iPhone 14 became unresponsive after iOS 17.2.1 update

We are facing this issue on more than 40 devices updated to 17.2 and now to 17.2.1, nothing better.

We target the contacts part in between our Outlook mobile apps (deployed with intune) with the save contacts option enabled. Once we disable IT and goes to the help and do a "Delete All saved contacts" the device works fine again. Doing this remove the Caller ID, as we do not have any more pour contacts on the native apps.

We have the same issue. Observation if you have enabled restriction of "Opening documents from managed to unmanaged apps not allowed" in your device restriction profile this issue occurs. It seems the MDM stack is buggy in iOS 17.2 updates. If we remove the above-mentioned restriction the calling functionality works without any issue.

This issue worsens if the contact list is on the higher side, that's the reason only selective users are impacted for calling functionality. We impacted users were had a contact list of more than 10k. Those with a lower number of contacts say under 4k didn't have any issues with calling.

We seem to have identified InTune as the issue here now. Once the InTune profile is installed we see the issue. If we remove the profile it seems to be back to normal. So, it looks like an InTune/ios 17.2.1 conflict.

Anyonr else seeing this?

We manage our devices via Intune, however I don't think Intune is at fault. I've read some other posts where users with large numbers of contacts are seeing duplication happening. When duplication happens with large numbers of contacts, battery drain occurs, contact searching fails and WhatsApp calling also fails.

We sync around 4k contacts to the device via the outlook app. Microsoft have an article around duplication and that Apple needs to provide better sync capabilities as (even before recent updates) duplication can occur.

As I understand it, Apple created some contact issues in 17.1 (we didn't see any issues), but resolved these in 17.2 (when we started to see duplication issues, battery drain etc.....).

If you delete contacts and turn off sync, issues go away. This isn't a good solution though as WhatsApp then cannot find contacts to call etc.... WhatsApp cannot discover contacts via outlook unfortunately.

I see someone write about restriction policies in this post, but have not tried that yet. Also, not tried siri services disabling for contacts. Something I will test, however these restrictions are probably not something we want to change.

Overall, duplication of contacts seems to be causing lots of issues. The contacts app appears to be very inefficient, especially since recent updates. I suspect contacts app is consuming lots of resources on the device, certainly noticeable when deleting and recreating contwxts, as the device gets quite hot.

One other thing I need to test is to recreate contacts via outlook, export these contacts from the contacts app, delete all contacts and disable any syncs, finally import the exported contacts. Not ideal, but if sync is causing all the issues with it, it will at least give users a point in time contacts list that will not update automatically.

Quick edit - worthwhile checking how many contacts you have in the contacts app. If it is unreasonably large and increasing, you probably are experiencing what we are seeing. Also, check the amount of storage the contacts app is using, perhaps how match battery it is using too.

With the GA release of iOS/iPadOS 17.4 today - it would appear that updating to this version has improved the battery life and performance issues for the scenario where users have 4000 - 11000 Contacts (Outlook / iCloud).

Testing on my (Intune managed) devices seems promising thus far - has anyone else updated and have seen similar results?

We saw massive improvement with phone app performance with 17.4 RC build. With 17.4 already available, it is expected to fix the issue.

Well, just confirming that from our experience, 17.4 has indeed resolved the issue. All good! :)

There may be some isolated cases where performance is still sluggish (particularly with Outlook) - for these devices, try factory resetting them (while on the 17.4 GA build) and then register them back to MDM from scratch. This had fixed the small handful of those that had persistent issues.

The issue lies with iOS, so we need to wait for Apple's update.

I've attempted various solutions (including multiple visits to their service center ).

One successful workaround for the past five hours is to disable Siri and Search—contacts are now searchable at least.

phone is back to normal for now

all the best folks

This is what Apple suggested to me.

- Disabling the following options in Settings

              Contacts > Siri & search:

              • Show App in search

              • Show Contact suggestions

- Reducing the number of duplicates contacts on the device

I have not validated this with anyone other than it being related to a large number of Contacts.

Each user that is having the issue has a lot of Contacts.

I had this same issue and my issue is coming from the device management from my company. We use the MSFT Intune Company Portal app. When I remove my company’s device management on my phone then the phone works fine. My company is now pointing the finger at Microsoft and Apple and Microsoft and Apple are pointing the finger back at my Company. Good times.

Here are some common solutions you can attempt:

1. Follow the Apple article to resolve the issue --> If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won't turn on or is frozen ...
2. If not resolved; please follow the steps in the following link for support with this issue: If your iOS device restarts or displays the Apple logo or a spinning gear unexpectedly
3. Sometimes, a simple restart can resolve temporary software glitches. Turn off your iPhone, wait for a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
   1. Restart the device. That's it.
   2. Still not solved --> Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
4. Make sure you have the latest updates installed. Update using iTunes/Finder —> Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support (IN)
5. You still see a black screen after charging, force restarting, following the steps in this article.
   1. You see a black screen, but you can hear alerts, sounds, and vibrations.
   2. The screen remains black, but the device chirps when you unmute it and connect it to power.
   3. Your screen is on, but it doesn't respond when you tap, slide, or try other gestures. 
   4. You can't force your device to restart because a button is broken or stuck.
   5. Your device is stuck on the Apple logo, displays a solid color, or isn't recognized in iTunes.
   6. Contact Apple Support to set up service if you have any of the above issues:
6. Please follow the steps in the following Apple Video for support with this issue:

If none of the above steps resolve the issue, it is recommended to reach out to Apple Support or visit an authorized service center for further assistance. They can provide specific guidance based on your device model and iOS version.

I commented on this post, relating to intune. With devices we manage, I think it is the contacts sync that causes issues. If you remove a device from intune, it will probably not be exporting all the contacts to the device, so I would expect you would no longer see the issue. I could be wrong in your case, but worth a look.

I have seen some work done with duplicate contacts still there, working with one that has almost 40k contacts (10 times what it should be), but the sluggishness remains. Getting them to try and remove all the contacts (don't trust any third party app and tested a couple to no avail) that were synced from outlook. Hoping this works, but will probably try the full reset and re-enrollment if it does not.

I've noticed most issues being where users have shared and delegate inboxes in outlook.

We're having exactly the same issue. iPhone 12 Pro updated to iOS 17.2.1 and became unresponsive making calls, WhatsApp messages and random inputs. Battery also getting very hot. Replaced phone for user with iPhone 15 Pro and restored backup from first device. Same issue then. We did a factory reset (but obviously now with 17.2.1 as base OS) still same issue. Was on with Apple support for over 40 minutes and they couldn't find the issue. Mobile operator is not the problem. Again, we're IT too - issue is infuriating and seems to be OS related