iPhone XS Phone randomly unresponsive

[bamorris2]

My phone is occasionally completely unresponsive. Screen won’t turn on at all. After several minutes, it will reset and come back to life by holding volume and power buttons. Troubleshooting so far has included resetting phone and setting up as new, and exchanging for new phones at the Apple Store twice. It still happens about 2-3 times per week. It will be fine when I’m using it, set it down and it’s dead when I pick it up again. The battery is not the issue. All apps are updated and I’m always on the most recent iOS version (12.3 as of last night).

Any ideas how I can troubleshooting further? The Genius Bar folks say it could just be an iOS or phone design bug.

 

[Shirasaki]

I know this is a bit unrelated but my iPad has the same problem as well in a week. Almost 10 times in total already. Did not notice any freeze/lag on my new iPhone XS Max just yet.

 

[now i see it]

Since this problem isn't common and you're using the latest iOS, (same as millions of other people) my guess is your replacement phones are defective too. If they all came from the same batch, they likely have to same problem.

I say return it (again) and roll the dice again. Maybe you'll be lucky this time.
When you set it up, set it up as virgin new and don't install any apps on it for a while to verify that it's running stable.

 

[rdev02]

I'm in the same boat with iphone 8. I noticed that this becomes more of an issue when the connectivity is bad. Phone becomes literally unusable. Everything is slow: screen lock, app swipe, everything. Rebooting it fixes it for undetermined amount of time. I'm considering backing up stuff and going into the store for a replacement.

 

[bamorris2]

Well over the last several months, the Apple Store has replaced my XS about 6 times because of multiple kernel panics. Typical crashes daily or every couple of days. They say it’s hardware related. Anyway, unable to stand it anymore, I purchased a new iPhone 8 yesterday. Still have the XS, but now not active. If there are no crashes within the return period then I’ll know the issue is with the XS model, and I’ll keep the 8. But man is it difficult to go backward after having an XS. I mean really, what are those big unused patches of black at the top and bottom of the screen??? Ugh, bezels! Big ugly ones.

So frustrating to have a flagship device behave like this. My SE was just fine. If the company I work for offered BYOD for Android, I’d jump ship. Unfortunately they only support iDevices.

 

[Shanghaichica]

It hasn’t happened to me for a few weeks now but I’ve had the same issue with my Xs max. It’s happened about 10 times since I got it at the end of September. One time it happened 3 times in the same week.

 

[bamorris2]

It hasn’t happened to me for a few weeks now but I’ve had the same issue with my Xs max. It’s happened about 10 times since I got it at the end of September. One time it happened 3 times in the same week.

Do you notice anything that seems to cause or trigger it?

 

[Shanghaichica]

Do you notice anything that seems to cause or trigger it?

Ira usually if the screen has been off for a while. That’s the only thing that I’ve noticed.

 

[bamorris2]

Ira usually if the screen has been off for a while. That’s the only thing that I’ve noticed.

Exactly the same here. Interesting that it hasn’t happened with your phone for a few weeks now.

This is certainly a problem, as I’ve seen several people online with the same issue, although not a lot. Wonder if it’s a hardware or an iOS issue that can be fixed through a software update.

 

[edhchoe]

My iPhone 7 never had this problem.
My XS freezes few times a day.
It is frustrating.

 

[Hofstede]

You may refer to this post. It seems the issue is not limited to iPhone XS Max, but also iPhone XS.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/unresponsive-iphone-xs-max.2187966/

 

[NoBoMac]

I've seen on my 8 at 12.3.

On 12.4 now, so, not used enough to see if fixed.

EDIT: but so far, have not seen problem.

 

[bamorris2]

I updated to 12.4 yesterday morning. My XS just restarted this evening. So whatever the issue is, 12.4 didn’t fix it. Ugh!

 

[AppleHaterLover]

I updated to 12.4 yesterday morning. My XS just restarted this evening. So whatever the issue is, 12.4 didn’t fix it. Ugh!

My XR will do this occasionally. Completely unresponsive. One time it wouldn’t wake up from sleep, then it decided to respond to my 500 clicks of the sleep/wake button all at once. I thought it was possessed by the devil/hacked by the FBI (most probably the former). My 1st gen iPad Pro does this very infrequently as well.

 

[Hofstede]

I updated to 12.4 yesterday morning. My XS just restarted this evening. So whatever the issue is, 12.4 didn’t fix it. Ugh!

It’s sad to know that the issue has not been fixed yet. Is it a hardware-related problem?

 

[bamorris2]

It’s sad to know that the issue has been been fixed yet. Is it a hardware-related problem?

I’m not 100% sure. Apple store Genius Bar says that kernel panics are hardware failures, although I’ve read online that they could also be software related. I’ve had 6 replacement devices and every single one of them had the same problem, with the most recent having a March 2019 build date. The issue has not surfaced on the iPhone 8 that I just bought.

 

[mebehere]

Well over the last several months, the Apple Store has replaced my XS about 6 times because of multiple kernel panics. Typical crashes daily or every couple of days. They say it’s hardware related. Anyway, unable to stand it anymore, I purchased a new iPhone 8 yesterday. Still have the XS, but now not active. If there are no crashes within the return period then I’ll know the issue is with the XS model, and I’ll keep the 8. But man is it difficult to go backward after having an XS. I mean really, what are those big unused patches of black at the top and bottom of the screen??? Ugh, bezels! Big ugly ones.

So frustrating to have a flagship device behave like this. My SE was just fine. If the company I work for offered BYOD for Android, I’d jump ship. Unfortunately they only support iDevices.

So bezels suck on the 8 but not the SE. Come on, man. Ain’t nothing wrong with bezels. It’s all BS marketing.