iPhone freezing and restarting after iOS 16.1.1 Update

Hello,

I had the same problem. I don't know why but iOS16.1.1 made my iPhone crazy and kept crashing and restarting every 10 minutes. here is how I fixed it.

1- For those who are able to have a backup from their data(for me it was not possible. every time I tried to take a backup, my phone crashed after 2min), take a backup on your laptop or iCloud( I was lucky, I had a backup of my images on iCloud) and then restore and update your phone.

2- Connect your phone to your laptop and from the iTunes app click on restore and update.

3- It will ask for a backup but select don't back up and continue the update.

4- After updating your phone to iOS16.2 the problem will be fixed.

5- Now you can restore your data.

Hello, I have the very same problem, and I tried all the solutions above (force restarting, deleting apps etc) it doesn't work at all. I'm also trying to make a backup on my MacBook but it doesn't work either because the iphone is basically shutting down so the backup comes to its half and then it disappears.

I'm so disappointed, my iPhone was totaly functionnal I didn't have any problem with it since I got it, it all started with the 16.1 update. Right now I'm on a trip in a country in which I can't find any Apple Store so it's not possible for me to go to them for fixing it, not mentionning the fact that the warranty is over for a year now, and I really need my phone to work !! Even sharing connection from my iphone to my MacBook is a struggle because it keeps shutting down so I can't even work properly or connect to any meeting online.

I'm gonna try to make a full backup by buying more storage on iCloud I hope it will work, otherwise I will be forced to destroy all my data... Shame !

Hey i've been having the same issue it started about a week ago. I went to T- mobile which is my carrier and they told me to just make sure and update to the most recent IOS 16.2 so i did but the problem of the phone freezing and restarting keeps happening. Now i will be going to apple store to have it checked hopefully it can be resolved because its really annoying.

Me too!! I force restart just so it doesn’t take too long until it restarts by itself, once it freezes I have to restart it. And it doesn’t help at all. It’s so frustrating. I already spoke with apple support and they did a diagnostic test and said everything is fine with my phone, so I have to go in person and see what’s the issue. It only started freezing after the ios 16 update.

Hi,

could you tell me more on how you restored your phone?

I am facing the same issue.

should I do a factory restart?

I heard doing that won’t really fix the issue since it will still upload the 16.2 iOS so the software which has the issue will still be there.

would appreciate your guidance here and detailed steps of how you did the restore since I am facing the same issue and Apple support has been no help.

I am facing the same issue. I have an SE 2. Its so frustrating because I am neither able to update my phone to the 16.2 update nor am I able to backup my data on my PC. The phone just freezes and restarts as soon as I start the update or start to back it up. I don't know what to do. Had gone at the Apple Support Centre, the guy asked me to get my battery replaced which is at 81% battery health. I don't think changing battery is the problem here but I don't seem to find any solution to this.

So to everyone. Basically the fastest way to back up iphone is to do it via back up on Mac / windows and you need to minimize your storage . So what I did was transfer my photos to my windows pc within 10-15 min time frame ( 200 photos at a time then delete those photos) and yes it will take a good amount of time, but you have no choice because it’s a software glitch. Then after you reduce your storage you should be able to back up your iPhone within 10 min and then you should fully restore you iPhone. Hopefully this helps

I had the same issue. Apple Support spent around an hour and 30 min with me, and told me I had to see a technician and that it was likely a hardware issue. I knew it was definitely not hardware, it’s software. I recommend backing up everything in iCloud, and resetting it to factory settings. It’s worked for me!

Thank you for the super helpful advice, my XS max just kept freezing and then restarting and I just couldn’t figure out a way to fix it. Finally got around to try this and it really fixed the issue. I did not get my hopes up but I’m so glad it worked.

I could’t think that the problem to could be anything else than a software issue, my phone worked totally fine like 15-20 minutes before there was another freeze and a restart.

This could be excellent information to have in a regular troubleshooting page from apple straight away. Many are going to get their phone fixed in a store, which is pretty pointless with issues like this where you can easily fix the problem by yourself.

I had the same issue for a week now. All the tricks I could find failed. Both iCloud and iTunes backup (tried both Mac and Windows) failed due to restarting. I brought my phone to Genius Bar and they helped me to force-update IOS to 16.2. Sadly, it didn't fix the problem. Now I just hope my data got backed up. Very disappointed...

Okay guys I went to the Apple Store and I fixed the phone so here is the solution.

The problem is related to the motherboard : when it’s overheating the phone just freezes and shut itself down (for safety reasons ig) so I’m sorry to say that it’s a hardware problem not a software one.

It may be linked to water : if you drowned your iPhone under water too long or under salted water it may have affected it system and caused that issue (don’t know about you but it was the case for me tbh) ; and the fact that problems started with the iOS 16 update is imo because it requires more capacity than the past iOS (they didn’t specifically tell me about that, just assuming myself).

Thing is that changing the whole motherboard may cost you fees (for me it was under the european law protection because I bought my iPhone within two years ago but it may not be your case, and initially the costs were 546€).

If you don’t want to spend that money and you still wanna save the content of your iPhone to change for a new one, I may suggest you a few things :

1. Buy some sufficient storage on iCloud and save your iPhone on it, not on your computer. I tried several times saving my phone on my MacBook but it failed everytime, I think it’s because charging the phone heats it at the same time so it’s just accelerating the issue. Then I bought 2tb on the iCloud and I tried to save my iPhone without plugging it, and it finally worked (not without many failures before tho).

2. Try to keep your phone cold. First time this issue appeared for me I was in a hot country (even tho the weather was quite cold) and when I went back to France with -2°C temperature the iPhone started to shut down way less frequently.

3. I found a weird solution that I’m not so sure about but it worked for me once : one time I started a call on WhatsApp and the iPhone shut down, so I restarted the call right after rebooting it and voilà : it stayed for 4 hours long, I was actually very surprised because it was the first time that it lasted more than 15 minutes. But I tried it two times after that and it didn’t work so not sure about it but hey it is still worth it to try.

Hope you’ll find a solution, don’t hesitate to tell me if some of those advices worked !

The only way , for me at least was to factory reset my phone , tried every trick and it didn’t work , if ur phone is iCloud backed up , do the erase all and skip the back up part , because it turns off if u do the back up while u are backing up , but after the factory reset , my phone hasn’t been giving me any problem.

I have the same problem and my phone keep shutting down and restarting itself every 5-10 minutes even when I am asleep. It is so frustrating and Apple needs to update their iOS 16 asap!!!!!!!

fyi or everyone with this issue force restart does not work to resolve this issue. All it does is restart the phone faster when it freezes but it still re freezes after 10-15 min for me