URLs not working in Safari or Mail after iOS 9.2.1

I've been in touch with Apple, and a new update should be available in two days.

Try disabling JavaScript in Safari, and your iPad should have a partially solution to the problem

That's great news. I tried to request support on this issue and was told it would be $39, as my iPad Air is no longer supported (only 2 years old). I can't believe how little Apple seem to care and how difficult it is to report bugs. Seriously considering not buying any more Apple products. It makes no sense to pay a premium for a product that is so unreliable. All this started happening a week ago before I upgraded to iOS 9.3. The only change I'd made was updating a couple of apps.

I have the same problem 5 days ago, once I updated to ios 9.3 I could no more browse from safari or follow any link on e-mail, messages and some other applications.

I contacted apple support through chat and they said that they are working hardly to solve this issue but they do not have any expectations when it will be solved . In the time being they advised just to switch of java script from safari settings and this may solve the issue of safari browsing.

Links doesn't work on Safari and multiple apps.

I was with iOS 9.2 (iPhone 6) and about 4 days ago links start to malfunction on various apps.

On Safari I couldn't navigate anymore beside Google searching. Switch to Chrome, same symptom.

Apps will freeze if I click on a URL especially in Mail.

I had Booking.com app installed on iOS 9.2, remove it but links doesn't worked as expected.

Update yesterday to iOS 9.3 hopping that would solve this issue but it won't... then I've Googling around (on my computer) and saw ALL people complains with the same issues!

Suddenly this happened on iOS 9.2 before (and after) the update to iOS 9.3.

I too had the same issue on my iPhone 6S. I did a full recovery/restore and updated to 9.3 (13E234) and now the issue is no more.

Do a DFU Recovery from iTunes and everything should be fine. It works 🙂

Dont just update from the recovery mode. Restore and Update - iOS 9.3 will download its around 2GB

iOS 9.2.1 (iPhone 6)

All links not working when clicking from mail, safari and random apps. Makes the app looks bad if people do not understand it is not an issue within the app. As an app developer, this is insanely upsetting.

We all know this has not been working in the last week.

Today I realized I could not even click on an email address within Mail. 😟

finally, i tried this way, it working !

i am using iphone6s plus , few day ago i upgrade to ios 9.3 , the problem happen .

1.So, i try rollback IOS 9.2.1 (13D15) <--- it is important!

2.After rollback , restore from backup via iTunes.

3.After restore , test Safari and mail , it working.

4.Via the OTA update to IOS 9.3

After update , all the feature working perfectly !

i hope it can help someone .

I'll save 20+ pages of reading

The issue is to do with universal links (this is the annoying popups you get to open the app instead in Safari) introuduced in iOS 9

Some apps exceeded the amount of url that Safari and Apple allowed. Booking.com being the main offender taking advantage since their app alone exceeds Apples limit, however if you combine apps that use universal links and the total exceeds..you will have the same issues. install Yelp, Wikipedia etc

Most that are having issues that do not have booking.com installed most likely have lots of apps that use universal links. Combined breaks links.

You can restore to 9.2.1 or 9.3, you just need to cut down on apps that use universal links until Apple updates the OS. The issue will return on either OS if you reinstall those apps. You can install 9.3 if you want and just put angry birds and you'll never see the issue.

Apple set the size limit..the only real fix is to release an update that either increases/removes the size limit or set parameters for devs that exceed the limit.

until then if your device is JB..you can set com.apple.SharedWebCredentials in the library folder to false

Apple acknowledged said it was aware and that it will issue a fix "soon". Give the fix now please !

http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/29/apple-ios-9-crashing-bugs-when-tapping-links-fix-s oftware-update/

MY iPhone 6 Plus started exhibiting this behavior on Saturday. Same no matter whether in safari chrome or Firefox and I have NOT upgraded my phone to 9.3. I have had 9.2.1 for awhile and worked fine until a few days ago. I'm not so sure the issue is the upgrade

If you can pinpoint the offending apps you can fix your issue and get a fully usable phone until apple patches this.

Here's how I fixed mine, still works after 24 hours:

You do not need to revert to a previous version or lose any backups. I have 300 apps on my phone and I kept all of them (except 3), including my full backup.

No iTunes.

The process I followed:

1. Create an iCloud backup.

2. Erase all content and settings.

3. Follow the process to restore from the iCloud backup once the phone has been wiped.

4. As soon as your applications show up greyed out (which means they are queued to be downloaded), click and hold any app so you can delete the offending applications BEFORE they install. In my case, and I suspect for many other people, the offending apps I deleted were:

- Booking.com

- Triparvisor

- Yelp

In your case you may need to remove wikipedia (I did not have it) or any other apps mentioned in the threads here.

The rest of my apps downloaded and the issue did not return.

Let me know how you get on.

Too many people write in this discussion with too much fantasy that wastes time. Installing everything Ex Novo DFU no backup you lose all the old messages. Then after a few days the problem may come back. Only solution wait fixes from Apple and in the meantime use Chrome instead of Safari and CloudMagic instead of Mail.

I just restored from iTunes. Stopped the sync after the backup was completed and removed a few apps that used universal links. Resync and all is well.

here is an older list of known apps that support universal links

http://www.jackivers.me/blog/2015/9/17/list-of-universal-link-ios-9-apps

Here's the rather unhelpful response I got from Apple (via Twitter):

Thank you for trying that step. We currently have a couple of workarounds for this. What we can do first, is restart your iPad. This should temporarily fix the issue.

The other option that you have already tried would be to turn off JavaScript on your iPad. Don't forget to re-enable your JavaScript when the next iOS update is released.

We've heard reports of this issue and it's currently under review. Be sure to keep your software up to date in case a future release addresses this issue.

Seriously, restarting it will fix it??

it's worth us keeping posting progress on this as media attention is growing and hopefully this leads to Apple putting in increased efforts in resolving this as it sounds like thousands of users are now getting affected by this.

YH69 wrote:

Here's the rather unhelpful response I got from Apple (via Twitter):

Thank you for trying that step. We currently have a couple of workarounds for this. What we can do first, is restart your iPad. This should temporarily fix the issue.

The other option that you have already tried would be to turn off JavaScript on your iPad. Don't forget to re-enable your JavaScript when the next iOS update is released.

We've heard reports of this issue and it's currently under review. Be sure to keep your software up to date in case a future release addresses this issue.

Seriously, restarting it will fix it??

it's worth us keeping posting progress on this as media attention is growing and hopefully this leads to Apple putting in increased efforts in resolving this as it sounds like thousands of users are now getting affected by this.

"... currently uunder review"?

"... keep your software up to date IN CASE a future update addresses this issue."?

Really? - the "issue" that renders their iPhones & iPads pretty much useless to many frustrated & irate customers?!

This sounds a long way from another post from someone who was told by Apple that an update to FIX this issue is coming out in a couple of days.

Which is it? When was this posted on Twitter?