Q: Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update

Sounds very similar to this thread as well...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151766&tstart=0

My input there was as follows :-
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To add my 'two penneth' to this, my problems started yesterday when I had an unresponsive iPhone 3g 3.1 twice. I upgraded the day the update came out.
I had push mail enabled but not wi-fi so I can only conclude my issues are not wi-fi related as others have eluded.
Viewing this forum indicated it may be related to calls and the phone hangs rather than always requiring a hard reset. This seems to bear out as I managed to accidentally take a screen dump of my iPhone during the second reset when I was pressing the home/power buttons after receiving a call
Last night, for no apparent reason I also had a message to say the iPhone had been activated - strange as it already was. During the next sync to iTunes I noticed that the name of the iPhone had changed back to its default though the content was OK.
So I decided to restore the phone last night and as yet I have had no lockups.
I have however found an issue relating to calls that could be classed as an unresponsive iPhone.
I call the iPhone and answer the call (or not) then hang up. Immediately calling the iPhone back takes me straight to voicemail, even though it is possible to make outgoing calls and I have good reception. Repeating the test but leaving about 1 min between calls results in OK results for both calls.
Now obviously I don't know if I had this issue before as I have no idea if someone called me immediately after I hung up another call. Not had any voicemails left anyway.
Seems highly likely this is related to 3.1 and its knocking my confidence in my iPhone to the point where I am putting off my upgrade to a 3GS.
Please would someone from Apple at least acknowledge this forum message. There are 220 replies and nearly 16500 views. This would indicate quite a widespread issue, which, if its like my experience, may be passing alot of people by.

Count me in this hard lock is a real pain I am missing calls because I don't even know when it locks.

My Simple (but inelegant) solution to "Mysterious Crashes" :

Like many here the 3.1 update has been crashing my phone 7-10 times daily and I've read through most of the monster thread but nothing REALLY works. I think I may have one that does though.

I noticed that it has NEVER happened while I was doing something with the phone, it only crashes when it goes to sleep but putting it at constant "on" (no locking) ***** the batt dry fast AND makes for a lot of "accidental button presses".

So here's my solution: Have the ipod playing something ALL THE TIME. Turn the volume to zero if you don't really want to listen to it but keep it playing. Once its playing go to the home screen and use the phone as normal (You can lock it it will not crash). So far batt life obviously takes a hit (not as much as having the backlight on though) but I have had ZERO crashes so far! Once the music stopped playing by itself (probably a crash) BUT it didnt put the phone in a coma! I just pressed play again and it was fine.

This solution works for me, please tell me if it works for you too. Let's hope Apple fixes this soon though, this is just terrible!

I've dealt with the lock ups since 3.1 came out and have tried most of the fixes suggested in this thread. I finally spoke with an Apple CSR and he had me use iTunes to remove all my apps from the phone. Since I did that I have not had a single crash in two days. I plan on adding back apps in groups of three each day to see how the phone holds up. If I find a culprit I will post it.

The app removal and reloading approach sounds intriguing. I'm going to try that, will post any results (if I find them), and look forward to reading others'!

Absolutely having the same issue multiple times per day. Can't wake my phone except with a hard reboot. Solutions?

Good luck with removing apps. My wife has a 3G with only 2 apps on it (The Bible and The Weather Channel), I've restored it to a new phone (no backup) twice from 2 different computers, and it still has the same shutdown problems everyone else is describing.

What's really got me mad is that before I found this forum topic (with 39 pages and growing) I took it to an Apple store and they were the 1st ones to tell me it was a software problem and that a complete restore would fix it. When that didn't work, I then spent 45 minutes on the phone with Apple tech support who told me it was out of warranty but I could get another one at the Apple store for $199. They NEVER EVEN ACKNOWLEDGED that this was an ongoing problem with so many 3G owners who installed the 3.1 software.

As a side note, her iPhone is synced to a Windows laptop, because that's what she uses. I haven't seen any indication that this matters, but I am curious if it happens regardless of what platform you use to sync the phone.

Hi from Belgium,
i had the same problem as everyone else after 3.1 update on my 3g.
No jailbreak, nothing special
I've try this:
. no push,
. No autolock
and since this morning, no crash.... I wait....
It' really bad that Apple don't react, because I can't trust my phone for the moment for my phone communication, Luckelly I use another phone I've keep instead of selling (a nokia E61) and wait for a real solution from Apple. :(((((((((((((((((

Seems I am not alone, but with one difference. I am having all of the same issues as everyone else (random periodic 'coma' locks), but I am NOT running 3.1 - I am on 3.0.1.

This happened to me very frequently and I got a replacement phone from the Genius Bar, only to have this issue continue. It is actually worse with the new hardware as I am having significant battery issues that were not a problem with the old phone.

I have a 16GB iPhone 3G Black.

Message was edited by: gscottcurrie

Hi from Belgium,
Bad news! :((((( just block now!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I love my iphone but if nothing change very soon,I will return to Nokia!!! and a ipodtouch for
special softwares (Omnisfocus,HP41cx, Facebook,...)
S.D.
http://www.diamondsoftware.net

I have the same problem and shows apple has a poor testing system in place. The battery life for my phone when not in use is lass then 4 hrs. Push is off and notifacation is manuel. The mail program is unstable and take up to 3 tries to get it to come up. I thought it was my install so i RESET my phone to factory and installed the 3.1 OS DID NOT USE RESTORE and my battery life was the same. The phone turned off 2 times in 24 hrs and my text messaging has a long randum 1+ hr delay.
The worst part of the 3.1 OS is I cant go back to 3.0.1 without a jailbreak.

Additional problems with the update is the ipod app podcast feature is crap. The list is in a random order not by date and i can't figure out what the sort criteria is? The audio stream is choppy and unstable and will jump at times to a random track not next in the order which is scrambled.
My camera will start some times but if i try to jump to the pic list i end up in the home screen most of the time.

I am very disappointed with apple on this update and they MUST supply a downgrade feature in itune to allow us to go back to the stable and reliable OS system if a update causes these types of problems.

Ok, I posted this in other topics, but never saw any replies, so I'll post it again. The following instructions are very time consuming (up to 2 hours or more in some cases), requires erasing your phone (so save anything important, and DO NOT rely on the iTunes backup for retrieving the data), and only work on Macs (I don't know or have Windoze procedures for this, so don't ask).

1. Plug in your iPhone to an AC outlet (not your computer) and go to Settings>General>Reset>Erase All Content and Settings. This will take some time. It will also take the phone back to factory settings, just as it was when it came out of the box, so if you have a 3G, that will most likely mean OS 2.x. Once you've started this process, set the phone aside.

2. On your Mac, navigate to your Home folder Mac HD>Users>Your Home Folder, from there navigate to Library>iTunes>iPhone Software Updates. In there you will see a file who's name will be SIMILAR to iPhone1,23.1_7C144Restore.ipsw. Move this file to the trash and delete it.

3. Once your phone has completed the erase/reset process, connect it to your Mac. When iTunes opens and your phone shows up, click the "Check for update" button. This will download a NEW copy of the 3.1 update from Apples servers.

4. Once the download is complete and iTunes has updated your phone with the fresh copy of the 3.1 update you've just downloaded, it will be time to set up your phone. DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACKUP!!!! Restoring from backup will most likely restore the problem you're trying to get rid of! Now, when iTunes gives you the option, you want to SET UP AS A NEW PHONE. Once that is complete, re-sync your data. Again, NOT FROM BACKUP.

This has resolved many issues for most of the people that used this restore method, but it's not a guarantee. The reason behind these steps is that performing a basic restore does not remove the 3.1 firmware currently installed on your phone, which may have been corrupted during the installation nor does it remove the copy of the 3.1 firmware package on your Mac which may also have been corrupted during the download. Further reasoning behind this is that these steps take your phone back to a 2.x version of iPhone OS (if you have a 3G), and you'll be upgrading from 2.x directly to 3.1, bypassing all of the incremental updates in between (2.1, 2.2, 2.2.1, 3.0, 3.0.1, etc...). If someone has success with this (I did after problems when moving up from 2.2.1 to 3.0), please report back so that others will feel more comfortable performing such a daunting task.

G

I've had random lockups for about a week since I updated to 3.1 last week and I'm really annoyed that despite phoning applecare and the genius bar I am no where near solving this problem. Genius bar even told me it was becuase my phone was water damaged!

Apple is an absolute joke for not recognizing this problem already. Unfortunatly, I will not be buying my wife a 3GS for Christmas due to these constant technical problems. Im missing calls and appoinments due to their little 'glitch'. Sorry Apple you have lost another customer.

There are more users NOT having problems than there are users that are. I'm not. How do you know that the 3GS that you're no longer buying for your wife would have any problems?