iOS 9.3 - Safari/Mail freezes after clicking links on iPhone 6S

Hello, just wanted to add my 2 pence:

As many people wrote, the freezing links began out of the blue, on March 25 on my IPad 2 with IOS 9.2.1 (13D15), never upgraded to 9.3 (happily, upgrade wasn't available anymore in Germany and Belgium (live nearby the border in Belgium, working in Germany) at that time. First conclusion: That has nothing to do with updating to IOS 9.3. Second conclusion: Nothing to do with the switch to summer time on March 26/27.

It doesn't affect (not yet at least) my IPad Pro nor my IPhone 6 nor my wife's IPad 3, all running on IOS 9.2.1.

I have booking.com and Wikipedia on all of them.

For the fixes: Changing to Bing, Chrome, switching off Safari research proposals etc. didn't work at all. Limited debug: Switching off Javascript helped to use Safari with Google, but I am back in stoneage; anyway, IPad useless to search for example in mobile.de, links not working, not to mention the impossibility to ckeck in with Ryanair or use other websites needing Java.

Update: Just now, my IPhone 6 catched this thing while writing this. Makes to fancy and well designed paperweights.

I regret total absence of feedback from Apple and hate to say that I am very glad to have a Sony Vaio notebook.

The interesting part is what happened today; I am experiencing this issue since yesterday (days after I upgraded and not immediately after iOS 9.3 installation) on my iPhone 6s. My wife's iPhone 6 seemed to be ok until today that I shared a URL through iMessages. After she tried to open the link she started having the exact same issue with me. Pretty interesting virus-like behaviour of the issue...

Same here just today started after installing 2 apps

pockee

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pockee/id895781429?ls=1&mt=8

samsung smart view

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/samsung-smart-view/id858283863?mt=8

...or maybe imdb update caused it?? Or none of them? I dont know. The truth is that today I noticed.

iPhone 6S Plus iOS 9.3

Same problem here. Everything was fine, upgraded to 9.3, then two days later I saw some weirdness -- one link wouldn't open. Then next day I found almost all links failed, by yesterday Chrome had stopped working entirely. Resets, turning javascript off, turning some auto-load features off, changing search engines, none helped. Chrome seems to work, as does Firefox, but I'm rather peeved that something this bad got through testing.

Same problem for me too. IPhone 6 (no S) and Ipad Air 2. Disabled JavaScript and Safari works but still freezes when clicking links in Mail on both IPhone and Ipad.

When are Apple releasing a fix?

Exactly my point. How is it possible something this major doesnt get caught in the long beta cycle they had for iOS 9.3? 7 freaking betas in no joke...

That's why I am wondering if this is some kind of exploit/worm... hopefully not...

I've been following this discussion since the early morning of March 25th, when I started having issues with my phone. The thread has gone from one page and under 100 views, to nearly 29,000 views as I write this on March 28th. A couple of days ago there was virtually nothing in the media regarding this issue, but since then numerous articles have sprung up, including TechCrunch, Macworld, ZDNet, Business Insider, etc etc. Most of them are dated after March 25th, when this thing really blew up. It is frustrating that Apple itself has yet to formerly acknowledge the problem, nor issue a fix.

At first I thought it was related to iOS 9.3 and the iPhone 6S or 3D Touch, but now it seems the issue is much more widespread and there have been lots of theories about what might be causing the problem.

I'm no expert, but panda1988's discussion on canOpenURL seems to make a bit more sense than some of the other guesses. panda1988, did you manage to speak with anyone from Apple regarding your theory?

I thought the same thing but another user explained it to me:

"It wasn't found because the new booking.*** apple-app-site-association file wasn't updated until sometime last week, when iOS 9.3 was released. It occurs on iOS 9.2.1 as well. The bug in iOS that allows this behavior is old, it's not part of iOS 9.3."

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Same problem. Spent time on the phone with Apple support and finally she said a lot of people were having this problem with 9.3 and they were working on it. I cannot understand how Apple can do something like this and then "downplay" it. I asked if I could use Chrome and she didn't know but I downloaded it and it's better than nothing. Works like other's have said... hold down hyperlink and open a new page. Come on Apple... lets get this thing fixed!

I had the same exact experience as you had. My iPhone 6s was fine after the iOS 9.3 update. A couple of days days later I started experiencing the exact same issue as most of us here. I tried to do all the iOS standard steps to fix it (hard reboots, clearing browser cache, settings reset etc etc) however no luck until JS was turned off. So the funny thing is that my wife's iPhone 6 was fine (I even check it my self this morning). And I use past tense because as soon as my wife tried to open a link that I send her just now she go the very same issue as all of us here...

To me this behaviour is really interesting. Worm/exploit that takes advantage an iOS 9.3 newly introduced vulnerability perhaps? Who knows...

That's quite interesting. None of my iOS devices were affected in 9.2.1 though. So apparently some changes in iOS 9.3 magnified an already existing problem?

No idea. I used all 9.3 betas with my iphone 6. No problems. And no problems with 9.3 final.

But I have all this problems with iPad pro. Not sure if its since the update ore if the problems appears later. Today its the first time I noticed it.

And I use the iPad every day.

A TEMPORARY SOLUTION TO THE iOS 9.3 EMAIL AND SEARCH LINK ISSUES:

MAIL ISSUES

1. IF you use Gmail exclusively, download the Gmail app and access you mail through it. Links work.
2. IF you dont use Gmail, set up a Gmail account, then route your other mail through it as explained here: http://www.radiantd.com/how-to-route-domain-email-through-gmail/. Then download the Gmail app and access email and links through it.

SEARCH/SAFARI ISSUES

DOwnload the Google Search app, do your searching through this portal. Links work.

NEither of these is perfect but it gets around the current paralysis. Issues:

• There are no Search Tools in the Google search app, so you cannot filter by date, etc.
• I haven't figured out how to access recently deleted trash in the Gmail app

I hope this helps some of you to survive this mess.

I have the same problem (iPhone 6s Plus). Neither Safari nor Chrome open any link. Currently I use Dolphin as a temporary solution till Apple issue and update. Actually I start questioning Apple software quality, this is not the first time this happens.

apparently it has to do with Universal links and the way apps like Booking register them in iOS:

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