Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

I don't think any of us particularly want to give up on our iPhones - they're pretty awesome. When they work.

Unfortunately this update has left us all with unreliable phones which could be potentially life threatening in an emergency situation. No to mention the impact it has on those people who use it for business purposes. I need a phone that works, at the very least, as a phone each and every time I need it to, not when it gets around to responding to my input.

If Apple acknowledged the problem and promised a fix in an acceptable period of time (days, not weeks), I know I would be more inclined to be forgiving. However, the situation is extremely frustrating for all concerned and it personally puts me in the position of dusting off my old Nokia that I upgraded from and using that.

It also puts me in the position of thinking twice before slapping down NZ$1200 for the next latest and greatest phone from Apple if there is even the slightest chance of this kind of thing happening again.

Just a follow up to my previous post (Page 32 I believe), I recieved my replacement phone (thinking maybe it would come with 3.1) but for _Some Reason_ It came with 3.0.1 which works perfectly for me. I will be sticking with 3.0.1 for now. Not even thinking of upgragrading for a long while. Everything is working great with no problems. The 3G 16Gb white that I had with 3.1 was completly un-usable, and luckly I was still under the original warranty and had no damage to my phone (water damage, screen breakage, ect...), but had no problems what so ever before 3.1. So it's leading me to believe that I really didn't need to switch out my phone what so ever, but hey I'm paying my monthly service (~$160 for unlimited Everything) so I coulden't deal with loosing my phone, and no less having it go black screen every hour or so. Trying to restore, disable the locking time, disabling notifications, having no applications installed did nothing to help me with my situation with 3.1, my best recommendation is to go back ASAP to 3.0.1... somehow...jeeze. I'm so lost as to wether it was my phone, but I'm leaning twords their update (considering everything was near %100 since 3.0 came out).

Good luck to everyone that is still struggling with this (I thought I was the only one until reading this post).

I will continue to update you as to how everything pans out with the new phone. Hopefully apple doesn't mistriouslly discover waterdamage or something that they will charge me for this, just to make up/cover up for their mistakes.

Message was edited by: fiberopticsguy

Also: Had to use an old backup that I had, because itunes woulden't let me restore using a 3.1 backup... PFFT! But everything working great (knock on wood), So far.

Message was edited by: fiberopticsguy

Also noticed throughout this thing, that I didn't have these mysterious "black Screens" in my photos, and this would only happen when I would go to wake my phone up from sleep by pushing the home button (as I always have), and nothing, no button response, no sounds, move the vibration button and nothing, plug it in, nothing.Just to make that clear.

The problem with being an early adopter is you get to do the field testing.

It is usually fine and you get some excellent toys well ahead of the pack, sometimes a few more bugs than usual fall out.

Something like this will have the tech guys having their hairs pulled out - apple doesn't like embarassment or failure

Patience and faith that normal service will be resumed is the order of the day.

You don't think there are lots of people all over the industry waiting to cupertino to drop the ball?

Trash,

This was beta-tested and should have never happened. There were even some reports from beta testers that this was happening in beta and apple did nothing (could be rumor). I am with you when you say you hope (as well do I for everyone else having this problem, and those that are having it and don't know what to do about it or can't get a replacement) that they patch it and repair this ASAP. Of course still no word as to what the issue was or is.

Nobody here is an "early adopter". We all own an iPhone 3G which is Apple's second generation phone. We all plugged our phones into sync with iTunes and got prompted to update our phones to the latest software update.

We didn't sign up to be beta testers and didn't rush out of our way to get the update before it was released to the general public.

In no way are we, the consumers, rightfully expected to accept that our equipment might not work correctly all the time. Apple is not in a defensible position here. Sure, mistakes get made and bugs slip through the cracks. Apple must take responsibility for the bugs swiftly and publicly before I will start being forgiving.

Anyone who has updated to the new software in the first week is an early adopter.

All experience shows that there will usually be some bugs that need fixing when things go live.

This is a rare glitch, but do you really think Apple isn't trying to get things fixed? Really?

And as for taking responsibility publicly?
That just isn't cupertino's style.
Love it or leave, and i love em enough to forgive something like this.


Patience. Its a virtue that gets better with practice.

Add me to the list. This has been happening to me for the past week now. I use my phone for work and this is getting to be very annoying. Early adopters? At the even that they had,they said the update was available right when the thing was over.Making me think that it was safe to do the update. I hope there is a fix for this soon. There are alot of unhappy people here

I very strongly disagree with your opinion that we are early adopters - as I mentioned, I did not go out of my way to get this update. Simply follow the recommendation that I update, given to me by iTunes.

I have no idea what Apple is doing. Having read through this entire thread, I would say that they have yet to acknowledge an issue with the update at all, so I do not see how I could have any confidence that a fix is forthcoming at all.

I do, however, feel that when I pay NZ$1200 for a phone, which is around US$850 by the way, it better work as a phone first time and every time.

Being able to roll back the previous update easily when stuff does bug out would rock my world right now, but it doesn't say much for the gadget when I know that my crappy old Nokia will work perfectly when I take it out of the drawer that it's been in for the past few months.

Oh and don't get me wrong, I would reluctantly part with my iPhone. I'm that annoying "iPhone guy" who spends all his time showing off all the cool stuff his phone can do and telling all his friends and family they should buy an iPhone immediately. Huge egg on my face when my incredibly expensive device doesn't even do the basics anymore huh?

@Milton_br

I reckon you've found the issue mate.... This looks like something that Apple could easily fix and release within a day...

Some people are trying to say this is a hardware issue but I disagree. It is happening with way to many people on 3.1 and on both 3G and 3GS. I am sure it is some combination of things that cause it and that's why many people have not had it happen yet. Maybe even as simple as certain ATT cell towers. If you have a good copy of the Iphone I suggest waiting. I just got a replacment 3GS a couple weeks ago that has no dust, no bad pixels, no yellow tint etc so I am not going to chance swapping it out.

Mine was very strange yesterday at work. I picked it up and for 2 hours I could turn it on or reset it. It was dead. I held down both buttons for minutes and nothing. I could not connect to Itunes or even put it in DFU mode. At 5pm when I left and got in my car I hit the power button and the Apple logo came on and it booted fine. I did have it connected to the wifi at work and when I got in my car it was out of range. Strange.

I love my iPhone, but there should be no reason why my primary business connection should be going out like that. Were talking loosing money here. Thats why they have beta testers, to test all this stuff completly before they put it out. Not like the phone was unusable, but I don't have all day to sit around waiting for the next "coma" to start. I have a business to run and things to do. This isn't a recreational phone. This is serious.

Message was edited by: fiberopticsguy

And as for it being a hardware issue, I think that's a croc, my phone was perfectly fine before this update. So I shoulden't have done this whole applecare thing, but what else am I to do? I need a working phone, and this was just at the advice of them to swap it out due to "hardware" issues.

Message was edited by: fiberopticsguy

Now I'm just wondering exactly how many people there are out there really having this issue and either dealing with it, trying to go back on their own will, calling applecare, ect... I'm sure apple would have to know by now... At least we hope.

I just got back from the Apple Store. They replaced my iPhone 3G with 3.1. My phone was still under warranty.

Good luck with your iPhones.

How has apple not released a statement on the support website about this issue? What legal action can we take, sure my phone is out of "warranty" but this is Apples fault. is this the new marketing strategy to sell more phones break the ones already sold in hopes that some people will buy again.

Yeah my 8GB 3G is just out of warranty, but it is obviously a software issue. From what I've read, people with replacement phones on 3.1 are still experiencing the problem. The only reason why replacement phones are working is because most of them are coming with 3.0.1 still installed.

It begs the question though, what exactly is Apple's obligation if a software update they issue breaks phones out of warranty?

I lost a day and a half! My iPhone locks up, when I dial out... I hear my voice and the call never completes. When others call me, my iPhone doesn't ring and the incoming call goes directly to voice mail but doesn't show in the voice mail or recent calls list. It seems that this started getting worse about the time of the 3.1 update.
From time to time, when typing, the phone just hangs there... not letting my type nor showing what I typed. When I slide to unlock when a call comes in the slide will not go or it wont answer or hang up the phone! I am just out of warranty... what can I do. Is there a fix? Do I have a lemon?