iPhone OS 3.1 Problems: Random Shutdown, Poor Battery Life, Bricked iPhone, Slow Performance

BY Jason

Published 17 Sep 2009

iPhone OS 3.1

According to TUAW, iPhone users are facing many issues after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1.

iPhone users are reporting the following issues after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1, which was released a week back:

  • iPhone randomly shuts down

  • Poor battery life

  • Bricked iPhone

  • Slow performance

iPhone randomly shuts down

As per this Apple Discussions thread, iPhone users are observing a strange issue after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1. They are reporting that their iPhone randomly shuts down.

Header22 first reported the issue after upgrading his iPhone 3G with iPhone OS 3.1:

Ok, I updated lastnight without a hitch. But now I get random complete shut downs of the phone. It has happened twice. In both instances the phone has come back after doing a hard reboot. Anyone else having this problem?

It seems to be occurring several times in a day and the only option the user has is to hard reset the iPhone. Users have tried to restore their iPhone but that hasn’t helped.

It seems to be affecting many iPhone users as there are already more than 640 posts and 44 pages on this discussion thread.

Some users are reporting that they have got a replacement from Apple because of the issue.

Poor Battery Life:

According to this Apple Discussions thread, iPhone users are complaining that battery life, which is already a precious commodity on the iPhone gets even worse after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1

akarelin started the discussion thread by reporting:

I've made the so long attended upgrade to iPhone OS 3.1 and strangely battery life has got even worse than before. The phone is using 10-12% of the battery every hour of standby; usage counter grows by 35-40 minutes for every hour of standby. This happens with a clean install and just email setup (mobileme with push), with restore or partial restore. Turning push off only makes it slightly better.

There have been more than 250 posts and 18 pages on this discussion thread. Battery life depends on the usage of an iPhone user so it is not conclusive if this is indeed an issue as we have heard some reports that battery life has improved after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1.

Bricked iPhone:

This is another strange issue being reported by users after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1.

ChopperPilot was the first to report this issue on this Apple Discussions thread:

I have the current Mac OS X 10.6 and iTunes 9.0, went to update my iPhone 3G to 3.1 and now my phone is useless. Tried all the tips on tech support with no luck. iPhone stays in recovery mode. I get error codes 2006, 1611, and 26 during different attempts to recover and restore.

douglasfitz might have found a possible solution to the problem:

I had downloaded the 3.1 update during the first rush after the announcement, and I believe my file ended up corrupted. Every time I restored, therefore, iTunes would attempt to reinstall the corrupted updater file.

The trick is to remove the update file from ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates (in this case, iPhone1,2_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw). After that, I restarted iTunes, reconnected my phone, and had it download and install a fresh update.

If that doesn’t work, you can checkout this knowledge base article to see if it helps.

Slow performance:

One of the things, users observe after upgrading to a new version of iPhone OS is usually snappier performance. But as per this Apple discussion thread, iPhone users are observing poor performance after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1.

Elliot confirms that he is observing the same issue first reported by SamVG on this Apple Discussions thread:

I too am experiencing extremely slow response on my 3GS. Swiping the unlock often has no feedback until the phone is unlocked. Pressing the home button when the phone is sleeping appears not to wake the phone for 5 seconds or so.

Are you facing any of these problems? Please let us know in the comments if you have figured out a way to resolve them.

Let’s hope Apple releases a patch to fix these problem.

[via TUAW]

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