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T-Mobile iPhone Users Seeing Frequent Random Restarts and Blue Screens
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I have that issue since yesterday. Trying with the hard reset and when getting the "Set Language" Screen it gets blue A G A I N!!! This is so f.... bad. Had you heard of any upcoming iOS version that may fix this issue? I bought this iPhone in the States but I live in South America, how the H... am I going to get a replacemente?
This is NOT a T-Mobile problem - the rumors of this being a T-Mobile issue are 100% INCORRECT. I'm an AT&T customer and this began happening on my iphone 5S approximately 3-4 weeks ago. I had invested in Apple support when I first purchased the phone and was stuck on the phone with them for hours upon hours (very nice rep, but honestly - they simply didn't have a clue what's wrong, where this issue is coming from, if it's hardware or OS based, and it wasn't his fault - Apple doesn't seem to be making this the TOP priority it should be) ... and we freed up enough storage on my phone to upgrade to the latest operating system, which he was hoping would resolve the issue. Wrong. The issue was gone for approximately a week or 2 and then suddenly a few days ago began again, with the latest and greatest OS on the phone and the latest and greatest ITunes on my computer BOOM - blue screen of death - constant reboots and worse ... at times the phone just goes black, dead, won't even attempt to reboot, just off and won't start. Those are the worst of times and the only fix I've found for that was literally leaving the phone alone for as long as I can, then eventually connecting it to Itunes via my laptop over and over again until it finally tries to turn on - at which point it eventually turns on (at times an hour later), but to the blue screen of death - but then at least it goes back to reboot over and over mode, which eventually stops and turns on my phone.
If you google this issue, it's been going on since 2013 or earlier - this isn't a new issue for the iphone or other MAC/Apple products, but it has been getting far worse and spreading more and more now (with no accountability or acknowledgement from Apple). There's only 2 possible causes (or 3), a problem with the hardware or a problem/bug/virus in the OS systems (all of the OS's, as I've gone through 3 now and the issue has followed me through all 3).
Once again, this issue is being reported as a T-Mobile issue, and it's not - and I honestly believe that it's not getting the media attention it should be, thus not putting enough of a squeeze on Apple to "own" and "acknowledge" this issue, and therefore make it a TOP NUMBER ONE priority to find the problem and release a fix. Customers on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and more - customers of all the providers are experiencing this, not just T-Mobile. Trying to publicly announce this as a T-Mobile issue is taking away the accountability that Apple should have - the public acknowledgement that Apple should be making and the TOP PRIORITY that this should be. These phones are VERY EXPENSIVE - this type of malfunction is unacceptable.
I'm sorry to say this everyone, I don't mean to be a negative nelly and I'm not shouting, nor is their anger in my tone or emotions - I'm just being informative ... you cannot fix this problem through any means you're finding on the Net, or that Apple is telling you to do. The bottom line is this. Apple has not yet figured out the root cause of the problem, therefore they have absolutely no idea how to resolve it. They're having people jump through hoops doing this or that in hope that it might help, knowing full well that they have no idea as of yet what's causing it or how to fix it. This is NOT the "instant message issue/known virus discussed in other forums" - this is either a serious malfunction in hardware, OS systems and/or someone figured out how to get a virus to destroy the iphone (and now other Apple products) and APPLE simply doesn't have any idea at this point what the cause is or how to resolve it. There are many different thoughts on what will fix it (as I described mine above) - but that's not a fix, it's a frustrating run of timely events and it only fixes it temporarily. Once your phone becomes either infected by "whatever this is" - or your hardware starts malfunctioning by "whatever this is" - there's absolutely nothing that will resolve it long term, including the latest and greatest OS system, or resetting to factory and starting from scratch - and don't we all love having to do that? <--- the only sarcasm I've used in my comment.
So, please, when reporting this online, please don't make it seem like a T-Mobile issue, it's not - it's across all providers - it's an iphone issue, an APPLE product(s) issue, and it's happening overseas as well, not just in the US. Please contact Apple demanding top priority to this issue, and not your providers - because your service providers are not at fault. And please help spread the word, because this is news worthy - these are insanely expensive phones, phones people are relying on for far more than merely phone calls or internet access, but notes, reminders, calendars and more ... and Apple is not being held accountable for this, not being pressured or threatened to make finding the problem (as it continues to spread to more and more customers) their TOP PRIORITY and therefore don't have a resolution.
After 8+ years of being an iphone user, and I LOVE the iphone, know it inside and out, absolutely adore it and don't want to give it up, with a free upgrade now due me from AT&T I'm forced to go Android (not that it's a bad thing, but it's not what I want). First of all I wouldn't get another iphone until the 7 came out (I don't like the way the 6 is made) - my 5s is is made far better than the 6, other than the size which is too small compared to other phones these days ... and secondly - why would I upgrade to another ridiculously expensive phone (iphone or otherwise), knowing that either the hardware or software has serious issues and Apple isn't doing their due diligence to resolve it? I rely far too heavily on my phone for to-do lists (notes), reminders, alarms, calendars, calls and voicemail to be dealing with a phone that's dying every other day due to a serious malfunction or virus/glitch in their operating system, neither of which they're taking seriously enough to locate and resolve.
Good luck everyone who's experiencing this and please spread the word - this isn't a provider issue - this is a HUGE Apple issue that they are NOT being held accountable for publicly or otherwise.
If you google this issue, it's been going on since 2013 or earlier - this isn't a new issue for the iphone or other MAC/Apple products, but it has been getting far worse and spreading more and more now (with no accountability or acknowledgement from Apple). There's only 2 possible causes (or 3), a problem with the hardware or a problem/bug/virus in the OS systems (all of the OS's, as I've gone through 3 now and the issue has followed me through all 3).
Once again, this issue is being reported as a T-Mobile issue, and it's not - and I honestly believe that it's not getting the media attention it should be, thus not putting enough of a squeeze on Apple to "own" and "acknowledge" this issue, and therefore make it a TOP NUMBER ONE priority to find the problem and release a fix. Customers on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and more - customers of all the providers are experiencing this, not just T-Mobile. Trying to publicly announce this as a T-Mobile issue is taking away the accountability that Apple should have - the public acknowledgement that Apple should be making and the TOP PRIORITY that this should be. These phones are VERY EXPENSIVE - this type of malfunction is unacceptable.
I'm sorry to say this everyone, I don't mean to be a negative nelly and I'm not shouting, nor is their anger in my tone or emotions - I'm just being informative ... you cannot fix this problem through any means you're finding on the Net, or that Apple is telling you to do. The bottom line is this. Apple has not yet figured out the root cause of the problem, therefore they have absolutely no idea how to resolve it. They're having people jump through hoops doing this or that in hope that it might help, knowing full well that they have no idea as of yet what's causing it or how to fix it. This is NOT the "instant message issue/known virus discussed in other forums" - this is either a serious malfunction in hardware, OS systems and/or someone figured out how to get a virus to destroy the iphone (and now other Apple products) and APPLE simply doesn't have any idea at this point what the cause is or how to resolve it. There are many different thoughts on what will fix it (as I described mine above) - but that's not a fix, it's a frustrating run of timely events and it only fixes it temporarily. Once your phone becomes either infected by "whatever this is" - or your hardware starts malfunctioning by "whatever this is" - there's absolutely nothing that will resolve it long term, including the latest and greatest OS system, or resetting to factory and starting from scratch - and don't we all love having to do that? <--- the only sarcasm I've used in my comment.
So, please, when reporting this online, please don't make it seem like a T-Mobile issue, it's not - it's across all providers - it's an iphone issue, an APPLE product(s) issue, and it's happening overseas as well, not just in the US. Please contact Apple demanding top priority to this issue, and not your providers - because your service providers are not at fault. And please help spread the word, because this is news worthy - these are insanely expensive phones, phones people are relying on for far more than merely phone calls or internet access, but notes, reminders, calendars and more ... and Apple is not being held accountable for this, not being pressured or threatened to make finding the problem (as it continues to spread to more and more customers) their TOP PRIORITY and therefore don't have a resolution.
After 8+ years of being an iphone user, and I LOVE the iphone, know it inside and out, absolutely adore it and don't want to give it up, with a free upgrade now due me from AT&T I'm forced to go Android (not that it's a bad thing, but it's not what I want). First of all I wouldn't get another iphone until the 7 came out (I don't like the way the 6 is made) - my 5s is is made far better than the 6, other than the size which is too small compared to other phones these days ... and secondly - why would I upgrade to another ridiculously expensive phone (iphone or otherwise), knowing that either the hardware or software has serious issues and Apple isn't doing their due diligence to resolve it? I rely far too heavily on my phone for to-do lists (notes), reminders, alarms, calendars, calls and voicemail to be dealing with a phone that's dying every other day due to a serious malfunction or virus/glitch in their operating system, neither of which they're taking seriously enough to locate and resolve.
Good luck everyone who's experiencing this and please spread the word - this isn't a provider issue - this is a HUGE Apple issue that they are NOT being held accountable for publicly or otherwise.
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PS - to the gentlemen whose phone began experiencing this ... and then his wife's phone began experiencing this, so he went out and purchased a new iphone - my only response to that is "why?????" Why would you clearly see that there's a HUGE Apple product problem (if you really start searching the Net you'll find that it's spreading past the iphone now and starting to hit ipads as well - and more) ... the problem was first reported in either 2012 or 2013, many in 2013, with a WIDE SPREAD issue beginning approximately a month or 2 ago, including overseas and across all providers ... experience it with your phone, then find your wife's phone experiencing it, and then go out and buy her another iphone? I'm not being negative, nasty or argumentative, I'm actually baffled by that. I'm very upset that I'm going to be forced to go "Droid." I've never been a big fan of MAC products at all - I've never liked their control issues and still don't - but I absolutely love the iphone. I began with the 3s 8 years ago and have had an iphone ever since - now the 5s. I know it inside and out, love it, am comfortable with it, utilize it for a great many things in my life - major and serious things, and at 50 years old, truly don't want to have to deal with learning an entirely new piece of technology - but with Apple literally refusing to "own" - "acknowledge" - "report on" - "locate the root cause" - and "resolve" this issue, I'd have to be out of my mind (unless I was very wealth, which I'm not), to replace my phone with another iphone? With as fast as this issue is spreading right now - and as stated above it began a few years ago, but is now spreading like a wildfire over the past month or 2, the likelihood of my new iphone (if I were to waste my free upgrade due me) not eventually experiencing this issue is slim to none. The Apple rep who was on the phone with me for HOURS - as in ALL DAY (and he was actually extremely nice, this isn't his fault - it's his companies fault), was willing, if after trying a zillion different work arounds I still had this issue, to ensure that I was given a brand new replacement phone. However, keep in mind, I had paid for Apple support when I got my 5s, that's why I was offered the free replacement phone. Bottom line? I don't want a new phone. Brand new replacement iphone, switching to Droid, either way I'm losing so much data, virtual voicemails saved of my mother who passed away - and in all of the countless efforts to backup, free up storage and restore my phone (with the rep), countless pictures and videos were lost (they don't know why) ... but heck, if I have no choice but to get a new phone, there's no way I'm going with a phone that's got a SERIOUS hardware malfunction and/or (far more likely) a HUGE software glitch and/or virus. Personally, though I hate to give my opinion, because I could very well be completely wrong - I do think this is a virus - I think someone figured out how to take down Apple products. Again, I could be wrong. Then again - if you also search the Net, you'll see that someone figured out how to get a virus into iphone messages if sending from iphone to iphone, something Apple did admit to, but still have no fix for.
Also, to another person who posted about their phone getting hot. Yes, I noticed today that my phone began getting far hotter than normal after only a few minutes of use. Maybe their batteries are all malfunctioning? Maybe there's a virus that's attacking the batteries? I don't know and the sad thing is - either does Apple.
In closing, I'll tell you one thing - Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace, would be livid if he were alive to see what Apple has done to his company and/or how they're responding (rather not responding) to A WIDESPREAD MASSIVE EVENT.
Also, to another person who posted about their phone getting hot. Yes, I noticed today that my phone began getting far hotter than normal after only a few minutes of use. Maybe their batteries are all malfunctioning? Maybe there's a virus that's attacking the batteries? I don't know and the sad thing is - either does Apple.
In closing, I'll tell you one thing - Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace, would be livid if he were alive to see what Apple has done to his company and/or how they're responding (rather not responding) to A WIDESPREAD MASSIVE EVENT.
Snippen ze snippen...
Would you mind condensing your posts a little please, maybe limit them to 100,000 words? Thanks.
You shouldn't want a replacement, not yet anyway. Apple has not yet acknowledged the severity of this issue - haven't yet owned or acknowledged their part in it, have absolutely no idea as of yet what's caused it, therefore do not have a resolution for it, and it's been a known issue for a few years now, with it becoming a WIDE SPREAD - AS IN SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE over the past month or 2 now - in the states and overseas - everywhere. Replacing your phone right now with another iphone would be foolish, with how fast it's now spreading to so many customers (thousands upon thousands if you check the Net (though ignore how many people think it's a T-Mobile issue, it's not, I'm on AT&T's network ... this is an ALL providers issues, it's an APPLE issue, not a provider issue), the chances of your new phone not having this problem would be like playing Russian Roulette. I rely on my phone heavily, for very serious and major life events - and I've been experiencing this for approximately a month now ... it going away when I updated the OS, and it now back again a week or so later. If this continues for another few days, with it now being time for me to be eligible for a no out of pocket upgrade through my AT&T plan, I'm going to be forced to get an Android *shutter*. Not that I have anything against Androids, they seem to be great phones, but I'm an iphone person ... and I love the iphone, but Apple isn't owning this, finding the issue, making this a top, number one priority or resolving it - and I can't have a phone that's not working. My only advise, submit bug report after bug report to Apple via their "contact and submit big report" page (searchable on the Net). Don't stop submitting the reports (EVERYONE) until they are so slammed with reports that they have to ACKNOWLEDGE this. AND - post this issue on any and all news sites you might read and/or be a member to. The news needs to get involved - pressure will force Apple to own, acknowledge, locate the cause and find a resolution. Until then my far away stranger friend in Africa, we're all going through the same problem, more and more by the day and hour - hold tight and don't replace your phone with another iphone right now - and if you simply can't live without your phone, get an Android - I know that's a not so wonderful thing (believe me I so don't want one), but Androids aren't malfunctioning or infected right now - at least you'll have a working phone.
Best wishes.I didn't do a word count ... my apologies if the wall of text was blinding or upsetting, it was quite informative though. I'll be more mindful in the future.
Hello. First of all this is NOT a T-Mobile issue, it's across ALL providers, within the US and overseas - check the Net, all the forums and with Apple. Once again, this is NOT a T-Mobile issue. I'm an AT&T customer and I've been dealing with it for over a month, through 2 different OS systems on my phone and have tried all the little go-arounds and fixes. Believe me, it's NOT T-Mobile, thousands upon thousands of users are experiencing this same exact problem across a wide band of providers, which began in 2012, got worse in 2013, no one really noticed or paid attention until more people began having the issue in Jan & Feb of this year, with an explosion of users experiencing it beginning this past June (I've been doing my homework).
This is doing to sound very trivial, it did to me as well, and I've been dealing directly with an incredibly sweet and extremely technically savvy Apple rep for weeks upon weeks now - hours worth of calls with us bouncing troubleshooting and speculative possibilities off of each other. None of the tips and tricks to fix this long-term helped at all, upgrading to the latest OS on my phone didn't help, updating my PC with the latest itunes and connecting to it didn't help ... nothing will help once it begins. Once updating the operating system the issue did cease for approximately 2+ weeks give or take, but then BOOM it was back, and back with a vengeance, forget just the BSOD or the constantly circling reboots, but my phone wouldn't even start unless left alone for quite a while, then plugged into itunes via my computer, and then the BSOD and reboots would start for quite a while until the phone finally turned on. We tried it all folks and I myself spent countless hours going through forum after forum and reading years worth of comments on this issue and all of the comments I could find about the near explosion of customers who began having this problem this June (2015). The Apple rep and I began bouncing ideas off of each other - I was ready to go get an Android, which I wasn't pleased about, but with this problem now growing so globally and so widespread (do your research on the Net folks), replacing my phone with a new one, which I'm entitled to with my Apple care, was NOT a viable option for me, since people purchasing the latest and greatest phones are having this problem as well.
Hour after hour in one phone call yesterday we began going through speculative possibility after possibility (keep in mind, I'm saying speculative, because Apple has NOT yet owned, acknowledged or publicly announced anything about this issue at all, let alone a root cause or resolution - so these ideas were purely speculative between the Apple rep and myself - both technically savvy, both doing an analysis based on what we were seeing from comments on the Net (dates, people affected, etc, location, providers, etc.). So we speculated that based on the initial first complaints about this in 2012 going into 2013 - and watching/reading them get worse and worse until the near explosion of the issue in June of this year (2015) - that there could only be 3 possible root causes (or so we thought/think). 1. Specific hardware is bought in huge bulk from various different suppliers (i.e. - a graphics card could be purchased from many different suppliers - some phones getting them from one manufacturer, some from another) - so, it could be that the graphics card, battery or what have you that was made by one supplier was malfunctioning (that's 1 possibility). 2. the last 2-3 OS releases had bad code, because this only seems to be affecting people who have been using the last 2-3 OS releases/updates. 3. Someone figured out how to get a virus into Apple products - which could have been done via unicode or various other types of java that simply, in layman's terms, was messing up the OS system. So those 3 possibilities were what we were agreeing upon.
We kept digging deeper, because I was seriously not happy about having no workable phone right now and felt forced to get an Android (nothing wrong with Android, they're great phones, all of them, I just like my iphone) ... trying to analytically find a common denominator (spread throughout the US and overseas, spread across all providers - what might nearly every person in today's world be using or doing on their phone). Well, the only thing we could think of that nearly everyone worldwide might be using on their phones is the Facebook app. Nearly everyone, not everyone, but nearly everyone in today's day and age has the Facebook app installed on their phones - nearly everyone uses it via their phones - and if you look into the FB app's setting or read about it online, you'll see that it wants to sync with and use your phones contacts, pictures, calendars and far, far more - it's extremely intrusive (and their privacy statement clearly states it, so they're not doing anything illegal at all). So, that was the only common denominator that we were able to think of other than the other 3 possibilities (remember all of this is speculative). Now yesterday, my phone would not work at all, which upgrading to the new OS 3 or so weeks ago had fixed, but it started again about 4-5 days ago becoming worse by the day. As of yesterday morning, I had gone to sleep with it finally working from the day before, but woke up yesterday morning with it looking dead, having to hard reboot it, then the BSOD (blue screen on death), then looping in reboots, having to connect to my PC's itunes just to get it to start, then looping again - then not only was I getting the BSOD, but I began getting black and white zebra colors and all sorts of weird stuff going on (while the Apple rep was on the phone - which is what caused our conversation about the possible hardware/graphics chip coming from different suppliers). My phone was non-stop rebooting for 4 days at that point and was now having a meltdown (my phone). I quickly, for the few minutes I could actually get it to work, forwarded all my calls to home phone, since my phone was having a meltdown, backed up (luckily it stayed on long enough at one point for me to actually do a full backup of everything) and BOOM it began again. Before hanging up the phone we decided that I'd uninstall the Facebook App just for the sake of it - we were curious and had been troubleshooting for ours and our curiosity and frustration was running on overdrive. What could it hurt right? My phone was barely usable at this point anyway. During another moment when my phone was staying on I removed the Facebook App and rebooted my phone.
From the very second I removed the FB app my phone began working perfectly. It rebooted and started up without any errors, any looping, any BSOD, any weird graphic issues ... it was if I never had a problem at all - and I've been going through this for over a month now. AGAIN, this is speculative and I'm only in day 1 1/2 of testing out this possibility - I am NOT saying that the FB app is causing this issue, merely stating that when I removed the FB app yesterday my issue was immediately resolved - though it could be temporary and could come back at any given moment, which is what this bizarre issue has been doing to many people, myself included. All I'm saying is that after countless hours, days and weeks of speaking to Apple, doing my own hardcore analysis based upon all the comments and forums online (and there are countless) and a phones that was getting worse and worse with no viable explanation - perplexed that it was happening over all providers and within the US and overseas - that since I removed the Facebook App I am not having even a hiccup on my phone, and I spent all night last night intentionally trying to lock it up and force the issue back (I didn't believe something as "little" as the FB app could be the root cause). I opened and used every app I have at one time, made phone calls, open Google and searched the Net, opened maps, asked Siri to give me directions, and held it tightly in my hand to heat up the battery and no matter what I did, I couldn't force a BSOD or reboot on my phone. Again, I'm NOT stating that the FB app is the root cause of this, only that since removing it my issue was immediately gone and hasn't come back yet. if it comes back I'll repost here and let you know that it's still happening, if I don't repost, then the FB app was the root cause. For today, just today, if you have the FB app installed on your iphone or ipad and either device has been experiencing this issue, try uninstalling the FB app and see if it helps. If it does, please reply to this comment. I'm very curious to see if this works for anyone else. It very well could be supplier hardware issue, OS issue or virus of some kind, there's NO denying it and I could get this issue back as soon as I post this ... but as of right now - it's not back and hasn't been since I uninstalled the FB app. Here's hoping we've found the problem. If not, I'll update (in a one sentence update), and then I'm going to go get an Android until Apple owns, acknowledges, locates the root cause and resolves this issue.
Good luck everyone!!!
This is doing to sound very trivial, it did to me as well, and I've been dealing directly with an incredibly sweet and extremely technically savvy Apple rep for weeks upon weeks now - hours worth of calls with us bouncing troubleshooting and speculative possibilities off of each other. None of the tips and tricks to fix this long-term helped at all, upgrading to the latest OS on my phone didn't help, updating my PC with the latest itunes and connecting to it didn't help ... nothing will help once it begins. Once updating the operating system the issue did cease for approximately 2+ weeks give or take, but then BOOM it was back, and back with a vengeance, forget just the BSOD or the constantly circling reboots, but my phone wouldn't even start unless left alone for quite a while, then plugged into itunes via my computer, and then the BSOD and reboots would start for quite a while until the phone finally turned on. We tried it all folks and I myself spent countless hours going through forum after forum and reading years worth of comments on this issue and all of the comments I could find about the near explosion of customers who began having this problem this June (2015). The Apple rep and I began bouncing ideas off of each other - I was ready to go get an Android, which I wasn't pleased about, but with this problem now growing so globally and so widespread (do your research on the Net folks), replacing my phone with a new one, which I'm entitled to with my Apple care, was NOT a viable option for me, since people purchasing the latest and greatest phones are having this problem as well.
Hour after hour in one phone call yesterday we began going through speculative possibility after possibility (keep in mind, I'm saying speculative, because Apple has NOT yet owned, acknowledged or publicly announced anything about this issue at all, let alone a root cause or resolution - so these ideas were purely speculative between the Apple rep and myself - both technically savvy, both doing an analysis based on what we were seeing from comments on the Net (dates, people affected, etc, location, providers, etc.). So we speculated that based on the initial first complaints about this in 2012 going into 2013 - and watching/reading them get worse and worse until the near explosion of the issue in June of this year (2015) - that there could only be 3 possible root causes (or so we thought/think). 1. Specific hardware is bought in huge bulk from various different suppliers (i.e. - a graphics card could be purchased from many different suppliers - some phones getting them from one manufacturer, some from another) - so, it could be that the graphics card, battery or what have you that was made by one supplier was malfunctioning (that's 1 possibility). 2. the last 2-3 OS releases had bad code, because this only seems to be affecting people who have been using the last 2-3 OS releases/updates. 3. Someone figured out how to get a virus into Apple products - which could have been done via unicode or various other types of java that simply, in layman's terms, was messing up the OS system. So those 3 possibilities were what we were agreeing upon.
We kept digging deeper, because I was seriously not happy about having no workable phone right now and felt forced to get an Android (nothing wrong with Android, they're great phones, all of them, I just like my iphone) ... trying to analytically find a common denominator (spread throughout the US and overseas, spread across all providers - what might nearly every person in today's world be using or doing on their phone). Well, the only thing we could think of that nearly everyone worldwide might be using on their phones is the Facebook app. Nearly everyone, not everyone, but nearly everyone in today's day and age has the Facebook app installed on their phones - nearly everyone uses it via their phones - and if you look into the FB app's setting or read about it online, you'll see that it wants to sync with and use your phones contacts, pictures, calendars and far, far more - it's extremely intrusive (and their privacy statement clearly states it, so they're not doing anything illegal at all). So, that was the only common denominator that we were able to think of other than the other 3 possibilities (remember all of this is speculative). Now yesterday, my phone would not work at all, which upgrading to the new OS 3 or so weeks ago had fixed, but it started again about 4-5 days ago becoming worse by the day. As of yesterday morning, I had gone to sleep with it finally working from the day before, but woke up yesterday morning with it looking dead, having to hard reboot it, then the BSOD (blue screen on death), then looping in reboots, having to connect to my PC's itunes just to get it to start, then looping again - then not only was I getting the BSOD, but I began getting black and white zebra colors and all sorts of weird stuff going on (while the Apple rep was on the phone - which is what caused our conversation about the possible hardware/graphics chip coming from different suppliers). My phone was non-stop rebooting for 4 days at that point and was now having a meltdown (my phone). I quickly, for the few minutes I could actually get it to work, forwarded all my calls to home phone, since my phone was having a meltdown, backed up (luckily it stayed on long enough at one point for me to actually do a full backup of everything) and BOOM it began again. Before hanging up the phone we decided that I'd uninstall the Facebook App just for the sake of it - we were curious and had been troubleshooting for ours and our curiosity and frustration was running on overdrive. What could it hurt right? My phone was barely usable at this point anyway. During another moment when my phone was staying on I removed the Facebook App and rebooted my phone.
From the very second I removed the FB app my phone began working perfectly. It rebooted and started up without any errors, any looping, any BSOD, any weird graphic issues ... it was if I never had a problem at all - and I've been going through this for over a month now. AGAIN, this is speculative and I'm only in day 1 1/2 of testing out this possibility - I am NOT saying that the FB app is causing this issue, merely stating that when I removed the FB app yesterday my issue was immediately resolved - though it could be temporary and could come back at any given moment, which is what this bizarre issue has been doing to many people, myself included. All I'm saying is that after countless hours, days and weeks of speaking to Apple, doing my own hardcore analysis based upon all the comments and forums online (and there are countless) and a phones that was getting worse and worse with no viable explanation - perplexed that it was happening over all providers and within the US and overseas - that since I removed the Facebook App I am not having even a hiccup on my phone, and I spent all night last night intentionally trying to lock it up and force the issue back (I didn't believe something as "little" as the FB app could be the root cause). I opened and used every app I have at one time, made phone calls, open Google and searched the Net, opened maps, asked Siri to give me directions, and held it tightly in my hand to heat up the battery and no matter what I did, I couldn't force a BSOD or reboot on my phone. Again, I'm NOT stating that the FB app is the root cause of this, only that since removing it my issue was immediately gone and hasn't come back yet. if it comes back I'll repost here and let you know that it's still happening, if I don't repost, then the FB app was the root cause. For today, just today, if you have the FB app installed on your iphone or ipad and either device has been experiencing this issue, try uninstalling the FB app and see if it helps. If it does, please reply to this comment. I'm very curious to see if this works for anyone else. It very well could be supplier hardware issue, OS issue or virus of some kind, there's NO denying it and I could get this issue back as soon as I post this ... but as of right now - it's not back and hasn't been since I uninstalled the FB app. Here's hoping we've found the problem. If not, I'll update (in a one sentence update), and then I'm going to go get an Android until Apple owns, acknowledges, locates the root cause and resolves this issue.
Good luck everyone!!!
Ps, if you don't limit yourselfs to one device or brand, and move around you are less likely to be hit with problems.. If you had a brand for 7 yrs you are gonna get some issues.. Where as all firms go through good spells where their devices work like a dream..its just hitting those peaks..
Thorough post.
However, I've never had FaceBook installed, but have had regular random restarts on my iPhone and iPad since iOS 8.
Very sad to report that while removing the FB app "immediately" resolved my issue, and no matter how hard I tried to lock up my phone after that (with intent trying to replicate the issue) all weekend, my phone continued to work perfectly as it always had before ... I woke up this morning (Monday), while it was charging overnight, to a BSOD (blue screen of death) and a phone that simply won't start. After hours of it not starting, it finally started long enough for me to forward my calls again, but I couldn't backup via itunes, as I could last week, I received error after error, without an error code (Apple rep on the phone with me) - and now my phone's dead again.
At this point we're probably going to swap out the phone for a brand new 5s, but alas, I don't think (lost hope maybe) that it's going to help, unless of course it is a hardware issue and the replacement phone has parts that came from a different supplier than the phone I have now. Re: you never having the FB app --- somewhere within the forums I read that someone else removed a different app, not FB, and in doing so resolved their issue as well. I don't know if it ever came back for them, no comments on it; however, it seems odd that they removed an app and I removed an app, mine being FB, and that it temporarily resolved the issue immediately. This is beyond frustrating, and I've been left in a very bad position today without a working phone, on so many levels (phone, notes, reminders & calendar) that my attitude has gone down hill, so I'll stop here before I ramble on about how upset I am. This problem is too widespread, without a common denominator, it's very frustrating and still no public announcement from Apple acknowledging that this is going on. I've gone from disgruntled, to befuddled, to disgusted.
Best wishes to you and all who are suffering through this - I hope none of you end up with it getting as bad as mine, where the BSOD eventually just stops and the phone won't start at all for hours.
At this point we're probably going to swap out the phone for a brand new 5s, but alas, I don't think (lost hope maybe) that it's going to help, unless of course it is a hardware issue and the replacement phone has parts that came from a different supplier than the phone I have now. Re: you never having the FB app --- somewhere within the forums I read that someone else removed a different app, not FB, and in doing so resolved their issue as well. I don't know if it ever came back for them, no comments on it; however, it seems odd that they removed an app and I removed an app, mine being FB, and that it temporarily resolved the issue immediately. This is beyond frustrating, and I've been left in a very bad position today without a working phone, on so many levels (phone, notes, reminders & calendar) that my attitude has gone down hill, so I'll stop here before I ramble on about how upset I am. This problem is too widespread, without a common denominator, it's very frustrating and still no public announcement from Apple acknowledging that this is going on. I've gone from disgruntled, to befuddled, to disgusted.
Best wishes to you and all who are suffering through this - I hope none of you end up with it getting as bad as mine, where the BSOD eventually just stops and the phone won't start at all for hours.
My phone has been doing this for over a month... and I'm with Verizon! So it's definitely not just a T-Mobil issue. Thank you, PlanetDream, for all the extra information! Now it's time for some answers from Apple!
For what it's worth... I read somewhere that this problem is more prevalent in iPhones with 64 GB capacity... which I happen to have. My spouse's phone, which was purchased at the same time as mine... only has 32. His phone is fine.
For what it's worth... I read somewhere that this problem is more prevalent in iPhones with 64 GB capacity... which I happen to have. My spouse's phone, which was purchased at the same time as mine... only has 32. His phone is fine.
I only have 16 gb - everyone HAS TO CALL APPLE. I'm still going through it. However, from what I know due to countless of hours worth of calls with Apple, is that APPLE is not aware of the magnitude of this issue (how many customers it's affecting). Many people have been calling their providers, if anyone at all, or going into their provider's stores, when this is clearly a huge and wide-spreading Apple issue. My rep I'm working with wasn't aware of the magnitude of the issue until I directed him to over 13 forums I found on the Net about it and he was pretty taken back. Apple logs all calls and issues. The only way to get Apple to "own," "acknowledge," and make a public announcement about this, including immediately finding the root cause (or admitting to it) and then resolving it - is to bombard them with tech support calls. All calls are logged - the more calls they get, the faster they'll realize how wide-spread this issue is and that it is an APPLE issue and/or the people at the top of the chain who may already know about it, yet not owning it or announcing it publicly will no longer be able to ignore it.