Solution found.
All:
I have an SE that the phone app freezes on.
Contacting Apple support got an almost pathetically Microsoft bad answer: backup, wipe, install, restore.
I told them it had been two weeks since this mistake on their part crippled our phones. They suggested as a workaround, using Siri ("Hey Siri dial XXXXXXX") or Contacts to make outbound calls. "Hey Siri check my voicemail" can also be used to access voicemail!
Apple support was not able to help with fixing this problem. However, while chatting with a tech by the handle “Mikey” last night I found a solution. The key nugget of info was this:
-> Updating over WiFi only changes the sections of the iOS code on your phone that has been changed In the new version.
-> Updating over a wire with iTunes REPLACES the iOS entirely on the device.
So if your phone is jacked up, here is what you do:
1) Update iTunes on your desktop/laptop. You need the latest version.
2) Connect your iPhone to your desktop/laptop.
3) Backup your phone to your deskto/laptop.
4) Leaving the wire connected, hard reboot the phone:
- iPhone SE and older, hold down “home” and “power” for 45 seconds or longer.
- Other newer models do the vol up, vol down, power, hold for 45 seconds.
5) Phone will reboot. KEEP HOLDING!
6) iTunes will say “there is a problem with the iPhone...”
7) Click “update”
8) iTunes will download an update and will install when download complete... mine was about 2.8 Mb.
9) Your desktop/laptop will decompress the file and then start pushing it to the phone.
- “iTunes is preparing to update the software on the phone”
10) Wait a bit
11) “iTunes is updating the software on the phone”
12) you will see the “Apple“ screen in your phone with a progress bar below the Apple showing how far the installation has progressed.
13) When the update is finished, it will say “Verifying the updated iPhone”
14) Phone reboots
15) When your phone wakes up, you will have to unlock your phone for the push to continue.
16) When it reboots, you will see “Syncing iPhone”
Now your phone app should work.
So the lesson learned is to push iOS updates over a wire with iTunes rather than downloading over WiFi.
I am not sure why Apple could not figure out this smoking tire fire of a disaster, but based on my experience this solved the problem.
