As ITProPortal reports, multiple threads on Reddit and Apple’s official support forums indicate this isn’t an isolated case of one person experiencing issues. The majority of the affected devices seem to be new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus phones but older models also appear to be encountering problems in the hands of some users.
This has led many to speculate that the cause lies in the iOS 9.0.1 software update that Apple released last week. Since then, Apple has updated iOS again to 9.0.2 but the changelog makes no mention of a fix for an issue as serious as this. It’s currently unclear whether the resets are persisting when a 9.0.1 phone is upgraded to 9.0.2 but some reports on the Apple support forums indicate the issue is also present in iOS 9.1 Beta.
Affected phones randomly shut down without any warning. Several users have explained how they went to bed with alarms set on their fully charged iPhones and eventually woke up to find them completely unresponsive.
After a random shutdown occurs, the phone will not respond to the power or home buttons. A reboot can only be triggered by performing a hard reset and holding both the power and home buttons for 10 seconds. Some users have noted that the phone appears to heat up when rebooted, particularly around the home button.
Apple is yet to comment on the increasing numbers of reports being made online. With the issue seemingly spread across several models of iPhone, it does seem likely that iOS 9.0.1 introduced an underlying flaw that can crash the entire system. iPhone owners will have to hope that Apple is aware and working on a fix.
The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, the two models apparently accounting for the majority of the random shutdowns, have only been available since last week. Apple boasted of 13 million sales in its first weekend as fans rushed to buy the new phones featuring faster processors, pressure-sensing 3D Touch displays and improved 12-megapixel cameras.
