How to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Freezing issues?

so there was still like 30 GB remaining. what i did was to restart. when it restarts, the first few seconds are crucial before it freezes again, so just click on settings and wait. dont force it or it will freeze again. Then go to General and then transfer/reset option, choose the first option to reset. Then choose reset all settings. I wasnt sure if it will erase all I already done. To my surprise, it did reset stuff and restarted without me going through all the setup again like new phone. When it came up, all apps were downloaded and showing and all was showing up fine and issue gone :) I think maybe something in my old settings from old phone was messing it up. Not sure, but anyways, I may need to fix stuff again like my dark settings etc, but I dont care. Things are running fine now. Phew.

Have encounter the same problem.. the only thing that is effective right now is to do transfer phone to phone… back up from icloud will make the phone freeze..Can’t do backup via itunes as well, that is why i factory reset my ip16 pro then do the phone to phone transfer from my ip13 promax and now it work smoothly..

To fix the freeze/black screen won’t start issue is simple:

1. Press and quick release the volume up button.

2. Press and quick release the volume down button.

3. Press and hold the power button only until Apple logo appears.

That’s it!

I can confirm that just resetting the settings (setting > general > Transfer or reset iPhone > Reset > Reset all settings) after icloud restore is finished, the phone starts behaving normal.

YOU DON'T NEED TO WIPE AND RESTORE AGAIN FROM THE OLD PHONE.

I received my new 16 Pro yesterday and came here because I was experiencing this exact problem. The first time I tried to transfer data and apps from my 14 Pro the process failed, so I restored an iCloud backup from a few hours earlier. I had been on the Developer Beta of iOS 18, but had downloaded the Gold Master and turned off beta updates on the 13th of September.

Once the restore from iCloud process completed, the new 16 Pro would freeze on most inputs and then restart. That's what brought me here. Starting again and choosing to transfer apps and data from the 14 Pro (it worked this time) solved the problem. I opted to save the eSIM when resetting the 16 Pro before this, but the reset removed my Watch, so I had to reset that too to pair it to the 16 Pro.

All in all, a frustrating process that took up far more hours of Monday than it should have.

I had this problem too. I was able to wipe my phone and start over with the phone to phone transfer via cable. And after a few hours I finally have a functioning phone. (This was typed from the new phone so you know it worked)

I was in the same boat. Phone kept freezing and having to restart it multiple times, but the iCloud wouldn’t download. I went into the Apple Store today and worked with one of the specialists. He Reloaded the software and we tried again, but it still wouldn’t work. Next, he completely wiped my new phone and we started the whole process again not using the iCloud option. I just had my old phone sitting next to the new phone. The process took about 45 minutes and everything seems to be working now. I still have some apps that haven’t downloaded yet, but he says those should download once I get home and sign into my own Wi-Fi. Phone isn’t lagging and seems to be operating correctly. Very frustrating process but glad it’s all done.

So I had this issue as well. After initial setup and restoring iCloud backup the phone kept freezing, became unresponsive, and restarting. After it froze and restarted, I was able to reboot it immediately. It was then stable enough to completely erase it (except for eSIM) and start the setup process over. I then restored it directly from my old phone. It hasn’t frozen as all since.

Had to spend 5 hrs in Apple Store- got new phone but did same so they thought iCloud backup was corrupted so they used older I could back up from old phone before purchase that was on list of prior updates and seemed to work - their cloud so glad it worked

Disabling wifi 7 on my network seems to have fixed the issue, and it is working now.

I backed up my iPhone 16 Pro (actively experiencing issues) to my Mac and restored the phone from Mac.

No lagging, freezing, or restarts since then.

Based on this, it seems that iCloud backups are the root cause of the issue.

This morning my new iPhone 16 pro went into something called a boot loop, never heard of this until I went back to the Apple Store. They tried updating and it failed, tried restoring and that failed, kept getting error messages and it they finally determined that there is a hardware issue. I went ahead and ordered a replacement, the staff was great in trying to help but a major disappointing experience since I’m now without a phone for 5 to 10 days!

I have been going through the same thing! I went to Apple and they replaced my iPhone 16 Pro Max after doing a diagnostics test which showed a failure for system reliability.

After restoring from iCloud on the new phone, the same issue occurred. I figured out that it was the iCloud backup that was causing the issue. You may want to reset the device and start fresh. I know it sucks but it works now.