Some iPhone 16 owners are complaining about random freezing and unexpected restarts. The bug hasn’t been fixed in the current iOS 18.0.1 software, but will be fixed in a future update.
Online reports suggest the issues only affect the latest iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Older iPhones don’t seem to suffer from this bug. Complaints mostly center on unexpected freezes, where the device will suddenly stop responding or become gradually unresponsive until it eventually hangs completely. For some people, freezes happen randomly, and for others, repeatedly. There doesn’t seem to be a single action or app causing the freezing, but Calendar and Settings are mentioned most frequently in complaints, probably because many people use these apps frequently.
We’ve also encountered reports where the phone would freeze and suddenly restart when in StandBy Mode, which happened to my iPhone 16 Pro Max a few times. An iPhone showing the home screen instead of the usual StandBy interface with clocks and widgets is a tell-tale sign that the device has at some point frozen, crashed, and restarted.
For some folks, restoring an iPhone from an iCloud backup caused it to grind to a halt and eventually reboot, but it’s unclear if iCloud Backup is causing this. One person said that restoring an iPhone from a saved backup on a Mac has resolved the crashing. Others say wiping their device clean and setting it up as new fixed the problem. We’re only speculating, but this could indicate that leftover files from previous installations might be the culprit.
Whatever the case, there doesn’t seem to be a particular way to trigger the freezing, but diagnostic logs indicate kernel panics. Some people have had their units replaced, to no avail, ruling out hardware failure.
Apple has confirmed the issue will be fixed in the upcoming iOS 18.1 update, which is expected to be released before the end of October. That update will also enable Apple Intelligence features on supported iPhone models.
Issues aren’t uncommon for new Apple hardware. The iPhone 16 lineup was released in September, and buyers take to social media and support forums to report any problems they may be having. Another common issue with the iPhone 16 family, described on Reddit and Apple Support Communities, seems to be an abnormal battery drain after an iOS 18 update, where the device loses half its charge overnight when sitting idle and doing nothing.
Source: Apple Support Communities, Reddit via MacRumors
