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How to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Freezing issues?

I just got my new phone today and I'm trying to transfer everything over from my old phone via the iCloud setup. I got through all of the initial setup screens but now that I'm on the home screen, the phone keeps freezing if I try to open any application. It either doesn't open the app at all, or the app opens and then becomes non-responsive, and then after a few minutes the screen goes black and shows a small loading icon and eventually goes back to the lock screen.


In addition, power + volume button reset method doesn't work, so there's no way to force a restart to see if that fixes the problem


[Re-Titled By Moderator]

iPhone 16 Pro Max

Posted on Sep 20, 2024 12:48 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 4:04 AM

What a painfully horrible user experience. I've never had such problems upgrading my iPhone as I am going from my old 13 Pro Max 256 GB to my new 16 Pro Max 256 GB. I backed up my old phone and started the restore from iCloud last night at 5:24 PM with 52.9 GB remaining (which is weird, because I backed up my old 13 Pro Max and Apple said it was only 37 GB in size...whatever). By 11:06 PM last night I still had 32 GB to restore. I went to bed, woke up at 6:22 AM and there's still 24.1 GB left to restore!!! That's insane.

104 replies

Sep 20, 2024 1:20 PM in response to technabob

I managed to restart using this process:

1 Press and quickly release the volume up button.

2 Press and quickly release the volume down button.

3 Press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo (this takes around 10 seconds).


But that didn't solve the issue and the iPhone keeps freezing and going to the black screen with the spinny icon.

Oct 12, 2024 8:48 AM in response to technabob

got a new Verizon - apple 16 pro max -


booted up fine and transfer started - software update downloaded and started to install - the phone went to sleep. When swiping up - I saw a flash of the code screen and went back to the hello screen.


i tired to shut it down but only saw a flash of swipe off screen - but will not active


I have done a volume up, volume down and hold power - it reboots and goes back to the same scenario.


the phone is very warm.


apple support had me to plug phone to my Mac- iTunes and the Mac does not recognize the phone either- it’s does show charging - nothing else


apple support said the heat was due to being hung up in the update.


i have appt Monday…. Just wondered if anyone had any miracles cures ….


this has been so frustrating to say the least


needless to say- these were upgrades and the rest of the phones went good


this is my wife’s and the last to activate…. Arghhh!



Sep 21, 2024 5:21 AM in response to ATCDrew

The same thing is happening to me. It’s very frustrating. I left the phone alone all night, thinking that there were some thing in the background that was still being in indexed or something. But the same thing this morning. I just made an appointment with the genius bar. I hope they can look at some of the error logs and tell me if it’s hardware or if there’s a conflict with one of my apps. I made your iOS 18 and all my apps that had updates were updated. I don’t really feel like taking all my apps off and reacting them one by one that would take hours to do.

Sep 27, 2024 8:56 PM in response to technabob

Had the same problem with iPhone 16pro. Spent 48 hours trying to download and reboot over and over. Tried everything else but finally used the restore from Mac and transfer from old phone. Still having lots of issues though. This has been a total nightmare of a transfer from iPhone 14pro to 16 pro. Apple should be ashamed of what a horrible user experience this has been for so many especially when they are charging such a ridiculous price for the new iPhone pro. Far from a pro experience. Really have gone downhill and not even acknowledging the issue and training their staff on how to support the fix. What happened to this once proud company. This would never have happened under Job’s watch.

Oct 16, 2024 12:43 PM in response to technabob

I had the freezing issue on the 16 pro as i was transferring data from the 15. I tried the hard reset - vol up/down and then pressing the right upper button. did not work. I also tried plugging the phone into the mac and trying to find it in "Finder". did not show up. I went to the apple store.....Problem solved the following way. First connect your phone to your Mac. Then start the hard reset process detailed above and in other emails. make sure you press a while on the right upper button until you see the Apple logo on the phone. The phone will then show up in "Finder". You will get the option to "restore" at this moment. Success in getting the phone working. I did the icloud restore vs direct phone transfer. Good luck

How to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Freezing issues?

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