Other Forced Updates??

[Ifti]

My mums iPhone 8 - suddenly out of the blue the default phone app stopped working.
Could make or receive calls perfectly fine, so can dial out or accept incoming calls, but could not hear the other person, and the other person could not hear anything either. So it was like a dead line - no sound whatsoever for either party.
Not a hardware issue, as WhatsApp calls worked perfectly fine - ruling out any speaker issues.
All settings etc checked.
In the end I saw an update was available - updated handset and everything started working perfectly fine again!!

2 days later - someone at work mentioned their phone wasnt working properly.
iPhone 13 Mini.
Exactly the same phone symptoms as above!!
I initiated an iOS update - and what do you know - error fixed!

Today, out the blue, my wife’s phone stops working.
iPhone 12.
Again, exact same symptoms. Can make or receive calls perfectly fine, but as soon as you answer it’s a dead line. No sound either end. Completely dead.
Initiated an iOS update as one was available - and what do you know, everything started working fine again.

How can this be a co-incidence??
3 completely separate phones. Different locations. Different providers and contracts. Exact same issue?! Exact same fix……
All 3 handsets were running iOS 16.
Update to iOS 17 resolved.
hmmmm……..

 

[IAmStumped]

That's interesting, since iPhone 8 can't run iOS 17...
Apart from that, it is a strange coincidence indeed.

 

[schlepprock250]

Sounds like classic Apple monopoly crap. Remember when they sent an update that slowed down certain iphones. And they got busted.

 

[eyoungren]

Sounds like classic Apple monopoly crap. Remember when they sent an update that slowed down certain iphones. And they got busted.

Is that the battery throttling thing?

If so, I recall hearing about it. My 6s+ was on iOS 9.0.1 from October 2015 to December 2020, so I totally missed that while that phone was my primary phone.

Of course there were other little gotchas over those five years that Apple tried. Fortunately, my jailbreak allowed me to avoid them.

 

[schlepprock250]

Is that the battery throttling thing?

If so, I recall hearing about it. My 6s+ was on iOS 9.0.1 from October 2015 to December 2020, so I totally missed that while that phone was my primary phone.

Of course there were other little gotchas over those five years that Apple tried. Fortunately, my jailbreak allowed me to avoid them.

Yep

 

[now i see it]

I wouldn’t read too much evil into it. It was probably a time specific bug that somehow borked the phone app. Apl doesn’t care if an iPhone 8 user updates to a .1 version. It’s locked on iOS 16.

 

[Ifti]

That's interesting, since iPhone 8 can't run iOS 17...
Apart from that, it is a strange coincidence indeed.

Apologies, that one was updated to the latest iOS 16 version.
Either way, it needed updating before the phone app would work again.

Just felt it was strange to happen to 3 separate users, 3 separate phones, 3 separate cell phone carriers…..

 

[SoYoung]

No offense but...whats the problem here? You know it could just be a cellular related problem and a software update was needed to update the modem inside so it could fix it? There's nothing else to think about here.

And even if updates aren't forced, I'd never understand people who never update their computers or phones. Problem can happen down the road, internet protocol or cellular technology can change or have some issues not to mention the changes could be for enforcing security so the update fix that.

 

[FeliApple]

I’m going to be very simple here. Did you try a hard reboot? I’ve solved countless of these weird issues and none required updating, on a multitude of iOS devices on many iOS versions.

Regardless, you are right that it’s sad that the “ultimate” non-hardware troubleshooting solution is a forced update. You can’t restore to the iOS version you’re on so they always force you to update. If the device is unresponsive you can’t save the older iOS version. Apple does everything they can to get you to update, which I’d be fine with if iOS updates weren’t malware.

 

[Sorinut]

I'll just add that my SE 2022 work-issued iPhone is still on iOS 16 and i haven't had any issue, nor have others at work with the same device.

It's on IT's schedule, not mine. They haven't approved iOS 17 yet.

 

[eyoungren]

And even if updates aren't forced, I'd never understand people who never update their computers or phones. Problem can happen down the road, internet protocol or cellular technology can change or have some issues not to mention the changes could be for enforcing security so the update fix that.

You value being updated and secure. Other people value other things and some of those things they might think are worth the 'risk' of not being secure.

My iPhone 6s Plus was on iOS 9.0.1 from October 2015 to December 2020 because I valued one of the last fully untethered jailbreaks over being up to date. I was willing to take a risk because I don't use my phones in a manner that exposes them unnecessarily. You might say that the very fact I jailbreak already means I do, but that's another discussion. In any case, I never had a problem.

Some people don't need the internet, they need a specific app to work. Updating might break the functionality of the app. My employer kept all of us on High Sierra until this year because updating meant that Filemaker would break. Whatever reason people have, its as valid to them as always being updated is to you.

 

[FeliApple]

And even if updates aren't forced, I'd never understand people who never update their computers or phones. Problem can happen down the road, internet protocol or cellular technology can change or have some issues not to mention the changes could be for enforcing security so the update fix that.

The only way to keep an iOS device working optimally forever is to keep the original version and never update. Does this has its drawbacks? Yes. Are these drawbacks a completely dealbreaker for many, many people? Yes. Nevertheless, my original statement remains true.

 

[Ifti]

No offense but...whats the problem here? You know it could just be a cellular related problem and a software update was needed to update the modem inside so it could fix it? There's nothing else to think about here.

Just felt it was strange to happen to 3 separate users, 3 separate phones, 3 separate cell phone carriers…..

Cellular related problem, with 3 different carriers? Bit of a co-incidence in that case, no?

While I personally tend to keep my handset updated regardless, which is beside the point, just felt it was strange for this to happen to 3 different people around me, and too much of a coincidence. It's not a huge issue considering its resolved, just something I thought I would put out there for others.

I’m going to be very simple here. Did you try a hard reboot? I’ve solved countless of these weird issues and none required updating, on a multitude of iOS devices on many iOS versions.

Yup, tried everything I could think off. Hard reboot. Checked all settings for the Phone app, as well as audio settings etc. Seemed to affect just the native Apple Phone app. Everything else worked as normal.
As I said, it's no biggie, but just thought I'd post just in case anyone else was having similar issues.....

 

[iStorm]

It is indeed odd that three phones you know of had this issue...but that seems to be it. It would be more than a coincidence if others have been complaining about this issue too, which I have not heard of any. We'd definitely be hearing about it from others on here if they were having issues or were "forced" to do an update.

I had a similar issue a year or two ago. I restarted my phone numerous times with no luck. "Reset Network Settings" (which also resets cellular settings) is what ended up fixing it for me. Did you try that as one of your troubleshooting steps?