For the past 3 (4?) weeks my iPhone 14 Pro has been randomly rebooting itself. Once a day, maybe once a week. Annoying but not the end of the world. Yesterday morning the phone rebooted over and over. After each restart it work for a minute or two and then reboot again. After a quick search I learned that you can force stop an iPhone by quickly pressing and then releasing the up volume button, then the down volume button, and finally holding the power button until the Apple logo appears.
Doing that got it out of the endless reboot cycle. When I restarted it again it started and appeared to be working. I tried to make a backup to my laptop, but it rebooted in the middle of that process. More searching suggested that upgrading the operating system was something to try. The 17.1 release was out, but I hadn’t installed it yet. It took maybe 4 or 5 more reboots before I managed to get the upgrade to complete.
After the upgrade it seemed more stable. Still, I initiated a support chat with Apple. After collecting some diagnostics remotely, the support representative said that I needed to bring the phone in for repair. She said there was “stability issues”.
I did complete an iCloud backup, and for the rest of the day, my phone mostly worked. It only rebooted one more time (that I was aware of).
This morning it restarted and then it came up with the restore screen. This is an image of a laptop and a lightning cable. You need to plug the phone in. Doing that presented me with two options: restore or update. Restoring would keep the previous settings, updating wipes the phone and starts over fresh.
The restore failed twice in a row. I tried the update once, it also failed. I started another support chat, wanting to see how (or if) I could restore my phone to my iPhone 6S Plus. Between the 6S and the 14 Pro I had a 12 Pro. That phone was dropped and had a small chip in the edge of the screen. I traded it in last September for the 14 Pro, so the only device I could go back to was the 6S Plus.
As it turns out there are two reasons why that couldn’t work. One, you have to restore to the same OS version, and the 6S tops out at iOS 15. A long way away from 17.1. Second, you need at least as much storage. My 14 Pro had just over 130 GB in use. Far more that the 6S could ever hold.
I was able to make a Genius Bar appointment for the middle of the afternoon. The nearest Apple store is 125 miles away in Kansas City. After a quick shower and lunch my wife and I drove to Kansas City to the Apple Store.
The people there were very helpful, and frank. After reviewing the chat records the woman, whose name escapes me, said that the “stability” issue were an indication that the main board had failed. The only way this phone would work again would be to replace that board. It costs about $650.
The other option was to buy a new iPhone. Using the Apple Card I could make monthly payments, so $55-ish dollars a month instead of $650 all at once. In the end I decided to get the new phone.
After waiting about 20 minutes for the pick-up-in-the-store order to arrive after buying it online, I went through the setup and restore process in the store. The phone had to install the 17.1 update first, which took a good 30 minutes, the restore from iCloud started. Transferring the phone number from the old phone to the new phone was not straight-forward.
Since my old phone was inoperable, there was no way to confirm the switch using that device. So I had to sign into AT&T and initiate the transfer there. Fortunately I knew the sign in account and password. The representative at the setup table said most people didn’t know how to access their account that way. I had to have it send a code to my wife’s phone (also on the same account) and then have her forward that code to me. Having my laptop with me proved to be useful. I was able to use Messages on the Mac to chat with her.
One surprise silver lining was that my Apple Watch synced with the new iPhone. I didn’t even lose today’s activity rings. Having closed all three activity rings every day for the past 8 years, I wasn’t happy about the possibility that I’d lose my streak over a dead phone.
Once the number was activated, and the restore was progressing I was able to leave the store with a working phone. My iPhone 14 Pro case sorta fits on the 15 Pro. It fits well enough to protect it until a new case arrives on Tuesday. I also ordered a screen protector.
I did spring for Apple Care, for the first time ever. Had the 14 Pro been covered, I would have gotten a new phone at no cost to me. Even if the 14 Pro was damaged, I’d only have to pay a nomimal $29 to repair the screen, and then get a new phone. I have had iPhones since the 4 came out, and have never had one die like this. The iPhone 12 Pro was the first one that ever got damaged.
I am grateful that we were able to travel for 4+ hours today to get to an Apple Store. And that I can afford another $50 a month for a new phone—while still paying off the last 11 months of the new iPhone 14 Pro shaped paper weight I have. I am grateful that the Apple people, both on chat and in person, were friendly, helpful, and empathetic.