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iOS 11 iPhone instability (spinning wheel) related to problem with automatic app update glitch?

B

boraski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 20, 2014
25
14
I've had instability with iOS 11 on my iPhone 7+ every day, often multiple times a day, since I installed iOS 11 on the launch day, which I end up having to restart my phone to resolve. This has been the case with 11.0, 11.0.1 and 11.0.2.

When my phone becomes unstable:
  1. The network activity spinner in the top left spins continuously.
  2. The Settings app can't be opened. If I tap on Settings, it opens a blank app template with a white empty screen and it never renders any UI.
  3. Some other apps, somewhat randomly can't be opened. They might open the launch screen or be blank like settings. If I hit the home button after opening one of these stuck apps, the springboard comes up for a fraction of a second, then the app screen reanimates back open for a fraction of a second, then the springboard comes back up.
  4. Some apps will open but have a long lag of 5-15 seconds before the interface is usable and interactive.
  5. Some apps will open and work normally.
  6. Eventually, the entire phone will become unresponsive.
  7. Finally, after being unresponsive for some time, the phone will have a blank black screen with a spinner in the middle which will spin continually.
  8. The only way to get the phone to work after this is a hard reboot by holding down sleep/wake and volume down for a few seconds.
If I reboot the phone when it starts to exhibit these symptoms by holding down sleep/wake and sliding to restart, before it becomes unresponsive (item 6) then the phone reboots and works normally.

I've tried a number of troubleshooting steps. I thought it might be a problem related to my over the air installation of the OS, or some system file corruption. For 11.0.2. I cleared the phone entirely using "Restore iPhone..." from iTunes and restored from an iTunes backup. This did not resolve the issues.

I thought it might be related to bluetooth problems, so I shut off bluetooth entirely for the past few days. This did not resolve the problem.

What I have noticed the last two times I had this instability is that there is always at least one app that shows that it is updating, but looks like the download is complete and it is trying to complete installation. In other words, there is a dark circle mask around the icon and the middle of the loading part is not dark. Those apps are not launchable and I cannot delete them from the springboard. After I restart the phone, the mask is gone and those apps are fully installed and usable.

I believe the instability might be caused by a problem at the end of an app installation/update process. In order to test this theory, I have gone now gone into my iTunes and App Stores settings and turned off all Automatic Downloads. If my theory is correct, then the instability should no longer occur.

If anybody else is having the same symptoms above, can you try turning off Automatic Downloads and report back here if this does or does not eliminate the instability for you.

Also, if anybody else is having this instability and has not turned off Automatic Downloads yet, please check to see if you have any apps in an updating state while your phone is still responsive and post your observations here.

I will report back daily how things have been going for me. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
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You restored from an iTunes backup, that is your problem. Restore your phone as new. Restoring from a backup restores your devices to how it was, including software corruption issues.
 
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Mlrollin91 said:
You restored from an iTunes backup, that is your problem. Restore your phone as new. Restoring from a backup restores your devices to how it was, including software corruption issues.
Click to expand...

This may remedy the problem, but because I have a lot of apps this solution is too painful for me to try. I've seen on other forum posts that some people have tried this and still had similar instability problems so I'm not convinced this will even work. I'd like to spend some time with Automatic Updates turned off first and get feedback from others to see if that resolves it first, and if this is a solution, hopefully it will lead Apple to finding root cause and resolving it with a future OS update.
 
boraski said:
This may remedy the problem, but because I have a lot of apps this solution is too painful for me to try. I've seen on other forum posts that some people have tried this and still had similar instability problems so I'm not convinced this will even work. I'd like to spend some time with Automatic Updates turned off first and get feedback from others to see if that resolves it first, and if this is a solution, hopefully it will lead Apple to finding root cause and resolving it with a future OS update.
Click to expand...
I have had almost zero issues on my Air 2 and 8Plus since restoring them as new. It was well worth the time and effort. My Air 2 was unusable and now it’s almost perfect. No crashing, little lag and great battery life. I don’t have 99% of the issue people are reporting.
 
Mlrollin91 said:
I have had almost zero issues on my Air 2 and 8Plus since restoring them as new. It was well worth the time and effort. My Air 2 was unusable and now it’s almost perfect. No crashing, little lag and great battery life. I don’t have 99% of the issue people are reporting.
Click to expand...

OK, that's good to know that it has helped you. Just to note, the phone works normally most of the time, but when it gets in the unstable state with the spinner than a restart will always get it back to normal for normally a few hours to a day. In general apps launch fine for me and I don't have any battery issues when it's not unstable. If stopping Automatic Downloads or updating to 11.1 doesn't resolve the problem, I will reconsider restoring as new.
 
I'm experiencing exactly the same issues with 3 (!) devices on iOS 11.0.2:
Iphone 7, iphone 6+ and ipad pro 10.5...

This is by far the most enjoying bug/problem I've ever had with ios. And I'm here since ios 2.
I have to restart my devices once a day or even more.
 
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Rol@nd said:
I'm experiencing exactly the same issues with 3 (!) devices on iOS 11.0.2:
Iphone 7, iphone 6+ and ipad pro 10.5...

This is by far the most enjoying bug/problem I've ever had with ios. And I'm here since ios 2.
I have to restart my devices once a day or even more.
Click to expand...
Just restore them as new. I never have to restart my devices.
 
Just to let you know : after some Google search I've found the recommendation to reset the network settings. I did this on all my devices and the problem is gone! ;)
 
Mlrollin91 said:
You restored from an iTunes backup, that is your problem. Restore your phone as new. Restoring from a backup restores your devices to how it was, including software corruption issues.
Click to expand...

I really don’t think that’s true. A backup doesn’t include any bit of iOS or apps in it. It’s just Settings, user data and telling it to download automatically what apps you had previously installed.

Often it’s a setting gone wrong causing the issues and reset settings and/or network settings fixes everything.
 
iSayBoourns said:
I really don’t think that’s true. A backup doesn’t include any bit of iOS or apps in it. It’s just Settings, user data and telling it to download automatically what apps you had previously installed.

Often it’s a setting gone wrong causing the issues and reset settings and/or network settings fixes everything.
Click to expand...

A backup does include iOS app data and iOS information. This is why Apple says to do a restore as new when things go wrong. Its the first line of troubleshooting a device. Restore as new and see if issues persist.
 
Mlrollin91 said:
A backup does include iOS app data and iOS information. This is why Apple says to do a restore as new when things go wrong. Its the first line of troubleshooting a device. Restore as new and see if issues persist.
Click to expand...

App data as in user data I mentioned. Not the app itself (proven by the fact it still has to download the app fully after it restores from a backup)

iOS information as in settings and such (as I also mentioned)

All things that can be fixed with a reset settings or reset network settings.

If the iOS itself is corrupt, then reinstalling iOS is required, a backup would not change that as it does not include iOS install files.
 
iSayBoourns said:
App data as in user data I mentioned. Not the app itself (proven by the fact it still has to download the app fully after it restores from a backup)

iOS information as in settings and such (as I also mentioned)

All things that can be fixed with a reset settings or reset network settings.

If the iOS itself is corrupt, then reinstalling iOS is required, a backup would not change that as it does not include iOS install files.
Click to expand...

Actually, iOS backups do include iOS files. You can verify this by loading a backup into iBackupBot and you can see iOS directories. I've been doing this for 10+ years now. And I can tell you from that 10 years of experience when you restore a device from a backup, you restore the corruption issue. Apple Support, T2 Technical, Genius Bar and Engineers all state this, and my years of experience back it up.

You are entitled to your opinion as you stated "I really don't think this is true." And that is fine, but I am just laying the facts out as they are and as Apple themselves state. Even if you throw away my personal experience, it doesn't change the fact that Apple states it.
 
An update for me - After shutting off Automatic Updates I haven't been having the problems I had earlier. I did have the same problems after downloading a new app, which did not complete and had the grey mask around a circle like what I was seeing getting stuck with the updated apps. So for now with the phone basically operating normally, I am not going to restore as new for now.
 
I had your exact same issue properly described in steps 1 thru 8. Performed a backup followed by an "Erase All Content and Settings". Then restored from backup.
For the moment the issue has not shown up again though it has only been two hours.
If the problem happens to remain, I will try your shutting off Automatic Updates suggestion.
Saturday 14th update: So far so good, iPhone 7plus runs smoothly. Two apps got updated via App Store, no sings of the sympthoms described in the firs post of this thread.
 
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Rol@nd said:
Just to let you know : after some Google search I've found the recommendation to reset the network settings. I did this on all my devices and the problem is gone! ;)
Click to expand...
I reset my network settings and it resolved the issue temporarily. Unfortunately it’s back today.
 
cherishedwun said:
I reset my network settings and it resolved the issue temporarily. Unfortunately it’s back today.
Click to expand...
Making an encrypted backup, then "Erase All Content and Settings" and restoring from backup has done the trick for me. No problems since I did it last Friday.
 
cherishedwun said:
I reset my network settings and it resolved the issue temporarily. Unfortunately it’s back today.
Click to expand...

That's interesting... My devices work without problem since Friday after I did the network settings reset... Many apps updated since then.
 
Warning About "Reset Network Settings" it clears all previously connected wireless networks (along with whatever else it does), which, if you use iCloud Keychain Sync will then deleted this information from every connected device, iOS and Mac.
 
Update on this issue: iPhone 7 plus keeps working flawlessly. Now my iPad Pro 10.5 is slowly showing the symptoms described in the first post. As in the iPhone before the “cure”, it is gradually catching this “disease”.
I have disabled the automatic updates as advised in other parts of this thread.
Let’s see how the “patient” evolves.
 
Oct 22nd update. The problem described in post 1 is back, both in my iphone and my iPad.
I will wait and see if the next iOS incremental update fixes it. For the moment I hard reset the device when the App Store badge is not cleared once the downloads are complete.
 
I want to report that when I turned off Automatic Downloads, it did make a big difference. Latest ios 11, iphone 7 Plus. It became snappier. Will report after a couple of days.
 
Ok, so what's the fix to get rid of the spinning wheel??

I notice as soon as I open "messages" the wheel goes away, but as soon as I click to go back to home screen it starts again.
 
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