iOS 5.0.1 Crashing iPhone 3GS

I'm having the same problem. I restored my phone from backup and it fixed the problem for about a month. The trick was to delete all settings AND DATA before the restore. I restored without deleting all data and it did not fix the problem. Another thread on here suggests a 3GS user experienced the problem after taking pictures with the camera and suggested the problem may be an IOS 5 incompatability with 3GS camera image files. They fixed the problem by deleting their recent pictures and the problem was fixed. I am going to experiment with this if it happens again rather than deleting all the data on my phone.

Apple tech's are you on here listening?? Lots of people having this problem with 3GS.

I'm having the same issues, not sure about the battery though, it also reboots when connected with cable. tried everything mentioned. sometimes it reboots after 3 minutes somtimes it works for a couple of hours (when in standby) i ordered a new battery to see if that solves the problem.

Downgrade does not seem too work. error 3194. it's now pretty much useless. You would think a big company like apple would acknowledge the issues and come out with a solution or at least somekind of statement. But i guess when you make incredible profit you don't worry about that. there's no need just buy a new iphone 4...

thanks Fahroe,

I tried it, but for me it doesn't work. It's problebly the battery combined with some oxidation of the connector pins. When trying to update i get all kinds of errors. and somtimes the iphone gives somekind off application error concerning power cable. (right now it's fine...) when i place the new batterij I will try and clean it.

Hopefully that wil end my troubles.

mzzl (means goodbye in dutch)

Same here. Works perfekt for a week after udating to 5.0.1, until it just drain off. and than the reboot problem startup. i tryed lots of things but not helped. then it suddently stay on, after 10 times of rebooting. i was thinking that it were just a software and i removed it. but two day later it start suddently again when battery drain off. it took me 3 hour to get it startet up. it just stock on apple logo and then i have to get it in dfu mode and then back. and all that reboot 1-2 minut problems comes up again and again. i will say there is a big bugs in that 5.0.1. nothing to do... never happend before on 4.0.1....hope it will be fixed for next ios update.

My iPhone 3GS can now only be used as a paperweight!!!

I've upgraded the OS and after sometime it froze, then hanged-up!

I tried restoring it to factory settings and it worked for a while until it hanged again.

Now I can not even do a factory restore and my phone wont even turn on!

Apple, this is really stupid and frustrating!!!

You have to pay for all the inconvenience this has caused me.

Your online support doesnt work for me either.Tell me, how are you supposed to give me a call when my phone is not even working?

I lost my trust in Apple. What a rip-off this has been!

Well, after 24 hours reprieve by doing a hard reset, wiping all my data, then restoring through Itunes - it crashed mid conversation again. SO, I tried all of the other tricks I have read about here (except buying a new battery and invalidating teh technology entirely by changing the hardware config), and I got 12 hours of no crashing. This morning, it crashed again.

I am SO fed up - I am seriously debating starting a Facebook iPhone boycott (already have 12 members). Apple haven't been in touch to help. O2, my cell operator are at their wits end (ha ha, "Guru"...).

I trusted Apple not to be one of the companies that forces bugs into old technology through software/firmware upgrades so that the user only has the option to buy the next gen tech. But I am slowly developing my doubts that this crashing issue is accidental.

APPLE: I REFUSE TO BUY NEW TECHNOLOGY IF YOU WONT ENSURE MY OLD STUFF WORKS PROPERLY AND YOU WONT EVEN RESPOND TO MY CALLS FOR HELP!!

Same here,

Have tried everything, it keeps on crashing strangely enough only when I am calling. Have cleaned up, rebooted,reset, deleted all apps, shut off Icloud etc, but nothing seems to work.... Does this mean I need to get rid of my 3GS and buy e new one, really is this the only option?

Not sure if this was said earlier but making sure you do not have any programs running in the background is key. If you didn't know, you need to tap the home button twice and then you will see what programs are open. Then by holding your finger on one of them for 3 seconds will allow you to turn them off manually. Just reseting/ shutting your phone off doesnt turn the apps off. In addition, if you have a web browser open that alone can cause the phone to crash. You have to be aware of how many web pages you have open. A good reference or benchmark would be for every web page you have open equals one app. If you have been vigilant with that process, make sure you do not have iCloud on. Other reasons could be that you have to many apps running in the background that have access or the ability to locate you. My first 3GS burnt out because of a GPS app. Thats my assumption anyway. Lastly, to help drill down to the problem or to identify it anyways:Go to settings; then to About; and then to diagnostics and usage; and then click on diagnostic & usage data. Here it will say what is actually happening. For example, if you see something saying low memory, that usually means that you have to many programs running. I have been monitoring my iphone and i would be lucky to have 10 apps open and not have something crash. I hope this helps and its unfortunate that IOS 5 is to much for the single core processor in the 3GS.

wow im surprise theres more suffering 3GS user compare to me 😐, mine running fine accept for the sluggish sucky wifi signals and random drops when using 3G data, other then that im very happy with camera upgrade and music file delete without any mods. Hope apple will fix this bugs with their new updates cheers 😎

Hi there,

This my story about the 3GS. I bought a 3GS in november 2009. Unlocked by factory.(spend almost 600euro for it)

This summer 2011 I replaced the battery because I experienced a quicker drain. (it was not a real problem but I just wanted my phone to be perfect.) When i bought it, it ran on 3.2.1, and during time I updated every single new ios version on it,I jailbroke it, reinstall it, and even downgraded it, no problems at all. I was very satified with this phone, always worked like a charm. Even when I updated to ios5.0.1 (i think it was novemer or december last year when i did this) I never experienced any problem. After using it for 2 years, i thought it was time to upgrade to the 4S, so I did. I cleaned up the 3GS,en reintalled the firmware as it was a brand new phone, and sold it to a colleage. Since then this phone is having the randomly rebooting problem! The only thing different comparing the situation before selling it, is the simcard! My colleage reinstalled it with itunes on his computer,with a different (new) account,as a new phone, and it worked good for about 2 weeks. Now he has this reboot issue, but only when the simcard in installed. I've read all the posts on this community,but no one but mohammed mentioned the simcard. I do not have a solution, but for me it is clear that the simcard is involved.

UPDATE:

Today I spoke to my colleague about his iphone reboot problem. Het told me again that the reboot problem only appears when the simcard (t-mobile) is inserted. But there was another interesting fact he mentioned. He was on a short vacation in Austria, and took his Iphone with him,with the simcard from T-mobile in it. Because he was in Austria, his phone was automatically connected to a Austrian carrier, and the iphone did NOT have the reboot problem. After he got back in the netherlands, and his phone connected to the dutch t-mobile network again, the reboot problem showed up again!

Next step is to change the simcard with another card, to test if the reboot problem persists.

I'll keep you guys posted.

So far, I've done the "muhamaad trick" and it seems to work on its own. I haven't restored my iphone yet, and it seems to work just fine. My battery is about 1 year old, and it stays charged pretty well.

OK, so now I'm about a month using my new 4s and with no problems at all. did the backup and transfered all apps and infos from my old 3GS to the 4s. Battery draining... normal if I don't use facebook. The fact is that I erased almost all apps on the old 3GS and now the battery remains as new and NO reboots at all. So... I understand that there's a very close relation between some of the apps and the rebooting issue.

I erased all GPS intensive apps, facebook, twitter, linkedin... what means, I'm using the old 3GS more as a phone and much less as a smartphone.

I'm still on it,adding apps one by week to check the boot problem and battery draining issue... let's see what will happen.

cheers

Just did the iOS 5.1 about an hour ago. It's still seems a little slow and glitchy, but it has stopped shutting off randomly. It seemed to be doing pretty well after I did a restore too, but all the problems came back eventually. I'll keep an eye on it for now.

Ok I have done the update an hour ago and made a phone call and it crashed again after approx 20 minutes. before the call I have closed manually all apps and I use only 5 of 32G for photo's and music. Seems like the 3GS is not suficient anymore for use and though phone is fine am now forced to buy a new phone... !$%^#@