iPhone 6 plus suddenly resetting to factory settings whenever rebooted

[jwathas]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help us. My husband and I each have the iPhone 6 Plus. We've had them since September when they first came out. I have never had a single problem with mine, but lately my husband is having all sorts of problems with his. One day about a week ago while he was at work, his iPhone suddenly rebooted itself without him even touching the phone. After it rebooted, it had decided to reset itself to factory settings, just like it was brand new out of the box and all of his stuff was gone. He had to wait until he got home that night to plug it into his computer to recover everything.

Well, this week he is out of state for work and it just did it again. All he did was reboot his phone because iMessage was acting wonky while we were texting. I was trying to send him a picture and it kept saying not delivered. After that, he suddenly wasn't getting any of my texts and I wasn't getting any of his, so that's why he rebooted his phone. He's NOT happy because he is in Washington DC until Friday and now has lost all of his important work emails that were on his phone. Does anyone have any idea why his phone is suddenly wiping itself out whenever it is rebooted and what he can do to prevent it from happening again? He travels a lot for work, so he very heavily relies on his iPhone for business use, so he can't have this happening. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[deviant]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help us. My husband and I each have the iPhone 6 Plus. We've had them since September when they first came out. I have never had a single problem with mine, but lately my husband is having all sorts of problems with his. One day about a week ago while he was at work, his iPhone suddenly rebooted itself without him even touching the phone. After it rebooted, it had decided to reset itself to factory settings, just like it was brand new out of the box and all of his stuff was gone. He had to wait until he got home that night to plug it into his computer to recover everything.

Well, this week he is out of state for work and it just did it again. All he did was reboot his phone because iMessage was acting wonky while we were texting. I was trying to send him a picture and it kept saying not delivered. After that, he suddenly wasn't getting any of my texts and I wasn't getting any of his, so that's why he rebooted his phone. He's NOT happy because he is out of state and now has lost all of his important work emails that were on his phone. Does anyone have any idea why his phone is suddenly wiping itself out whenever it is rebooted and what he can do to prevent it from happening again? He travels a lot for work, so he very heavily relies on his iPhone for business use, so he can't have this happening. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Same situation here (2 iphone 6 pluses). My started rebooting, blue/red screens of death, apps failed to launch. Long story short.. i went to my apple store and got it swapped right away. I suggest he does the same. As soon as I said that i needed it for work - i got a new iphone. In my case, the "genius" told me it was graphics chip and couldn't be repaired anyway so.. new phone. Anyways, tell them you can't remain without your phone (work etc). It helps speeding things up.

 

[jwathas]

I was afraid he'd need to get it replaced. The problem is that he has absolutely no time to get to an Apple store. We don't even have an Apple store where we live. He's in DC this week for work, then heads to Michigan next week, and then Baltimore the week after that and will have literally no time to get to a store. He'll be home on the weekends, but, like I said, we don't have a store in our area and Verizon won't send us a new one and said that we need to go through Apple. This is so frustrating!

 

[Cubeeless]

I was afraid he'd need to get it replaced. The problem is that he has absolutely no time to get to an Apple store. We don't even have an Apple store where we live. He's in DC this week for work, then heads to Michigan next week, and then Baltimore the week after that and will have literally no time to get to a store. He'll be home on the weekends, but, like I said, we don't have a store in our area and Verizon won't send us a new one and said that we need to go through Apple. This is so frustrating!

I mean Apple does also do mail in repairs.

Start here:
https://www.apple.com/support/iphone/repair/other/

You are lucky that your husband does have an Apple product.

 

[gordon1234]

iPhone 6 plus suddenly resetting to factory settings whenever rebooted

He's in multiple cities that have Apple stores and he can't spare a few minutes to go and get his phone swapped? It's literally a 15 minute appointment that you can book in advance, and the Apple Stores open early and close late. Is he working 20-hour days?

There is always a mail-in repair. I'd you're lucky they'll send you a new one and just have you mail the existing one back. If the phone is critical to his work as I would assume it is, I would highly recommend making some time to visit a store while he's in the city. It's hard to travel with a phone that randomly deletes all your data.

 

[jwathas]

He's in multiple cities that have Apple stores and he can't spare a few minutes to go and get his phone swapped? It's literally a 15 minute appointment that you can book in advance, and the Apple Stores open early and close late. Is he working 20-hour days?

Yes, he actually is working pretty close to that right now. He working in medical facilities all day and is there an hour before they open and has to stay at least an hour after they close. Then, he usually has mandatory dinner meetings with his bosses after this on an almost daily basis and then has to go back to his hotel room to finish his work. He doesn't even get back to his hotel until after 8 p.m. most nights. So, yes, he really has no time right now. If we had an Apple store where we live, we could go this weekend. But, as I said previously, we don't have one. I just came on here looking for advice on how to possibly fix this.

We do know that they have mail-in repair (we had to do this with one of our iPads once), but that won't work because that will leave him completely without a phone, which absolutely 100% cannot happen.

 

[gewawd]

It seems like from the OP, the backup image can only be accessed using the home computer. Have you guys considered backing up on iCloud, too? I do this for a fail-proof backup & restore solution.

Also, what version of iOS is he on? It would be very interesting for this problem to be escalated to Apple since I haven't heard much about this bug.

 

[gordon1234]

iPhone 6 plus suddenly resetting to factory settings whenever rebooted

Yes, he actually is working pretty close to that right now. He working in medical facilities all day and is there an hour before they open and has to stay at least an hour after they close. Then, he usually has mandatory dinner meetings with his bosses after this on an almost daily basis and then has to go back to his hotel room to finish his work. He doesn't even get back to his hotel until after 8 p.m. most nights. So, yes, he really has no time right now. If we had an Apple store where we live, we could go this weekend. But, as I said previously, we don't have one. I just came on here looking for advice on how to possibly fix this.

We do know that they have mail-in repair (we had to do this with one of our iPads once), but that won't work because that will leave him completely without a phone, which absolutely 100% cannot happen.

It may not be the solution you're looking for, but considering how busy he is and that you guys can neither go to a store nor do a mail-in repair, you may want to consider having a backup phone for exactly cases like this.

I myself am in a similar circumstance where I can't afford to be without phone or computer if I want to get work done. I have a backup phone and a backup laptop. If need be, I just transfer my SIM card to the second phone, restore from my latest backup, and I'm good to go. It's saved me on multiple occasions. It's expensive to be sure, but in my case it's a necessity. You can grab an older model iPhone off craigslist or eBay for not too much money, if you don't already have one sitting around. Just make sure it's compatible with your network.

That said, I would also just see if Apple can mail you a new phone without you having to first send in yours. Usually what they'll do is just put a preauthorization on your credit card, and charge you full price if you don't return the old phone in a certain amount of time. I had them do this once when I lived in a state with no Apple Stores. It was very convenient.

 

[mspman]

Hey I have an idea. You said yours was fine right? So swap phones. While you have his busted phone you can do a mail in or some such thing.

 

[deviant]

Yes, he actually is working pretty close to that right now. He working in medical facilities all day and is there an hour before they open and has to stay at least an hour after they close. Then, he usually has mandatory dinner meetings with his bosses after this on an almost daily basis and then has to go back to his hotel room to finish his work. He doesn't even get back to his hotel until after 8 p.m. most nights. So, yes, he really has no time right now. If we had an Apple store where we live, we could go this weekend. But, as I said previously, we don't have one. I just came on here looking for advice on how to possibly fix this.

We do know that they have mail-in repair (we had to do this with one of our iPads once), but that won't work because that will leave him completely without a phone, which absolutely 100% cannot happen.

dunno if it's fixed already or not, but when i called apple care they offered me to send a new iPhone and then i'd have to mail my old one to them. just like amazon (at least in italy) does so. they don't even wait for your old one to arrive, they give you the new one right away (1-2 days) and you have 30 days to send your old one back. try calling applecare, you never know.