don't think the phone is good. I suggest you switch to a different phone or carrier or both and let Apple know you did. The wallet is your best way of making companies listen.

I posted this in another location ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2171222#10358177 ) but it seems to better fit here...

Since the 3.1 update I have had several problems with my iPhone 3G.

First, I have a problem where the screen will go black and not respond to anything other than a full reboot (hold down Home and Lock buttons until the Apple logo appears). This happens at least once a day, and has happened as many as a half-dozen times in one day.

Second, the iPhone now runs warm whenever I'm using 3G service. This hadn't happened before (I've had the phone for over a year now). When the screen blacks out (above) the phone gets very warm, to the point where I feel it in my pocket (and then know to reboot it).

Third, the battery life has taken a noticeable drop, and again, this intensifies during the blackout times. I've had my phone - nearly fully charged - reboot out of blackout with 20% or less battery life remaining. Just yesterday it was drained to the point of showing me the red empty battery picture and refusing to let me use it until I plugged it in.

I was hopeful when I learned of the MMS update, because I thought Apple would include a patch for 3.1. No such luck. I'd like to know what Apple is doing to fix these problems, as apparently I'm not the only one who has this problem.

ATP11:

I read back on a bunch of your posts about your vista problems. I understand you are having problems with Vista and feel microsoft is not responding as fast as you would like. But what you are leaving out (unless I missed it) is have you restored your pc as new? Because if your restored as new pc is acting up, then it is up to the manufacturer to fix it (ie HP). If you installed vista on a home built pc or out of warranty pc, then there is no guarantee your hardware is compatible with vista. There are too many factors that could be causing your issue. With pc's and vista there are millions of hardware software combinations that could be causing issues. It would be near impossible for them to isolate your issue. That is why they make factory restore disks. Or reinstall vista, formatting your HD. Obviously there is a software/hardware conflict.

With the Apple iphone, there is only 3 possible hardware configurations and only 1 current OS for apple to support. Apple never lists the bug fixes when they release patches or service packs.

Trust me I will vote with my wallet. Applecare has taken good care of us, but we have experienced too many issues with our apple products (not just our iphones). MS has not been my best friend either fwiw.

As many others have reported in this thread, I too just got off the phone with a very apologetic Apple Support Rep. He told me every other iPhone related call was about the issues with 3.1 update (mainly "coma" and some battery related).

No solution available until the next software update, which in his opinion was just around the corner. Said some users had success with a restore, but only fixed "coma" issue for about a week.

Jeffla,

I'm not sure where this went south..my point I think has been missed. I couldn't care less about my Microsoft issue, but someone brought up that Microsoft always is straight forward and admits when there's a problem which I found laughable. I was trying to demonstrate otherwise, that's it. I'm just not expecting Apple to publicly state they are aware of this issue, or I guess I should say I'm not holding it against them as a good portion (if not all) companies do business the exact same way. After all, we all have our own experiences with products and companies, and so far, my experience with Apple has been over all a positive one. I'm not saying that everyone else has had the same experience.

every update from that came out for the iphone 3G has had a problems like crazy! I thought updates were supposed to better our iphones!? I can't stand those apple commercials anymore that say apples never crash, we're the best, no problems ever, and they try to kill microsoft saying they have all these problems but look at YOUR IPHONE! IT CRASHES AT LEAST 10x A DAY! PLEASE COME OUT WITH AN OS UPDATE THAT ACTUALLY WORKS WITHOUT AAAAAAALL THE CRASHING AND GLITCHES AND FREEZING! PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEE!!!

Ditto...random shut downs with a hard reset bringing it back online. That's not good for a phone from a SAFETY issue if an emergency call is needed. Otherwise, it's a royal pain in the a**. WOw! 137 pages about this!!!