Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs/Recalls, Bad Apple, iPhone
iPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box
In the last week, we have had a constant barrage of iPhone issues break through the lines... so much so that we feel it is our duty to inform the two of you who haven't updated what you could experience by updating to version 3.1 of the iPhone OS. This is no small problem, as you can read from the discussions on Apple's website here, here, here, and here. The first two links are where we're getting the majority of our tips -- random shutdowns and very poor battery life. The second two, bricked phones and general slowness are still worth a mention -- even prompting our own Erica Sadun to do a live walk-through for debrickifying iPhones. We received a lot of praise for her help in that session and we'd encourage you to go back and read through the chat if you're experiencing trouble with a bricked iPhone.
I've spent quite some time reading the hundreds of posts about the "mysterious random shutdowns" and have determined that it really is what it is. As of this writing, there have been 409 posts and 28 pages in that discussion -- I've seen very little repeats and no real solutions. Some people have said that they've gone to Apple and received replacement phones because of this issue but for those of us who have out-of-warranty phones, Apple has merely said "It's $199 for a replacement." I have to agree with our tipsters -- this needs to be addressed. These people simply did not break their phones, it's a well-documented issue which we, as consumers, shouldn't have to pay to fix.
Battery life is a completely different debacle. I cannot seem to find a trend in the discussions at all. Some people claim to have removed certain apps, some claim that MobileMe sync is the culprit -- all of them agree that there is an issue with 3.1 and that battery life shouldn't dramatically decrease overnight. I'd really love to get into one of these phones and replace the battery to see what happens because the hardware guy in me says that it's not impossible. However, deductive reasoning says that there's something in the software. Whether there's a memory leak in 3.1 itself, or some apps that we're running aren't as "compatible" as they should be... we need to see another update soon to help alleviate the issues with version 3.1 of the iPhone OS.
Please feel free to use our comment system to express your concern, anger, resentment... whatever. Try to be helpful if you've come across a solution and be nice if you're not having these problems. Until Apple issues a fix or acknowledges the problem at all, just hope that you're still in-warranty.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Tyler said 6:37PM on 9-15-2009
I was researching the battery issue today and saw one person say that they've drained the battery and fully recharged twice and that appears to have resolved the issue. I'm doing it myself now and praying that the drain is that easy of a fix.
Reply
victonight said 7:32PM on 9-15-2009
That's exactly what happened to me. Battery was gone from full charge in about three hours the first time after 3.1 update. I drained then charged it twice and it seems to be back to normal. So weird...
Eliot Landrum said 10:20PM on 9-15-2009
My battery life problem (which was horrible... draining to 20% by 1pm after just a few short phone calls, then quickly to 0% by 1:30pm) was solved by turning my Exchange calendar sync off and then back on again. I noticed that some new items were not showing up on my calendar and after waiting for a few hours to make sure, I turned the sync off and on. Wala! The battery life is back to normal and my calendar got refreshed properly.
Tyler said 10:50AM on 9-16-2009
To follow up: After only a single full discharge/recharge my battery life has been returned to normal.
MRCUR said 3:05PM on 9-16-2009
That person just might have been me... Soon after 3.1, pretty much the day after, I noted greatly decreased battery life. That same night the phone completely died so I charged it overnight as I always do (that's the first reset).
The next day I still noticed decreased battery life again, so I performed another reset that night. I've now gotten back to pretty much normal battery life after the second reset. That's not to say battery life is perfect again, but it's definitely much better now. There is definitely something wrong with 3.1 since performing a batter reset doesn't necessarily fix the issue.
K-Dawg28 said 6:40PM on 9-15-2009
Any one else having issues with their albums being duplicated? My albums are doing that and i don't if i'm the only one having this issue. I've tried everything from editing the information and re syncing but no luck. any one else having this issue?
Reply
DevilGhost said 5:39PM on 9-16-2009
make sure you have selected "Part of Compilation" for all albums
also make sure album artist is the same for the album or leave blank if it is a VA album
Shlauncha said 6:43PM on 9-15-2009
Hear, hear!
Just emailed this to you today, thanks for the snappy response! ;)
Seriously though.. it's quite annoying. It locks up at least twice a day for me(black screen, no response) and I have to force a reboot on my 3G. Hopefully apple is working on this.
Reply
dontmakemeill12 said 9:17PM on 9-15-2009
Having the same problem. Go to wake from sleep state... only to get no response what so ever just a black screen....will not wake have to reset by holding power and home button for 10 seconds or more to get the phone to reset. only been experiencing this since 3.1 update.
Hunter said 12:55AM on 9-16-2009
Man, I'm glad to hear others are having this problem. I thought maybe my phone had gone crazy or something. When I try to wake it up, the screen either lags or refuses to come on, prompting a complete reboot.
Michael said 1:01AM on 9-16-2009
I thought I was the only one. Thank you for making me feel a little less crazy!
Elliot said 4:44AM on 9-16-2009
I've got it too.
The screen goes to sleep and becomes unresponsive. I have to reboot it to get it back on; home button or power button alone do nothing. It's happened 3 days in a row now, once a day, usually at night.
Jordan said 1:24PM on 9-16-2009
Definitely mark me down for that one. I think the next time Apple releases software for the iPhone that actually works I'm going to stick with it and not update again. The releases just seem to be getting worse and worse.
Misframed said 2:32PM on 9-16-2009
This has happened a few times but not very often. However, I have a few random albums that now have plain white pictures when they are in a list but fine when I roate the phone on it's side... weird.
Travis Walls said 9:07PM on 9-16-2009
I'm having the exact same issue. It has happened to me 6 or 7 times now since 9/9. I called support and went to the Genius Bar. Both told me that it isn't a hardware issue and that they won't replace the phone. I'm supposed to restore the phone and set everything up from scratch, not to mention kissing any text messages and third-party app data good-bye. Supposedly, my backup file is corrupt and restoring it will just put whatever is broken back on the phone.
I love how the "genius" talked down to me while explaining what was supposedly causing the problem. Get this: Based on the diagnostics results, he determined that too many apps have crashed (I had already looked at the crash logs in Xcode, most were caused by not having enough memory), and this has "messed up" the operating system "just like what can happen on a regular computer." Sigh.
Travis Walls said 9:16PM on 9-16-2009
I should also add that I've found that if you let the phone sit long enough, it WILL eventually come back to life on its own. Plus, it almost looks like it is trying to catch up with all the stuff that you tried as well (turning on and off, vibrating from being set to silent, volume going up and down, iPod controls toggling on and off, slide to turn off prompt appearing, etc.) In other words, it isn't like the phone has actually shut off, it is just having a VERY delayed reaction to be told to wake up. I have done this consistently three times now. When it doesn't turn on, I try some stuff, sit it by my keyboard, and wait for it to respond like 10 minutes later (I timed it at 8 minutes just now). It always comes back.
Robby said 2:42AM on 9-21-2009
I have talked with a lot of people who have run in to problems with 3.1 and after a lot of trial and error I found a solution that has fixed the problem on every single phone I've tried it on. I can't tell you why this fixes it, but it seems to. Just restore the phone, and set it up as a new phone. It's almost like there are some system files that don't like to play nice with 3.1 if you are using a backup. I've seen this solution double battery life, stop crashing all together, even solve someone's voicemail box that mysteriously stopped working all together. Give that a try, see if that fixes it.
Fred said 6:43PM on 9-15-2009
Mine's working fine. Make 1 hash mark for no issues, Josh.
Reply
iGO said 10:10PM on 9-15-2009
2, 3, 4 and 5 hash marks here. One 3GS and Three 3G's......All better than ever. Great Job from Apple.
For the record. None of these have ever been jail broken, hacked or messed with, whatsoever. They do have an average of 75 Apps each.
All Good here :)
RevTim.com said 6:45PM on 9-15-2009
I am on my second 3Gs. It seems that it is something related to my contacts folder syncing. I have about 3000 contacts and many have some long note fields. I created a sub-folder called iPhone and loaded about 50 of my most used contacts. Then I sync with only this folder. So far so good.
It was completely rebooting, shutting down, freezing and acting very random whether I had it plugged into my Macbook or unplugged. (I think from the over-the-air sync with Moble Me.
Are these symptoms similar to what has been going on for others?
Reply