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

Exact same problem with iPhone 6. Using Google app instead.. hopefully it gets resolved..

I have the same issue with regard to inert links in Safari.

Disabling JavaScript in Safari worked for me as a very rough temporary.

Three iPhone 6S resets (shutdowns, reboots), before and after clearing the Safari cache and history, had not worked. Then I found this series of posts via Google - on my HP laptop (Win 7).

Some or all of the Safari issue in my case (and other things related to the cloud), I thought at first, might be a mismatch in iCloud and Apple IDs (I had a mismatch and was able to upgrade to 9.3 apparently without issue, by skipping the Setup Assistant request to log into iCloud, Searching for info, I found a tiny bit. I have not as of this writing tried following the support suggestions about how to get the two IDs on the "same page." - See this support note as of 3/22 on iCloud/Apple ID mismatches and the 9.3 upgrade: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203828 ).

As one other post said, the rest of this is verbose in case it helps Apple, or some users motivated to compare notes (hint), to find a pattern.

I see, having read what is now 47 pages, that one user here and a few outsiders seem to have a case for a workaround based on iOS's convention for universal links versus developers' (mis)understanding, but I am sharing my summary notes in the hope of perhaps helping Apple find us a resolution.

Even a summary is really long, so this will be in a series of responses. The forum doesn't seem to be graphically capable of showing threading, but maybe that's my inexperience with it. Please have patience with me, and guide me. I don't know what else to do but to reply to the original post. I see a note here that the discussion has been "branched," but when I try to follow that link I am told that I am not authorized to access the content.

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Prologue - a humble request for an Apple ecosystem graphic:

Sigh. *Please,* Apple, add a graphic to your Help pages somewhere that illustrates how iCloud and the rest of the Apple ecology relate. Include all the various devices as well. I suspect that by now someone at 1 Infinite Loop is making one of these, or is thinking about it. Hope so.

(That is, please show me the potential password/service dependencies and the "threat surface" that I as a user should have in mind. It is very complicated now that there are so many devices, apps, and services.)

And keep that updated, please, as you add and remove services and devices.

I sincerely doubt that showing the map of the territory we users have to navigate and keep the "keys" for will not give away any trade secrets......

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At first, I tried to think my own way through. (Ironically, a Google search in Safari pulled up a link to the blog that seems to hold the best diagnosis and workaround - one which users here found and linked to ( https://bencollier.net/2016/03/how-to-fix-ios-9-3s-broken-safari-links/ ), but I couldn't access that link via the iPhone 6S at that point. In later posts here a user quoted from the documentation for the canOpenURL: method of Swift and Objective C. Sounds promising to me (speaking as one who has been introduced to coding Android apps, but not Apple apps. The principles are basically the same, it seems.Methods and libraries.

But before that I personally had had some symptoms of cloud-related issues that are not obvious: I noticed awhile back that an app - Newsify - stopped working until I turned on iCloud after an iOS update. That was probably about iOS 9.2 somewhere.

Meantime, my iCloud ID had/has kept my old email address.

I wanted to ditch references to that email address (I have a new one), and had changed my Apple ID online, figuring that doing that would cause the new ID to propagate where necessary. Apple, when I got this first iPhone (actually my first iDevice). That somehow didn't happen or the procedure wasn't clear, or something wasn't thought out.

Early in my experience with iOS, as I recall - and that started with an iPhone 4, actually (I skipped iPhone 5), the Setup Process said that the email address that drove the Apple ID would not change - and to be aware of that. That seemed odd - whenever people move (geographically) they tend to look for the best local ISP deal. Sometimes job changes change the email.

I am aware that some people avoid this email churn effect by using a less geographically variable email, like Gmail. I am not in the driver's seat for ISP choice since the recession: my spouse's choice of local ISP "rules."

Apple subsequently seems to have realized that the email address sometimes has to change for good reason, and made that possible.

Apple didn't warn me to sign out of iCloud when I eventually did change my Apple ID online, and it seems that I therefore wound up with an iCloud ID that didn't match my new Apple ID.

Despite that ID clash, I did minimally enable iCloud, and therafter Newsify worked (prior to iOS 9.3). So I know at least that the Newsify app passes its stuff through Apple's cloud, or is somehow leveraging cloud-related technical capability...

Apple has posted a support note about a mismatched iCloud and Apple ID and iOS 9.3. So I am probably not alone.

<Link Edited by Host>

Ditto on your request for some clarity on how all of our various devices tie into iCloud. I think that iCloud has been one of the most poorly communicated products ever put forth by Apple. As new devices or programs have been added there is never easy pathway to understand how they will interface with iCloud. Great promise with iCloud, but the reality has fallen short. Or it may all be fantastic, but if I can't understand how to work it, it isn't useful.

This current problem with iOS 9.3 is frustrating because there is no direct acknowledgement from Apple (until a one line statement today) that there is a problem or anything else about a fix, etc. When something like this happens, how about owning it and putting a notice on the website? I shouldn't have to paw through the Community comments to get the sense of what's up - the company should be as transparent as possible. They are very focused on protecting the privacy of my device, but how about tending to the expected functionality?

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Side note to Apple about the danger of assuming that all users love or need the cloud:

I resisted all ICloud use except the bare minimum - ICloud just for the Newsify app, and Find My iPhone. Today the Newsify app is again not able to sync with iCloud as with 9.2 - but after the 9.3 update something seems to have registered as a problem in 9.3's logic.

Is Apple assuming/*requiring* that users use and grok ICloud? Evidently so. I don't agree. iCloud, as i understand it, is potentially a single point of failure if it is a bridge between some or all parts of the user's ecosystem and the user has set that system up to auto-update and auto-sync. Some users here were able to keep earlier versions from being overwritten.

From thia *user's* point of view, relying on iCloud is analogous to setting up one file server, not having real control of the backups of that server, not having more than a hint of an idea about how to maintain a working relationship amongst the various devices, not knowing the humans who tend the system, and nevertheless depending on it. It takes a really close study to even get a hint of how it might work.

I am dreading updating to Windows 10 for the same reason. I don't need the cloud right now. It's only useful to sales, presenters who like the shopersonship of "tossing" an app to a bigger device, corporate knowledge bases where a single source is carefully tended to keep everyone on the same page, teams who have to collaborate on short timelines, and device geeks who need to leverage different device capabilities for a living. I don't mind having a passing familiarity with it so that I can get up to speed if I need to do the above.

As an individual, though, I find it is such a chore to keep one laptop and smartphone updated, backed up, secure - and functional across updates - that adding the cloud "just because" is too much.

People who retire and find themselves with no IT department to run interference for them get into trouble that way with just one device - unless they were in IT. I have seen it happen, and with smart retirees. And isn't it a big draw for iPads/Facebook/Facetime with seniors re: far away grandchildren?

So, Apple, please leave some graceful space between local systems and cloud-assuming ones.

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I wondered it it could be fallout from whatever the FBI seems to have decided to do re: the iPhone they wanted unlocked, but that seems not so plausible after the more plausible canOpenURL; information.

Safari was jumping around uncharacteristically before I upgraded to 9.3.

Like others, I wondered if it might be a server issue, or a server farm firewall issue. I thought about the possibility that maybe the Web had suddenly pulled the rug out from under something, protocol wise. It may be a coincidence, but there were several Windows (7) updates recently - and this was not a "patch Tuesday" batch, because Windows notified me of those soon after the second Tuesday. So these are probably unrelated, but if there is a common web issue that necessitated one or all of them, perhaps something about the Web has had to be changed after the many iOS 9.3 betas took place.

Because of many issues - not unique to Apple - with OS updates, I now search for "issues with X" before I update. I did, but didn't find much except the notes that it wasn't working smoothly for some. There was a hint of an issue with browsers, but all this was said at the time to be limited to a small set of users.

I had waited for a few days, but app updates piled up to 27 in number. So I started preparing to update the iOS. I was concerned that app "bug fixes" might include security updates.

I backed up the phone to my trusted laptop, NOT iCloud - don't trust it or need it and am not that familiar with it. It seems the difference between ICloud and local iTunes updates is recently clarified because users needed to better understand it (March 16th, 2016 date on this page in Support https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204136 ).

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An aside:

It would help if the Web came up with an icon to indicate that an update has security content (easy to spot), and a convention that the issuing entities also include a link to a description of what the security update is driven by. (Hint, hint, hint.)

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Something about the update process, I wondered? As best I recall, this was how it went for me:

I updated to 9.3 over the weekend (3/25 or 26). I backed up first in iTunes, as I said. I don't update often, I'm not an Apple dev, and the steps are therefore not familiar. It took me a while to 'grok' the path I wanted (the one with the most local control). I started the download, and then canceled it two or three times as I remembered things that were potential dependencies or clashes.

That is, because updating over the air has been reported problematic for many users, I updated locally as I had for 9.2. I downloaded all Windows (7), Apple, and related patches first (there was a Java update, for instance, and there were updates to web security tools Malwarebytes and CCleaner, and updates to Microsoft Security Essentials, and as i recall an update or two from Apple).

I cabled the 6S to my "trusted" computer. ITunes detected the phone and showed plenty of space available for the update.

I'm pretty sure I used my admin account on the "trusted" platform for the time of the upgrade. I don't use the admin account unless I need relatively unfettered User Account priviledges. Otherwise I use an account that does not allow some things - a pure user account. (Helps minimize the ability of things I don't want to have installed foisted on me.)

I asked for just a download of iOS - NOT a download and automatic install. When the download was complete and no error messages popped up (about 2 hours over the household wireless connection), I took a deep breath and told ITunes to update iOS.

The upgrade took awhile, but did not hang or give me error messages, even with the ICloud ID that is different from the Apple ID.

i have this issue too with iphone 5s, it freezes when i click on links in my email and won't open links in google app or safari, while trying to open a email link my phone froze and showed a black screen and stayed like that or a while, holding in the buttons to make it restart wouldn't work so i just left it for a bit, when i come back to it 10 mins later all was good again expect for the links in email, which still freezes and links in google etc. i haven't downloaded the newer version as yet and im still having these issues. i currently have 9.2.1 version, glad i haven't updated as it sounds like people are also having issues with it. when will this be fixed?? here i thought my phone was dying.

I noticed the deadened links in Safari when out shopping on Sunday the 26th. That was the first time I had tried to use Safari after updating to iOS 9.3. I tried and failed to get some information about a Garmin backup camera that my spouse was considering. Search generated links, but the links did not work - just sat there inert. I chalked the dead links in the mental column labeled "too few Verizon bars" which was plausible at the time.

But today I noticed that the Safari problem was indeed a malfunction. I had been watching the eaglets on the live DC eagle cam to perk myself up in the morning, and the page was open in Safari. It would not work this morning - went blank - except for the title bar - when i tried scrolling.

Other open pages went blank on working with them as well, though when I showed them in stacked view to choose one the page appeared with the content.

I could open new Safari pages, initiate searches using Google, and get results, but the links were not functional though the link font and underline were there.

So the underlying hypertext language was there and rendered with the proper coloring and underline, but either the phone or browser was not initiating the request for the link with the server, or something else was out of whack.

I made myself some other notes:

Safari-server communication? Tried reloading the page in Safari. I couldn't tell if pages reloaded or not - could have just been renewing a cached version. Links remained dead.

DHCP? Tried closing the connection with the wireless (Verizon) router and re-initiating the connection, in case it was a DHCP lease thing. No help there.

Mobile site code versus full web site code? Oddly, as someone else has noted, a Safari window on the full (non-mobile) version of Colonial Williamsburg's site did work. Until I closed it, that is. Haven't tried to re-open it.

Protocol shift that no one noticed? I wondered if the dead links have to do with protocols. This is partly because I have noticed that it has gotten harder to land on regular web pages on the iPhone recently - I sometimes can see a button or link for that, but sometimes I am * forced * to a mobile site when using the phone.

Pushback on some Web service? I also wondered if there has been pushback from web services in some other respect - trying to save us all from our careless web-un-savvy selves - analogous to Google's institution of HTTPS.

Again, the canOpenURL; method sounds very plausible, so I just offer these as thoughts.

Other thoughts, just offered up:

Was the issue with links perhaps a fashion in coding that 9.3 surfaced? Perhaps some fashion in coding that isn't working out?

A byproduct of Responsive web page coding, newb coding, assumptions in coding apps, or maybe a JQuery routine that broke? For example, I am, of late, seeing a lot of pages where coders (or the page development apps, or misguided total reliance on "responsive" formatting) are failing to reserve space for images as the page initially loads, so that pages jump around after the initial load in Chrome as the layout accommodates the late-arriving images (even though I am not on a particularly slow connection).

In these cases the text that I had begun to read typically gets pushed out of frame. Really annoying. Also scary, in that anything that is served from other servers (ads, typically, for forum pages or "suggested links" for online newspapers or magazines) appears later.

I am also seeing a lot of pages that were clearly laid out (and statically, not responsively) for portrait-style iPad or iPhone display - these layouts are extremely annoying to use on a widescreen-format laptop. Even with a touch screen.

First, the images are prominent, and huge. I don't mind some scrolling, but not this much. Gratuitous carousel shows have stopped working well. Carousels used as banners are truly annoying when they load late with no space reservation and disrupt the rest of the layout. Content is then way below, or off to the side. The pretty carousel pictures don't show me much content that I can use.

All this suggests that "responsive" web design and monetization are a bit out of control.

If people are gun-decking even basics such as image sizing, space reservation, and thoughtful layout, then why should I expect they have really done QA on anything else (e.g., security, general testing, or keeping up with more fundamental changes in Web protocols)?

Cache issue? Clearing Safari's cache can be done in the Safari Bookmark page. I tried that. No fix.

About that time I searched - using my Windows laptop - and saw that lots of users are reporting issues with Safari after the iOS 9.3 update, and that Apple is downplaying it - asking for resets/restores/wipes-reinitialization. A sort-of-fix was to disable JavaScript (kindly note that JavaScript is NOT Java - it's easy to misunderstand, but JavaScript is just NOT Java) So I kept on thinking.

"Fresh" links versus old Bookmarks? My bookmarks were not erased by the cache cleaning. Most of those were marked just after acquiring the 6S, months ago. I tried one out. That page got a 404 error. Another gave me the "You have to enable JavaScript" error (no surprise by that point, as I had already disabled it in Safari). Using another bookmark got me to a page, but with JavaScript off, not much happens.

I kept on thinking.

Back to the iCloud/Apple ID mismatch...My iPhone, during resets (by which I mean just shutting the phone down and restarting it), asked me to sign in to iCloud - saying my password needed to be reset. At first i ignored this - as it gave me the option to do - because I was focused on whether Safari was having issues locally on my phone (my configuration?/a virus?/iOS 9.3 locally?) or having issues generally (servers? or possibly the Internet itself?).

On shutting down and restarting my phone to troubleshoot the Safari issue today I got the ICloud messages, prefilled with the old Apple ID, so I tried logging on to iCloud with the ID that iCloud prefilled and my current password (for the newer ID.

The response from the system was "unknown error" but that alert went away, at which point I did *seem* to be logged on. I tried using old passwords (ones that would have corresponded to the old Apple ID), but the system "shook its head" at me (the login box waggled). Nevertheless, I seemed to have logged in, sort of.

So, knowing that Newsify was a kind of indicator app, I tried opening it. Though I seemed to be logged on to ICloud, the Newsify app wasn't able to fetch new content through iCloud.

I might try deleting that app, I suppose, now that some developers' implementation of the canUpdateURL: method is suspect. The error box from Newsify suggests creating a new account: "If restarting doesn't work, try creating a new Newsify account using the Account setting."