Safari won't open some links iOS 9.3 on iPhone 6

12Phase

It seems Apple have managed to break Safari on iPhone 6 in iOS 9.3.

Loads of links won't open and Safari goes unresponsive of you tap and hold them.

I've tried all the usual things to reset everything but to no avail. Seems lots of people are having the same issue.

I'm getting a bit disappointed with Apple releasing buggy updates. This isn't the first time and they seem to be becoming very sloppy.

They've only a handful of iOS devices and not finding this in beta testing is fairly inexcusable. Googling around it looks like people were reporting it in her public betas too.

It's crazy that I'm probably not going to accept future updates from apple until I know they're stable.

guil

Have you cleared history and website data? I had something similar using boards after I updated.

12Phase

Cleared everything and restarted phone several times. People on forums reporting that they've reinstalled iOS and that hasn't helped. So, I'm not wasting my time doing that.

It's also impacting other browsers as they're only shells over WebKit on iOS anyway as they don't allow alternate rendering engines for some bizarre reason.

Sad Professor

No problems here.

From the sounds of it you may need to set up as a new phone (sync with iCloud but don't restore the backup - it's a hassle and you will lose some stuff but these issues are carried over in the backup). Or you can wait for a fix, but if it's only a small number of users with incompatible backups, you might be waiting a while if not forever.

We're getting to the point with iOS where "clean installs" for major OS updates are a probably a good idea. My mother had a problem with her phone app freezing in earlier versions of iOS 9. I restored from backup several times, even restored onto a different iPhone, but the problem remained. Only setting it up as a new phone fixed it.

12Phase

Think I'll just wait and see and use my android in the meantime.

iPhone 6 will be going into the drawer. Couldn't be bothered going through all that hassle today.

mansize

Fine on my 6s

12Phase

It's possibly only impacting the iPhone 6

Apple are increasingly putting out dodgy builds though. There was an issue with OS X not so long ago too. I'm beginning to wonder is this the beginning off the post-Jobsian slide of quality.

They used to be all about attention to detail and solid software.

Sad Professor

12Phase wrote: »

It's possibly only impacting the iPhone 6

Apple are increasingly putting out dodgy builds though. There was an issue with OS X not so long ago too. I'm beginning to wonder is this the beginning off the post-Jobsian slide of quality.

There is a slide in software quality (though not hardware which has improved massively), but it began under Jobs and he is the reason it continues. Jobs ran Apple like a startup, moving engineers around as needed, resulting in Apple's drive-by approach to software development. This was all fine when Apple was small but became a problem as they grew. Unfortunately Apple doesn't know any other way to work. Cook is more likely to change this (unlike Jobs, he listens), but it will take time.

I would expect to see improvements over the next couple of years. In fact, I'd consider 9.3 an improvement in many respects, directly addressing many issues with iOS 9 that users would usually be left waiting until iOS 10 for. Your issue, while very annoying as I know from my own experiences, is mostly down to doing an upgrade of an upgrade of an upgrade. It's a problem on desktops as well and it was inevitably going to become a problem on iOS, especially once OTA updates of dot-oh releases became a thing.

guil

12Phase wrote: »

It's possibly only impacting the iPhone 6

Apple are increasingly putting out dodgy builds though. There was an issue with OS X not so long ago too. I'm beginning to wonder is this the beginning off the post-Jobsian slide of quality.

They used to be all about attention to detail and solid software.

I have an iPhone 6 and no problems since clearing history.

12Phase

I've cleared everything and rebooted several time.
Disabled and re started all the safari options etc etc

The Wife

I've an iPhone 6 and am having the exact same problem today!

damo86

Having the same problem here, iPhone 6S. Its was fine after the upgrade but just started doing it this morning. Not at all pleased.

Quite a few threads on this now, so seems to be affecting quite a lot of people.

Fingers crossed it will be fixed soon as I cannot be arsed doing a fresh install!

12Phase

I'm in touch with AppleCare on Twitter at the moment - support session going on very slowly via DM.

12Phase

I just got this back:

"Thank you for providing us with those details. We’ve heard reports of the issue and it’s currently under review. We don’t have a solution at this time but we’d like to get your case to a Senior Advisor so they can collect some data to assist with the investigation..."

(They took some basic details already).

northdubgal

6s here and having same problems. Cannot open links from fb, email or safari - everything stalls and have to do a manual reset

JeffKenna

I phone 5c here and have the same problem. Very disappointing so hopefully something will be done about it.

12Phase

I'm going to reset the phone entirely

Full wipe and reset from backup in progress. Hopefully that solves it.
Absolute pain in the ... though.

12Phase

That didn't work and all of my apps are now greyed out!

Android here I come. FFS this is ridiculous.

Phone is basically unusable without a browser too.

I'm going to try erasing and reinstalling as a new iPhone which is an absolute pain in the ....

That fixed it.

jamesd

Same here on 6s + , latest iOS and only since this morning

guil

12Phase wrote: »

I'm going to reset the phone entirely

Full wipe and reset from backup in progress. Hopefully that solves it.
Absolute pain in the ... though.

There's no point in restoring from backup as the problem will more than likely be still there. Restore as a new phone and all you will lose is text and call history. Everything else will be there provided you have everything set to sync.

damo86

People are now reporting that the 9.3 update has been pulled but it seems to be not solely associated with 9.3...the plot thickens! Hope theres a fix soon, just in the airport there and eyeing up the Samsung S7! :P

12Phase

Meh, they're all as bad.

I had a Samsung and you'd be waiting months and years for updates as it could take forever to get the android updates through Samsung and then through 3.

It's working after an "install as new iPhone"

guil

12Phase wrote: »

Meh, they're all as bad.

I had a Samsung and you'd be waiting months and years for updates as it could take forever to get the android updates through Samsung and then through 3.

It's working after an "install as new iPhone"

Good to hear, out of curiosity what version was it on before you updated?

12Phase

Previous version. 9.2.

I tend to keep it bang up to date.

Heisenberg1

I'm having the same problem on an iPad Air 2. Software updates have been a pain in the asś since iOS 7 there seems to be countless problems with nearly every release.

CaraMay

Same here with the 6 after the update last night. Any updates? Where do you start to complain?

wush06

Just to add also had some problems today with Safari pages not opening.

12Phase

Seems it could be a rogue app.

From Apple :

"Glad to hear you were able to get it working after the restore. We understand the need to have those apps that you rely on back onto your iPhone. We suggest adding in an app one at a time, and then verifying that the links still work. Continue to do that until you encounter any issues or until you have the apps that you need. If you run into any other problems, feel free to message us again."

CaraMay

A rogue app?

My whole phone is going slow now and it's very new. Am with Eir.

12Phase

Update any apps recently ?

emeldc

This is what I get when I try to install 9.3 on a 5s. TBH I couldn't be arsed trying to fix it.

Sad Professor

Users on 9.2.1 reporting the same issue, so it seems it may not be 9.3 related. May be something on Apple's end.

9to5Mac claim installing the booking.com app may cause it. I dunno, I'm bit sceptical that an app is the root of this.

CaraMay

12Phase wrote: »

Update any apps recently ?

Pinterest yesterday but did upgrade after that

JeffKenna

Guys,

A short term fix for this is if you go into the safari app settings and switch JavaScript off. It works away for me now all be it in a slightly different format.

12Phase

I had tried that and it didn't work.

You could try deleting and checking each app one by one.

damo86

Ended up doing a fresh install instead and its all seems to be working, gonna start installing apps again slowly and checking at the same time. Don't have time for this crap lol.

I do think its related to an app update. My apps are not on auto-update and I upgraded to 9.3 Thursday night. Got home on Friday and did a mass update before I went to bed. It was Saturday morning that I noticed it had gone all tits.

12Phase

Sad Professor wrote: »

Users on 9.2.1 reporting the same issue, so it seems it may not be 9.3 related. May be something on Apple's end.

9to5Mac claim installing the booking.com app may cause it. I dunno, I'm bit sceptical that an app is the root of this.

I had Booking.com on mine ...

Still shouldn't be able to happen.

It's not installed on my new one.

Sad Professor

Whatever you do don't reinstall it. Seems deleting the app won't fix it once the damage is done.

How it happens I don't know. Obviously JavaScript related.

CaraMay

So what happens next then? Mine is working better but not perfectly

Simply Red

This problem started for me today, iphone 6 plus

12Phase

Could be an app erroneously marking itself as the agent for all URL requests of a particular type or something.

12Phase

http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/27/some-users-reporting-iphone-crashes-on-ios-9-3-when-tapping-links-in-safari-and-other-apps/

Seems they've got the Booking.com thing mentioned there.

2011

I downloaded the Booking.com app for the first time yesterday.
I now have exactly the same issue

12Phase

Can you report this to Apple asap

Zcott

I had the booking.com app installed and only just started having this issue on my iPad. Removing the app and restarting doesn't fix the issue.

Edit: happens in particular trying to click on google search results or in links from mail. Also happens with Bing.com.

podge018

6s here and same problem, links from mail app, whatsapp, Facebook, chrome, Safari. Links from Twitter work though, weirdly.

Having murder with apple support, they're really bad.

slickmcvic

Convinced iOS 9.3 is put out to sabotage the iPhone 6.
Since updating I've encountered numerous instances of screen-freeze,app crashes(Never had screen replaced)& now photos won't save after taking them, over 7GB free storage as well.
Anyone else encounter these issues?!

podge018

I was having this problem so updated to 9.3 thinking it might fix it but it hasn't.

7upfree

6S+ here. All good.

CaraMay

Talked to apple and they said it's a world wide issue. The said to turn off Th java script which I had done and to reboot the phone. It hasn't improved matters so they said to wait for the fix which is coming in a few days

2011

12Phase wrote: »

Can you report this to Apple asap

I am sure that hey are well aware of it.

It is all over the internet:

We have been able to take an unaffected iPhone 6 and iPad Pro, install the Booking.com app, and then observe Safari consistently hanging when long pressing a link.