Bricked (and saved?) iPhone 15 Pro - Weird App Pages Issue

[danakm]

I have lots of apps (like I'm sure many do) and I organize them in different screens/pages (which I'm sure it's also very common).
Well, ever since updating to iOS 26, my phone will get a black screen and send me to the lock screen when I try to slide left to switch to the next screen/set of apps after a few of swipes. This effectively means I can never get to my last screen and now can only access those apps via search.

 

[danakm]

UPDATE: I tried doing a restore to fix the issue and my phone is at the moment pretty much bricked since it won't get out of recovery mode. I'm currently trying to restore from my iPad, but this iOS update is a joke. In almost 20 years of being an Apple user nothing like this had never happened to me. Now, I'm seriously worried/pissed off about this phone which isn't even 2 years old 😖

 

[danakm]

UPDATE 2: After many freak outs, restore attempts and Apple support (and third party) consultations, I managed to get my iphone to turn on again, only to realize that, to my dismay, the weird screen swipe bug is still there even after all of this. I can only conclude that whatever is causing that bug must be also what's causing the phone to glitch and have issues when being restored.

 

[Puonti]

For anyone else who might stumble upon this thread with similar issues, could you mention how many pages you have in your Home Screen? (not counting App Library)

And if you can recall, whether that page causing these issues contains just apps or widgets? (and which ones)

 

[danakm]

For anyone else who might stumble upon this thread with similar issues, could you mention how many pages you have in your Home Screen? (not counting App Library)

And if you can recall, whether that page causing these issues contains just apps or widgets? (and which ones)

I have 9 pages total, not counting the app library. I can get all the way to the 6th one and then if I swipe to go to the 7th, the phone goes black for a second with a wheel of doom before sending me back to my lock screen. The same thing happens when I try to edit my pages from the menu where you edit your widgets et al.

I have one widget (a habit counter) with some health apps on the 7th page and only apps after that (image editing apps on the 8th and settings and other system related apps on the 9th).

 

[Puonti]

While in that edit mode, tap the pages navigation near the dock (...). Do you see a list of your pages as normal? Are you able to deselect the problematic page, tap Done and then swipe between the other pages without issue?

 

[danakm]

While in that edit mode, tap the pages navigation near the dock (...). Do you see a list of your pages as normal? Are you able to deselect the problematic page, tap Done and then swipe between the other pages without issue?

Nope, it glitches. Black screen with wheel of doom and I have to force restart the phone to get it unstuck when I try doing that. It's clearly an issue with iOS26 handling pages, but I'm at a loss beyond that

 

[Puonti]

Can you clarify at which point it glitches? When you try to see your list of pages in edit mode, or after deselecting the problematic page and trying to swipe through the remaining ones?

 

[danakm]

Can you clarify at which point it glitches? When you try to see your list of pages in edit mode, or after deselecting the problematic page and trying to swipe through the remaining ones?

The moment I try to modify anything to do with pages. When I click on either "edit pages" or on the page navigator above the dock, it instantly goes black and either gets stuck or sends me to the lock screen. Also when I swipe to go from the 6th to the 7th page, which is how I first noticed the issue.

 

[Puonti]

Three things you could try (in this order):

Open the Settings app, then navigate to General > iPhone Storage and find and tap the habit app you have a widget from on that problematic page. Select "Offload App".

See if you're able to navigate to the problematic page.

If it still glitches, next search for the same app and delete it entirely (I don't know if or how that app handles your habit data, so do make sure you understand whether this might cause data to be lost or not before proceeding). Check the problematic page again.

If it still glitches, next try restarting the phone and check the page.