Google links don't work after iOS 9.3

I am kind of weirded out by this and wondering if it was a hack. Should people change their passwords and not use them on their phones?? Just wondering bc I am not super techy. Just putting this question out there.

I have tried all suggestions, I turned off Java pop up blockers disable Sarai search engine suggestions and disabled safari suggestions. Set the clock back to March 25th. Deleted the booking.com app. And iPad Air still not allowing links within email or to open links in news.

I guess it's because no one at apple store or support acts like they know about this so people are getting desperate to figure it out themselves. They offer no help or statement or even acknowledgement of a problem.

After struggling with this same issue for a couple of days, I have resolved both the mail embedded link issue and the Google search result link issue (at least for me).

I downloaded the following file Iphone7,2_9.2.1_13D20_Restore.ipsw from one of the many sites available - I used a website called ipsw.me

A full backup of my phone was performed via iTunes.

I then connected my iPhone to my macbook (iTunes). While holding down the 'option' key, I selected the Restore iPhone option from the top section referencing the IOS version (stated current version was IOS 9.3)

Holding down the 'option' key allowed me to select the previously downloaded ipsw file.

My phone displayed "Restoring iPhone".

After the phone rebooted, I selected restore as new - yes, its a huge pain. I downloaded all my apps again. Prior to all of this, I made sure my photos had been stored on iCloud, as well as Notes.

I did not restore from a backup - it seems this is the crucial part.

Towards the end of the restore process, my iPhone started downloading the IOS 9.3 update. It is currently downloaded BUT NOT INSTALLED.

I am now 5 hours later, and both links in Google search and embedded links in email are working fine. Sure, I am using IOS 9.2.1 and I don't have the new functionality of IOS 9.3, but this is a small price to pay for having a fully functional phone once again.

I hope this works for you too.......obviously, backup your phone first, store things like photos in iCloud and proceed at your own risk as performing stuff like this can (and has in the past) caused me to lose data.

There have been numerous posts from apple support talking about a fix coming in the next day or so. So yes, there has been acknowledgement and statements about the problem.

AGAIN, the problem only started YESTERDAY so it wasn't inherent in the new iOS from the start. Something else happened. You can't expect an immediate fix when someone hacks the system.

Hey Guys.I have the same issue but I've found a temporarry solution.I am using Google app to browse the internet you can acces the links from the app.It's not perfect but at least we can use our phones untill we have a real fix.Cheers

I find it very frustrating that for quite sometime now any update to any of my apple products - Macbook, iPhone 6s, iPad and Apple tv - most of Apple's Apps become more complicated to navigate through i.e when editing a picture in iPhoto the original disappears and I can't copy and paste a photo to it, just as one example!!

I have been a very loyal Apple customer for many years but now after updating to ios 9.3 I can't open links through several apps! I am loosing patience!

Hello everyone,

When thinking about this issue, I currently have an iPhone 6s and there are no issues that i have seen thus far. However thinking about the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s plus when clicking on links you can use a hard press to do so known as the "snap" feature. However this is not a option for the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 plus or any past models. This means that the new update has one or two things wrong with it. The first issue could be that it is assuming that everyone is able to do a hard press to open links, or the driver that support the screen is not compatible with the last models and its conflicting trying to use a "one size fits all approach". There is no known fix to this, and sorry to say if you don't have an iPhone 6s Or iPhone 6s Plus... it seems you have to wait. Looks link no internet for a couple of days until apple figures out the solution. Least you have a phone you can call on.... Stone age right? I figured...

And the "epic fail" award goes to Apple inc. Way to go...

I have my 6s...

Yes, I think the key here is that you 1) restored the iPhone software via the IPSW file and 2) did NOT do a restore, but instead redownloaded your apps.

It was kind of a slow light bulb moment for me, but I realized that my problem was that after I had upgraded originally to 9.3, I also updated all of my apps and then took a backup of my iphone via iTunes. So...the lastest backup directory was based on a 9.3 software basis.

Kind of a "duh" moment. What I did find out was that your can archive your backups (right click on the iphone backups shown....) and the use that saved archive later if needed. I did NOT have a backup of my 9.2.1 apps and data, since it was effectively overwritten when I did my 9.3 iTunes backup.

Live and learn. After taking literal hours to restore/re-update to 9.3, then reloading all my passwords and stuff, I'm back to where I started. Which is a 9.3 install with no working Safari/Chrome. :=/ Still didn't get my messages back, but they effectively duplicate on my iPad since I use iMessage.

Will be smarter about my backup...AND upgrade...process in the future!

Good luck all.

Having the same issues as everyone else in this thread.

Inexcusable error on Apple's part. How is it that I didn't have this issue with the latest beta release of iOS 9.3, but have it now after updating to the official release of iOS 9.3? What is the point of beta testing if things like this are happening?

I started using Apple products about 6 years ago, and have noticed a steady decline in the quality and reliability of their products and software. To think I almost bought the new 128 GB iPad Pro at $749.00 + tax...

This is nothing to do with the iOS update to 9.3. It's a bug that also randomly started in 9.2.1 for lots of users, but is now being missed by the discussions as people update to 9.3. It happened to me in 9.2.1 out of the blue whilst I was updating about 20 apps in the background. Safari links suddenly sropped working. I've tried all the fixes....clearing cache, web history, soft reset etc. Nothing works. The only workaround is to switch off JavaScript, which gets safari working again to a fashion, but not Mail links. Apple are recommending this if you Tweet DM them. I've read a few reports of people getting this bug whilst updating multiple apps, so im wondering if it's an App Store problem....maybe even a malware attack.

This is on the right track. I just found a post on 9to5mac.com which links this problem to recently updated apps and not iOS 9.3: http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/27/some-users-reporting-iphone-crashes-on-ios-9-3-whe n-tapping-links-in-safari-and-other-apps…

Hey,

Just got the same problem running IOS 9.2.1. It happened directly after i did 1 of 2 things. I viewed an embedded video which opened in its own window and i navigated to a page in south korean language. Tried all the usual resets and the only thing that worked was turning off javascript. As others said, no linking was working in the mail apps.

At the moment i fixed it by restoring a known working backup from yesterday. I fear that maybe some people synced and overwrote their backups with a corrupted copy when not realizing the problems occured. I have the booking.com app installed and despite other reports it hasn't affected anything.

I can confirm this problem as well. iOS 9.3 on both my 6S Plus and Mini 4. I can defiantly confirm that this just started as I remember it working last night and I've had 9.3 since last Monday afternoon (aka right at release time). This is very confusing as to what is going on. How is this triggered "out of the blue"? Nothing had changed on my devices, no app updates, nothing. It just started randomly. I have tried every suggestion on this thread with no luck. What we do know according to people on this thread is that it is a known issue. Hopefully a fix will be released ASAP...that's the best we can hope for.

Glad to hear I am not the only one where it suddenly started happening while on 9.2. My iPad Air 2 was fine at 6:00 last night. AT 8:00 I started experiencing issues in Safari. I suspect maybe an upgrade of Safari was pushed out. i have tried everything including upgrading to 9.3 and a ull restore. guess now we all just wait...