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

Disabling JavaScript didn't work for me, but what did work was changing the default search engine from Google to Bing in Safari setting. Links in safari now work, but links from other apps e.g mail still don't. Had a chat with support person who said they are working on a software fix, so I guess we sit tight.....

I'm experiencing the same issue as the OP.

My wife has a rose gold 6s 64gb and is not experiencing this issue.

I have a black 6s 64gb and I AM experiencing this issue.

We both bought launch week. Neither of us had any issues prior to this. We were both running ios 9.2.1 and both upgraded to 9.3.0 via OTA on 9.3 release day. I upgraded early in the afternoon, She upgraded later that evening.

I didn't notice my issue until about 1-2 days after upgrading. Maybe because I wasn't paying too much attention, idk. My wife is not experiencing any issues on her 6s.

I experience the issue whenever I click on most links on a webpage using safari. Easiest way to reproduce is to search something on google.com. Safari will crash when I click one of the search result links. I have to kill safari to recover only for it to do the same exact thing. I experience the same behavior when I click on any links within an email in the Mail app. I don't experience any of these issues in either the Chrome or Firefox browser. I would have to guess this issue will crash any app that attempts to launch a url link via the safari browser by default, but I have no way to confirm this.

I closed all open tabs in safari, then killed the Safari app. I then cleared my browser history and cache in Safari Settings before attempting to recreate issue. Issue was still occurring.

I then disabled JavaScript in safari settings and attempted to recreate the issue again. This resolved my issue in Safari, however the issue still occurs when I click links in the mail app.

Trying to be as verbose as possible in case Apple is crawling/parsing their forums for useful data on this issue...

I am having the same issue with my iPhone 6s plus after updating to 9.3. I did full restore - then restored from backup - links not clickable. I did full restore and set up as new - links worked for a while, then after I installed some apps it broke again. It might be some 3rd party app that is the culprit, but seeing how widespread the issue is it must be some very common app. Wake up, Apple.

P.S. some developer guy posted in other forums that

swcd

I contacted Apple support today and they were aware there was a problem but apparently not exactly what it it was or how to address it. Advised there would be an update in a couple of days and offered a temp fix to disable Javascript in Safari. We just have to wait.

Device

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iOS 9.3, iPhone 6 Plus

Problem

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Safari freezes when clicking on search result links or on some website links.

Temporary solution

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Set safari search engine to Bing or Yahoo.

Touch settings -> Safari -> Search Engine -> Bing

I'm on an iPhone 6s and have the same problem. Tried a few solutions but none worked.

However, since Apple did not stop signing the old version, I tried reverting to iOS 9.2.1 (without restoring backup). The problem has gone but a new problem came: Safari was not syncing iCloud bookmarks anymore. It just downloaded all the folders without the webpages inside.

Then I went back once more to iOS 9.3 (still without restoring backup) and surprisingly, the problem did not occur anymore.

Experiencing the issue since the morning today (6s 64GB, iOS 9.3).

The 9.3 update was installed many days ago with no issues.

The issue affects external links (links to resources outside a website) in a number of applications (e.g., Safari, Mail, Whatsapp etc.), so this is not just a Safari problem.

The discussed solution to disable Javascript is not a solution at all as the only thing it does is preventing Safari from freezing, but links don't work.

Changing the default search engine to Bing seems to make Safari a bit more usable. Chrome only processes links via "Open in new tab" option.

Waiting for an emergency iOS update from Apple 😢

Same as most have reported. Ran the cursed 9.3 update Thursday night, just noticed Safari links weren't working last night. All day today (Sunday, my usual day to sit around browsing the web), I tap links, and nothing happens. Hold a link, Safari freezes, or freezes then crashes.

Uninstalled Booking.com (which I heard was a random thing to try) — no luck. Disabled pop up blocker and JavaScript; only succeeded in making links accessible from a Google search in Safari; links in the actual webpages accessed don't work.

Downloaded Chrome: same thing happens, but at least in Chrome when I hold down a link, it gives the option of opening in a new tab. Sorting through the myriad tabs this creates is rather painful and kludgy, though. Once on your desired webpage, some links work, some don't.

I just checked, and my favorite 3rd-string iPhone browser, Puffin, has come to the rescue. Works like a charm. An imperfect solution, but at least I can use the web like a normal human being whilst Apple gets their stuff into gear.

I have an iPhone 6 recently (regrettably) upgraded to iOS 9.3. While I'm glad to see I'm not alone, this is quite a shockingly major bug to have let slip. Apple, shame on you. ::sad face::

A very basic, temporary workaround: I now use iCabMobile for browsing. Tapping and holding a link opens a contextual menu that contains several options for opening the link (same tab, new tab, background tab). As this seems to bypass the now buggy Apple API for following links, it works.

Hilarious? Do you think that every ppl that experienced the problem came in here to write about it? ofc it is just a small amount of devices affected but since i see this post growing I can imagine that it is not so small as u might think.

Software related, of course. But when i asked if it was about iPhone 6s A9 chip (whether samsung or tsmc) it wasn't cause i thought it was hardware issue, besides the little differences that the firmware might have related to the risc cpu installed. Now anyway we can see it's happening on both hardware so this is not helpful.

OH, BTW, i just received and answer via Twitter from @AppleSupport:

"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. If you haven't already, please try restarting your device. Turning off JavaScript may help as well. You can do this by going to Settings > Safari > Advanced > JavaScript."

I cannot try to restore my iPhone as new, if somebody can, please try it asap to help us figure out how it can manage the problem...

IMHO, this problem MIGHT be related on how iOS figure out links: i try to explain... some ppl said it started from the download of booking.com app and tripadvisor app. OK, iOS works in sandbox environment but, when an app is installed, it shows itself in the OS to be able to open the app installed on the device out from the browser. Like if I try to open a youtube video from safari, it can go through the youtube app instead. And this is working thanks to javascript.

So, if the location where are stored the info on where the urls are written in some ways they can be opened by the app itself it's corrupted (or other problems), when the OS try to look for it it gets stuck.

I am pretty sure it is about that because actually the Browsers that now aren't experiencing this problems are more sandboxed and under normal usage don't allow the user to specifically open an URL with the app installed on the device.

Think about chrome too: it is affected by the same problem of safari but if u keep pushing a url and u instruct it to open in a new tab, it works (because it doesn't look inside iOS how it might manage that url).

So, ppl, this is the problem in my opinion, how to fix it... i don't know yet. it might be that corrupted file inside iOS OR a simple app that write their instructions inside iOS badly.

Now we might try to figure out which app can be involved in that (for example examining which app have been updated just before experiencing the problem)...

For whom are skilled (more or less than me is the same), analyze what I tried to explain and tell me what you think about it!

Meantime, lets do something more useful than browsing the web until mum apple fix it... Cheers

So I am having same problem with my iPhone 6s - I just read the post about Booking.com - I had downloaded that today and it started right after. I went and deleted it out of my apps and my phone is working perfect again! However, I did turn off Javascript as well…so maybe it was that. This has NEVER happened before - and it is a pain in the ARSE!

Just got a call from Apple with the same information a lot of people posted here already:

"We do not have a fix in the moment. We know about the problem and are working on a fix. It will not take very long. In the meantime installing Chrome, Opera, Firefox... will solve the Safari Issue, but not the Mail issue. Thank you for your patients, we are working on it.

Will have to wait for that then.

The article makes sense. Apparently the universal link database is part of the iTunes backup. That explains why the feature works as the phone was freshly restored back to a clean 9.3. But it fails as soon as a restore from iTunes backup was done. The corrupted DB was put right back in place. One almost has to have a "clean" backup in order to get it back to working order. If this proves to be the root cause, may be they should consider allowing an option to restore data only in iTunes backup. I stay away from a clean resinstall because I'll lose thousands of iMessages. Most of other things like mail and contacts are restored once you log in to iCloud but not iMessage. I think there is a way to download all the apps purchased on App Store on to a freshly restored new phone (at least I have done it once over the last couple days during all the experiments I did). So getting only all my messages back in a restore works for me. Well, this is just my situation. I'm sure others may need other options. Hope they fix this soon. Just amazed that Apple engineers overlooked a simple file size test if a huge association file did corrupt their DB. It almost like they focus so much on protecting from malicious intends, they let in a careless mistake.

Currently they are experiencing issues with hyperlinks in Safari. A restart typically is a temporary fix, and since your issue is related to Safari, turning off javascript is the only thing we have to do right now. Currently there is a fix in the work!

how to fix broken ios 9.3 safari/mail links bug:

1) find and uninstall booking.com application, if you have it

2) wait at least 1 hour, bug is gone. maybe you need to reboot once

to reproduce bug again: install booking.com application