As reported by Mactrast yesterday, several iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max owners have been reporting their devices randomly freezing and rebooting. Complaints about the issue have also been posted on Reddit, the MacRumors forums, and the Apple Support Communities.
Users have complained about the issue since the iPhone 16 lineup debuted in September. Reports indicate that many also continued to see the issue on their iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, even after installing the iOS 18.0.1 update or the iOS 18.1 betas.
The issue reportedly happens randomly, starting with the iPhone being slow to response to touch input before eventually performing a quick restart. Some users say their iPhone also restarts unexpectedly when it is in standby mode.
Reddit user "amor121616" told their tale of woe:
My iPhone 16 pro has crashed and restarted at least 5 times in the last hour 🙁 it's also a little bit slow in some scrolling , all I was doing was looking for wallpapers and trying to change my icons and it started after I tried changing the tint on the icons, when it would just freeze and turn off 🙁 now it's been freezing when I tried deleting an app or even turning off low power mode.
Meanwhile, another iPhone user shared their experience in the Apple Support Community forums:
I have upgraded to an iPhone 16 pro max and constantly getting the freeze/restart issue when trying to do or open certain things. ex. weather app, settings, widgets, etc. some apps intermittently don't display properly. CarPlay would also not connect even though phone shows connected. Very frustrating. Hope Apple reads these and creates a fix ASAP.
While some users have contacted Apple to receive replacement handsets, they have seen the issue reoccur following the replacement. Complaints are related almost solely to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, so it appears the issue only affects those devices.
Most users report the issue rearing its ugly head only occasionally, while others report experiencing 10 to 20 crashes per day with their devices. Some users have reported that doing a fresh setup rather than restoring their device from an iCloud Backup seems to remedy the issue -- an indication that the bug could be related to data or settings brought over from an older version of iOS.
Apple seeded the release candidate of iOS 18.1 to developers and public beta testers yesterday and has confirmed that the update will fix the random freezing and restart issue. The fix for the issue is listed in the release notes for the release candidate:
Fixes an issue where iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro models may unexpectedly restart
In addition to a fix for the restart bug, iOS 18.1 also fixes several other bugs, including:
The iOS 18.1 update is expected to be available to the general public before the end of October. Release candidates are generally released a week or so ahead of a public release to allow for final testing. This should be identical to what goes out to the public next week, assuming no crucial bugs are found between now and then, so it may be worth signing up for the public beta program to grab the release early if you're experiencing frequent freezes and reboots on your iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max.