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

As an ex-employee, can you give us some clue as to the version numbering conventions for 9.3 (or in general from Apple)
so we can tell from Settings>General>About what version we have
and thereby tell when a different version (perhaps a last known good from a beta) quietly pops up as a download from Apple?

I have gotten around to reading the comments from a couple of blogs who think they *do* have it sorted, and perhaps you can evaluate those thoughts for us as well:

Would be much appreciated

by me (iPhone 6S) and Micke-49 (iPad).

We have posted screenshots, M-49 first and me in reply.

Our versions are different. Our hardware is different.

We don't know if that is because of the different hardware platforms

or whether all 9.3 versions represent a smorgasbord from which the installer can select the relevant pieces of code depending on the platform,

This is from my iPhone 6S (and i have the link issue in Safari):

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:-) So true, so considerate, and helpful if you use email on that iWhateverDevice :-).

I don't use an Apple-based photo editor, so I learned something.
In my case (others mileage may vary) it works better to download everything off the email server to Outlook (rather thn leaving it there and downloading a copy)so that I don't ever have to go back to the ISP mailserver and delete email or have some email on the phone and some on the laptop, depending on which I opened Outlook on last - I just handle it at one location and fiercely protect that location. Trying to implement the Keep It Simple Sam (KISS it) that way. :-)

Right now I am trying to use the iPhone as little as possible, and it is much easier to use a real keyboard for this 'discussion' forum of Apple's.

Hope the Apple ex-employee Able_ape can weigh in.

Ios 9.2 does not work Safari,,,

Why doesn't Apple Support get on this thread and tell us? 1500 people have clicked Me Too there are over 700 replies on this thread. Where is Apple?

You are so right! I´m waiting and waiting that a message from Apple appears on my screen. But nothing! Maybe they are still on easter holidays! They better work on this and solve that problem! I can´t use my emails now since good friday!

APple is busy building two new campuses for their offices near San Jose. So my friend tells me who complains that the traffic to her job will be 10 times worse when Apple brings in a thousand new jobs. Maybe they should put on new staff to handle Forum questions like this!

Crickets! 😠

I have an iPad Air and an iPhone 6 and can't use either of them properly since the update! It's ridiculous, that it takes so long to get a fix for those "premium" products. Apple seems to get worse and worse...

Thanks. I really sympathize with all, and hope the summary/categorization helps accelerate a solution somehow.

I decided to take (what turned out to be a full overtime day) and try it because there were some who periodically did that in a several-years'-running discussion about HP's and others' (NON) driver support for switchable graphics and multifunction wireless/bluetooth cards on the TM2-t convertible laptop, and another on HP's decision to advertise a touchscreen convertible TX-2 (old-timers, look that moniker up) as a graphics machine even though they implemented a non-mainstream, non-Wacom digitizer that would only support a Corel graphics program, not Photoshop. Graphics students were livid. Parents were livid when the laptop/tablet they spent hard-earned cash on was too hot to hold in your lap if the CPU was busy. :-)

In both those situations it was a few users who digested, tested, and summarized/updated. I was so so grateful, even though the TM2 (with Wacom digitizer( was the solution for the TX2). Both had other issues. For instance, the TX2 was a convertible tablet that used an AMD desktop chip that got so hot when it ran Microsoft's new 3-D pond animation that we students joked about getting a small fan and a tube to use the output from the cooling fan to warm our toes (on the Bainbridge Island ferry route). Eventually many TX2s stopped working with a blink code that indicated the CPU was toast. HP had people doing low-level, data-destructive fixes as Apple is now doing. But one user posted a YouTube video of how he discovered that the heat had cooked the large glob of paste between the CPU and its (huge copper) heat sink apart. Having taken mine apart based on his video and related documentation when it failed, I re-did the paste and got it working again for awhile.

I'm really concerned about this 9.3 communication pattern. Feels like the word isn't getting to the "senior" troubleshooters. They need good word. I have been QA, and I know it is hard to convey what the dev needs in language that helps them reproduce and diagnose.

Some of the federal government has moved to iPhone 5S from Blackberry. At least one IT subset has evidently tested and pushed out instructions for their user group to have the updated iOS installed by this Friday (ironically April Fools Day). And take a look at the big summit that is in DC this weekend to understand the impact if that IT group is unaware of this potential issue. So I hope that IT group has the problem sorted out and has pushed a "good" version of iOS. But if Apple missed this, and that IT group hasn't quietly taken care of it, then this is a bad weekend for that IT to unintentionally mess with their user group's iPhones.

That group would not be ones that would install apps like Booking.com, it's true (or any app - IT would lock that down tight),
but I see notes in reply - in comments to the posts at http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/29/apple-ios-9-crashing-bugs-when-tapping-links-fix-s oftware-update/ for example - from people who insist that they *never installed Booking.com* and yet have the Safarfi/email issues.

If it was an easy mistake for Booking.com to blithely supersize their link manifest, then there are probably other similar innocent mistakes in other apps as well.

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i have the same issue with a new iPad Air 2. Just got it last week, about as useful as a door stop right now. Fortunately the second gen iPad that it replaced is still working. So using it now.

I beta tested every version of 9.3 and the issue started for me with Beta 3 or 4....I can't remember exactly. I submitted beta feedback to Apple describing this same issue as soon as I noticed it during beta testing and never got a response back. I even started a post on MacRumors.com about this very issue on March 6, two weeks before 9.3 was released. Here is my post: . I thought I was alone with this problem. After numerous reformats and downgrades to 9.2 were I also experienced this issue so it's not just a 9.3 issue, I stumbled across a post on the Apple forums right after the 9.3 update from someone who was having the very same issue as me.....that forum post is now 53 pages long. This was definitely an issue in the betas. Had they caught it then, they would have released 9.3 without this issue. Had someone responded to my beta feedback, they would have known about it then. I have both an iPhone 6s Plus and an iPad Air 2 LTE and both ran the betas. My iPad 2 just started experiencing this issue this past weekend when I opened the Booking.com app for the first time. I had it installed on the iPad but had never opened it. As soon as I opened it, the iPad started having the links issue. Hopefully we'll see something this week or very soon because it affects so many aspects of the OS.

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OK. Apple doorstop. Can I open this discussion to other suggestions for using your iPhone/iPad while Apple continue their vow of silence:

So far:

• I have an iPhone coaster for my coffee.
• An iPad Air helping to stop my desk from wobbling
• An iPad2 paperweight
• An iPad mini as shaving mirror (as an 'Able Ape' I've got a lot to shave 😉)

Any more suggestions?

I have the same problem on my iphone 5s. Any taped link in Safari freezes it, even links in messages; I have the same bug in the ipad mini with previous iOS version. Also I can't "open new tab"s on both devices.

It is shocking that a bug this bad and widespread can go so long without a fix.

Here are my suggestions:

For news sites, the app, as opposed to the shortcut to the webpage, may work. I have the NYT app AND the shortcut. The app works.

Also, Flipboard and Apple News apps work.

If an app, like Mail, freezes because you tapped a link, you don't have to fully restart. Just clear the RAM. Much quicker:

A. Hold power button until you see the Slide To Turn Off screen. B. Let go of power button and hold Home button down until home screen returns.

This is not just a 9.3 problem. My 5 has the problem with 9.2.1.

Turning off Javascript did nothing for me. Also, resetting and such did nothing to solve the problem. Only a software patch is going to do it, I think.

About build 237

First, I goofed in reading your screenshot - your download is not ending 27, but 237. And that's the build number, not the version (I am not a developer, and I am tired.) Per an article in Forbes, your build number ending in 237 of version 9.3 was put out by Apple to fix a bricking issue (not the inert Safari/email issue we are discussing here). The link here explains, but that doesn't clear up the basic how-to-read-the-version question:

At this article in Forbes, dated 29 March (quoting at length because people seem not to follow links (or can't ;-) ):

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"Last week, it was revealed that an Apple AAPL +2.11% iOS 9.3 glitch was causing older iPhones and iPads to become bricked. That is why Apple released an updated build of iOS 9.3 for users that were affected by the “activation bug.” The new version is still called iOS 9.3, but it has an updated build number called 13E5237. The “activation bug” essentially prevented older iPhones and iPads from upgrading to iOS 9.3.

Prior to releasing the new version of iOS 9.3, Applepublished a support page and confirmed the activation bug in a statement to iMore on March 24th:

“Updating some iOS devices (iPhone 5s and earlier and iPad Air and earlier) to iOS 9.3 can require entering the Apple ID and password used to set up the device in order to complete the software update. In some cases, if customers do not recall their password, their device will remain in an inactivated state until they can recover or reset their password. For these older devices, we have temporarily pulled back the update and will release an updated version of iOS 9.3 in the next few days that does not require this step.”

Once the problem was discovered, Apple temporarily stopped issuing iOS 9.3 to older devices. If your older Apple device was bricked by iOS 9.3, then you may be able to restore it using the Device Firmware Update (DFU) mode and opening iTunes while your device is plugged into your computer. DFU mode ensures that your iOS device can still communicate with iTunes without actually activating the boot loader or iOS. Here is a tutorial video that explains how to set your device to DFU mode:

[and there's a video on how to do it...and I think I recall one post here than mentioned using DFU.]

Older iPhones and iPads that were not bricked can access the updated version of iOS 9.3 by going to Settings and Software Update."

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I haven't definitively answered the basic question about version numbering, but the info in Forbes about a 24 March update and the Wikipedia info below implies that your 237 build is more recent.

Here is Wikipedia's summary (condensed - the feature lists make the original table miles long) from

FWIW:

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