iPhone 16/Plus 16 Hardware Bricks Itself During Update

[Bazza1]

So there I was, happily taking part in World Backup Day (31 March), and I had plugged in my 16 to do just that. My Mac let me know that iOS 18.4 was available, so I let it do that. Downloaded, verified and then started to transfer over. Apple icon and the progress bar showed up on phone, and then - a window popped up on the Mac saying the update could not be done. 'Unexpected error'.
Tried again. 'Unexpected error'.
Drat! Stupid update! Bricking my iPhone! Other more choice invectives.
Decided to do the nuclear option and go with a Factory Reset. 'Unexpected error'.

Okay. Grabbed the phone and headed to Apple Store. Managed to do a walk-in with Genius. Told them what happened. Smiling in a 'we got this' kinda way, he tried to connect up to my phone. Diddly squat. Smile turned upside down. He and colleague pondered over the device with much poking and prodding of their iPads before sending it into the back room. Believed it to be the logic board. Back room folks would swap it out - come back in an hour. All's good - you're still under warranty.

A little over an hour later, I returned to store. Backroom still trying to breathe life into device. A half hour later, the Genius comes out with a brand new phone. Old phone distinctly dead - they didn't know why. New part wouldn't work with unit.
Just to be absolutely sure all was good, we walked thru the first boot of new 16, the 18.4 update and the (slow) iCloud backup - which fortunately had occurred earlier in the day. 4 hours from when I first walked in the door, I left with a (mostly) complete 16 in my pocket. But at least, thanks to warranty, I was not out the forecast $780 I would have paid, had I been without.

Knock on wood, this is the first iPhone (I go as far back as the 4) that has so completely packed it in. Unfortunate - if bizarre - timing that it took place during an OS upgrade. I'd like to think that's completely coincidental, but I know it will have me a little on edge with future upgrades.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Never had a problem but it is great to hear that Apple stepped up!

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

So there I was, happily taking part in World Backup Day (31 March), and I had plugged in my 16 to do just that. My Mac let me know that iOS 18.4 was available, so I let it do that. Downloaded, verified and then started to transfer over. Apple icon and the progress bar showed up on phone, and then - a window popped up on the Mac saying the update could not be done. 'Unexpected error'.
Tried again. 'Unexpected error'.
Drat! Stupid update! Bricking my iPhone! Other more choice invectives.
Decided to do the nuclear option and go with a Factory Reset. 'Unexpected error'.

Okay. Grabbed the phone and headed to Apple Store. Managed to do a walk-in with Genius. Told them what happened. Smiling in a 'we got this' kinda way, he tried to connect up to my phone. Diddly squat. Smile turned upside down. He and colleague pondered over the device with much poking and prodding of their iPads before sending it into the back room. Believed it to be the logic board. Back room folks would swap it out - come back in an hour. All's good - you're still under warranty.

A little over an hour later, I returned to store. Backroom still trying to breathe life into device. A half hour later, the Genius comes out with a brand new phone. Old phone distinctly dead - they didn't know why. New part wouldn't work with unit.
Just to be absolutely sure all was good, we walked thru the first boot of new 16, the 18.4 update and the (slow) iCloud backup - which fortunately had occurred earlier in the day. 4 hours from when I first walked in the door, I left with a (mostly) complete 16 in my pocket. But at least, thanks to warranty, I was not out the forecast $780 I would have paid, had I been without.

Knock on wood, this is the first iPhone (I go as far back as the 4) that has so completely packed it in. Unfortunate - if bizarre - timing that it took place during an OS upgrade. I'd like to think that's completely coincidental, but I know it will have me a little on edge with future upgrades.

I am pretty sure it's because of iOS 18 really messed up something in the firmware kinda like when people in the past used to do you know what and it completely currupted the software when they made a mistake trying to do you know what back in the iPhone 3G - 6S days.

 

[AeroSatan]

Never had a problem but it is great to hear that Apple stepped up!

Just outta curiosity in what way did they step up? By honoring the warranty when they tried to fix the older iPhone in vain?

 

[eyoungren]

So there I was, happily taking part in World Backup Day (31 March), and I had plugged in my 16 to do just that. My Mac let me know that iOS 18.4 was available, so I let it do that. Downloaded, verified and then started to transfer over. Apple icon and the progress bar showed up on phone, and then - a window popped up on the Mac saying the update could not be done. 'Unexpected error'.
Tried again. 'Unexpected error'.
Drat! Stupid update! Bricking my iPhone! Other more choice invectives.
Decided to do the nuclear option and go with a Factory Reset. 'Unexpected error'.

Okay. Grabbed the phone and headed to Apple Store. Managed to do a walk-in with Genius. Told them what happened. Smiling in a 'we got this' kinda way, he tried to connect up to my phone. Diddly squat. Smile turned upside down. He and colleague pondered over the device with much poking and prodding of their iPads before sending it into the back room. Believed it to be the logic board. Back room folks would swap it out - come back in an hour. All's good - you're still under warranty.

A little over an hour later, I returned to store. Backroom still trying to breathe life into device. A half hour later, the Genius comes out with a brand new phone. Old phone distinctly dead - they didn't know why. New part wouldn't work with unit.
Just to be absolutely sure all was good, we walked thru the first boot of new 16, the 18.4 update and the (slow) iCloud backup - which fortunately had occurred earlier in the day. 4 hours from when I first walked in the door, I left with a (mostly) complete 16 in my pocket. But at least, thanks to warranty, I was not out the forecast $780 I would have paid, had I been without.

Knock on wood, this is the first iPhone (I go as far back as the 4) that has so completely packed it in. Unfortunate - if bizarre - timing that it took place during an OS upgrade. I'd like to think that's completely coincidental, but I know it will have me a little on edge with future upgrades.

You said you tried to reset the device. Did you try using DFU mode? I'm curious, because I am about to illustrate what the Apple Genuises do NOT know.

I took my iPhone 6+ into Apple in September 2015 for a screen replacement. It was jailbroken and I didn't restore it before asking for service because by 2015 Apple's policy on fixing jailbroken devices had changed.

Apple Genius tells me to restore the device before she will take it in to the back. Okay fine. Really? What she doesn't know is that I have a JB tweak installed that PREVENTS restoring the device in the manner she wants me to do this. Because…thieves who steal iPhones and restore them.

Device reboots, she grabs it and heads in to the back. Tells me to come back an hour from then. Which I do. I am greeted by a different Apple Genius who hands me a brand new device.

It seems that the 'geniuses' in the back couldn't get iOS 9 installed on my old phone (this was around the time that iOS 9 was released). Well, YEAH! My jailbreak tweak is preventing you from getting anything done. It's doing as designed and protecting my device from being restored. On top of that it's jailbroken and you're trying to update it!

All they had to do, was put my old device in DFU mode and restore. That would have worked around the jailbreak and wiped everything. iOS 9 could have then been installed. But apparently, no one back there could figure that out! So instead, they give me a brand new device!

Now, I'm not saying you didn't have a hardware fault. I'm not saying there wasn't a problem. I'm just wondering what went on in the back.

 

[Bazza1]

You said you tried to reset the device. Did you try using DFU mode? I'm curious, because I am about to illustrate what the Apple Genuises do NOT know...
...All they had to do, was put my old device in DFU mode and restore. That would have worked around the jailbreak and wiped everything. iOS 9 could have then been installed. But apparently, no one back there could figure that out! So instead, they give me a brand new device!

Now, I'm not saying you didn't have a hardware fault. I'm not saying there wasn't a problem. I'm just wondering what went on in the back.

Thanks for the reply.

As a regular consumer, I do not know anything about DFU Mode (and certainly never explored using jailbreaks), and while DFU may be something the boffins the back room might know about, it may well be a process that Apple discourages.

For what it's worth - and despite the time that it took up - I'm perfectly fine with them choosing to give me a new phone, rather than risk jiggery-pokery that might resolve the issue. Hardware or software - if the device ain't working, it has no value.
Still, a little surprised that the device packed it in after only 4 months of use. I know by sheer numbers produced, there's always going to be duff ones - despite 'quality control' - I guess I've been otherwise lucky with the Apple products I've bought over the years.

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks for the reply.

As a regular consumer, I do not know anything about DFU Mode (and certainly never explored using jailbreaks), and while DFU may be something the boffins the back room might know about, it may well be a process that Apple discourages.

For what it's worth - and despite the time that it took up - I'm perfectly fine with them choosing to give me a new phone, rather than risk jiggery-pokery that might resolve the issue. Hardware or software - if the device ain't working, it has no value.
Still, a little surprised that the device packed it in after only 4 months of use. I know by sheer numbers produced, there's always going to be duff ones - despite 'quality control' - I guess I've been otherwise lucky with the Apple products I've bought over the years.

Two things…

1. I was also perfectly fine being given a brand new phone myself. The screen of that 6+ was cracked and there was scuffing on the casing. A new phone meant a new casing, so no scuffs.

2. DFU stands for Device Firmware Update. It's the next step after Recovery Mode, which Apple posts instructions for on their website. Apple created the DFU process, they just do not post instructions for it on their website. A Google search though will bring up how to do it in the first hit. Again, it's an Apple process. Not anything nefarious.

I bring up point 2 because it's not anything Apple discourages. They just don't bring it up a lot. But I don't want to leave unrebutted any impression that DFU mode is solely used by jailbreakers and that it's something Apple frowns on. It's neither. It's a process Apple techs use that is available to regular consumers to use if they care to look for it.

I prefer restores through DFU mode because it's direct and the graphical interface on the device is bypassed entirely.

Ultimately, I'm glad it worked out for you.

 

[digimc]

Your story reminded me of something and that is thank goodness for iCloud restoration. My old iPhone 12PM failed to recover from an IOS update, but iCloud instantly took care of restoring all of my information when I received my new phone.

iCloud has really been a godsend for the iPhone, at least in my eyes.

 

[eyoungren]

Your story reminded me of something and that is thank goodness for iCloud restoration. My old iPhone 12PM failed to recover from an IOS update, but iCloud instantly took care of restoring all of my information when I received my new phone.

iCloud has really been a godsend for the iPhone, at least in my eyes.

I agree, it's beneficial and for me, convenient.

That said, I could lose everything on my phone today and because of the way I have things set up, I'd be able to restore all my data without iCloud. A big hassle, yes. But the little I keep on iCloud that isn't already duplicated elsewhere is not really important to me.

I don't believe in one service holding ALL my data.