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iPhone 6 Plus Crashing (a lot)

Hi All,


I was hoping for some very detailed advice on getting my iPhone 6 Plus to stop crashing. It's happening many times per day and almost makes using the device futile.


When it arrived, I backed up my old iPhone 5S to iTunes (encrypted) and then restored that backup onto the iPhone 6 Plus. During the restoration everything went smooth, but after it rebooted and began syncing the apps back over, I would hear the phone ping (charge sound) and syncing would pause for a moment. Turns out it was having a mini crash and the Apple logo would appear for a few seconds, then it would start syncing again. No problems or errors were produced on the iPhone or iTunes.


Once restoration was complete (iOS 8.0.2), all of my stuff was there and iTunes still reported 0 errors. But as I used the phone, I would notice some weird stuff:


1) Swiping between app pages quickly would cause the same mini crash and the Apple logo would appear a few seconds before the phone came back up.

2) After launching an app a few times, the "preview" iOS shows when zooming into the app would become the app icon itself (rather than a preview of the app). This would happen for all apps when entering and exiting.

3) Some stock apps (like Calendar) would be missing their icon altogether.

4) The dark area representing a folder would disappear and the tiny icons just looked as if they were floating.

5) Lots more crashing (when using Siri, when just in my pocket, etc).


If you're still reading this, it's obvious I have a problem in my backup that is causing springboard issues (or something). The obvious solution is to restore the phone to factory settings and not reapply the backup, but I have valuable text messages dating back to 2007 that I'd really like to retain. Keeping that in mind, here's what I've tried:


- Restoring from the same iTunes backup again

- Turning off "Documents and Data" in iCloud

- Reset all Settings

- Reset Home Screen Layout

- Restore from slightly older iCloud backup

- Reduce the number of apps being synced over


When I setup as a new phone after restoration, the problem does appear to go away (in the brief amount of time I spent trying to crash it). I really just need some troubleshooting advice I haven't tried that would (at a minimum) allow me to retain the text message conversations and related media (picture and video messages).


Any thoughts that could accomplish this or information on what this problem actually is? I'm willing to supply logs, etc, if that would be useful.


Thanks very much!!

Payton

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8, iOS 8.0.2, 128GB, Space Gray

Posted on Sep 27, 2014 10:35 AM

Reply
160 replies

Oct 16, 2014 2:22 PM in response to JasHayre

While I do think it's a good idea to contact AppleCare, the devices Apple uses as service phones are not "refurbished" with the connotation you implied. Apple Stores don't check your broken iPhone and hand it to another customer.


Some service phones are brand new and some are what is called "remanufactured", which means it has a brand new body, brand new battery and has been thoroughly tested (even more than new phones off the assembly line). This means the phone is new or "equivalent of new". I doubt you're going to notice if your A8 chip was actually in another person's shattered iPhone 6.


That said, Apple probably doesn't even have "remanufactured" phones this early in the iPhone lifecycle. Most of the broken phones will got to Apple engineering for EFFA (Early Field Failure Analysis) and you will get a brand spankin' new replacement phone.

Oct 17, 2014 8:38 AM in response to Payton Garner

You can of course see as it corresponds to their own opinion.

Either get the existing hardware can not cope with the existing software or the existing software can not cope with the existing hardware.

I have since the first iPhone and the first iPad extensive experience with jailbreaks and system crashes because of them and a lot of tweaks. And it was never a hardware defect fault.

It was always only faulty software.

Everything that Apple has integrated already existed as Cydia tweaks. Intelliscreen, the multitasking view, widgets in notification center, swipe gestures etc.

And almost always, it came at the beginning to crash. Over and over again. Until it was appropriate adjustments and updates of the tweaks.



Now, why is 6 plus the 128GB variant particularly affected?

For the same reason why the back camera of the iPad 2 Air does not protrude from the enclosure as in iPhone 6 and 6 plus.

Because each model variant can be seen as a completely separate system.

If we compare in this thread a list of our installed apps with each other, we would very likely see the parallels. I can by now reconstruct partially.

I am absolutely convinced that there is no hardware defect.

Also for the reason that we have not devices from the same batch under any circumstances.

We live on different continents and got the devices in different delivery waves.



Certainly the hardware has a problem with some software.

Or some software has problems with the hardware. It's like any computer. Why iOS has been run as smoothly? Because it was less fragmented than Android. But in 2010 there were just two screen sizes and resolutions. Today, iOS 8 runs on devices with six different screen sizes and six different resolutions. And all the apps just as well. The remaining internal hardware components I leave now times overlooked.

Here's the problem. Each app must be adapted to each model exactly. There are thousands of processes running simultaneously in the foreground, and above all in the background.

The key is the software.



If anyone here but is of the opinion that a hardware defect would be: good luck.

Oct 17, 2014 12:23 PM in response to Payton Garner

Payton, I was not implying anything. I am well aware of how good Apple refurb devices are, and that they often (always?) put on new screens and backs.


But I am saying that you get a refurb unit rather than a new factory unit. If you're happy with that, then great. I would not be happy to swap a 2 week old phone for a refurb unit.




MarcOliver, I am very sure you are correct. I too have always suspected an iOS bug. But it is necessary to disprove the faulty hardware possibility, so that Apple can focus on the remaining possibilities i.e. software. Their next question will be whether it is some faulty apps, or a true iOS bug. The problem is that so few people have reported this problem to Apple.

Oct 19, 2014 10:51 AM in response to JasHayre

This is my first post, so i won't write a long message.


I have an iPhone 6 128G that I bought directly from the Apple Store, actually its my 3rd one; I've already returned 2 of them. I've always used iPhones, and I'm sorry, aside from the new design which I like; the phone in it's current state is a PIECE OF CRAP. It's almost unusable, you have to wait to open text messages, emails or make a phone call, and that's if the App opens at all; usually I get the white screen of nothing then the app closes.


My text messages seem to disappear and reappear at random, the email search option works only 1/2 the time correctly. I'm left having to either turn off/on the screen or a complete restart of the device. I'm constantly having to toggle off and on Air Plane Mode, because the device is showing no service. I've had these issues with all of them. Oh and yes, I've done all the updates to correct these issues.


Serious Apple, this is what I waited over 2 years for. People aren't going to keep buying crap, If I could return it and get my money back I would; it's not worth the time, money and certainly not the headache.

Oct 20, 2014 1:22 PM in response to urikxxx

This is a simple software issue, the hardware is fine. I do not want to just "give up" and abandon Apple products or services because of a little bump in the road. I think there will be a fix for this in future iOS releases. I have heard 8.1 does not address it. I will be looking into this myself as I just installed 8.1 today. Interesting that it did give me about 5-6 white apple crashes after it updated. I was getting scared that we had another "Day 1" issue, but eventually it came up and my iPhone is working well now. The only app I use that seems to crash all the time is Dropbox, which was working so maybe they have an issue.


I will now see if I get the 1-2 crashes per day that I have before. They usually happen on Spotlight and Springboard. If it is stable, I will switch my view back to "Standard" and test it more. I will post my results here.


I already have my iPad Air 2 on order, so can't wait to see if this problem happens there too! 😁

Oct 20, 2014 4:44 PM in response to tkwlee

The only reason to not update to iOS 8.1 right now is basically to avoid server traffic, or to see how it changes your device's operation and if you don't like the changes (like, if you were the one person that liked the 'Recently Added' in the Photos app, for example, and doesn't want 'Camera Roll' back.)


Otherwise, update whenever you feel like it. I've had no issues so far.

iPhone 6 Plus Crashing (a lot)

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