Is anyone having issues with messages with iOS 16.4.1?

I tried cycling the "AppleID -> iCloud -> Messages" button --> initially received a "Messages have not been fully downloaded to this iPhone" warning and hit cancel, then rebooted and did it again, cancelled again (was assuming they would eventually fully download).

Have not had the problem recur for the past 12 hours, but hard to say if it's cycling the button or just the passage of ~4 days of time. Hard to be sure it's fully resolved after 12 hours but I rebooted perhaps 10-15 times yesterday to be able to respond to work texts with an average reboot to failure time of 15-30 mins, so I think it's solved for now.

Of note, I have about 14GB of messages storage total.

I have two phone 13 mini's , one for work and one for personal. I had this issue on my work phone after the upgrade. I played with several configuration settings around the messages. the one that seems to work in my case was under my appleid -> Icloud -> Messages . I enabled the synch to icloud and then after, I think I set it back to disabled. That seemed to resolve the freezing for me, so far. let me know if this works for anyone else. good luck.

After restarting iPhone, the messages app will work for a few minutes. I can't turn the phone off by pressing voice up button & side button but settings' shut down button. iPhone 12.

I called Apple Support. The choices are

1) wait for the next update and not sure when

2) reset the phone as a new.

It's so annoying.

I found a solution that finally did the trick for me! I came across this suggestion on a post from a couple of years ago for network problems following an iOS update — pop open the SIM card tray, shut down and restart iPhone, then close the SIM card tray. I have no idea why this would have any effect on this particular problem, but it seems to have fixed it for me.

This is the exact issue that I had iPhone SE2, considering I use the text service a lot it was very annoying that it only started to do this a few days ago, I also found strange Bluetooth issues in the car when I was unable to hang calls up, have spend hours trying all the other fixes, non of which worked except 2) so far no crashes and text works fine and is a lot quicker, will wait for another call in the car before I can say that it has fixed that also, backup your data to the iCloud and reset the phone to default erasing all content then restoring your iCloud account, thanks for sharing this :)

Thanks for the tip on "personal hotspot" - I gave it a try but unfortunately same issue.

After a reboot, Messages works and the standard "Vol Up + Power Btn" can be used to reset phone. After error occurs, Messages UI is unresponsive (white screen / black screen --> going homescreen / switched focus away and then back again can get it to redraw the last known screen but remains hung / unresponsive to screen presses), and the "Vol Up + Power Btn" can NOT be used to reset phone after error.

Post-error, can still reset phone using the "Vol Up, Vol Down, Hold Power Btn" hard reset process. I'm guessing this all has to do with the kernel level updates on 16.4.1 resulting in some hung process given that the phone is unresponsive to soft reboot in addition to Messages hang. Happy to provide logs for this easily reproducible problem if any developer ends up on this thread (I wish...). Meanwhile I am resetting my iPhone every 15-30 mins so I can respond to work needs.

Not sure if this will help, turn on your personal hotspot if not already. I have another iPhone running 16.4.1 and no issues on that one. I turned on personal hotspot on the one I am having issues, rebooted and don’t want to jinx, so far so good. I hope it helps

You can shut down the device in the Settings. Go to Settings > General > scroll to the bottom and you'll see Shut Down.

You can also ask Siri to restart your device.

Exactly the same issue on my iPhone 12. After a restart messages works normally for a short time, then what appears to be time rather than usage dependance, becomes UI unresponsive. Killing it and restarting doesn’t fix, but a device reboot allows it to return to normal for a little while again.

Oddly, my iPhone 13 Pro that runs an essentially identical list of apps and settings is running 16.4.1 with no issues.

JeskaPearl wrote:

Where are the replies from Apple?? All I see is the same complaint from users!!!

This is a user-to-user forum. Apple's participation here is minimal and largely limited to making sure everyone follows the rules.

If you want to discuss the matter directly with Apple, you can start with the Support link at the bottom left of every page of these forums.

I’m having the same issues with Messages and Messenger, as well as not being able to use the side buttons to turn the phone off after updating to 16.4.1. I am able to use the Shut Down option in Settings>General or Siri (as you mentioned). I have deleted Messenger and reinstalled it, but that did not solve the problem.

I have tried both the “sync to iCloud” toggle suggestion and the personal hotspot suggestion and neither has worked for me. I am still having to reboot my phone (through Settings or Siri, side buttons still not working) multiple times per day. Hoping for another system update soon!

Same issue here as well, any suggestions on how to fix?

I experience the same short term fix with a reboot and agree that the failure seems more time dependent that usage based. I’m having this problem on an iPhone 13 Pro running 16.4.1.

I cannot access privacy and security and google map isnt working and my location too. A lot of problems i need to go back to the previous software how i can do that please help 😢