Tuesday, September 16, 2008

iPhone 2.1 Freezing Syndrome

It would seem that all is not well with the 2.1 firmware update. We've had reports from several users (although by no means all users with the 2.1 update) that their phone freezes while attempting to sync. Reading the comments on the previous article and the support e-mail, it does appear that the problem can be resolved. We're working to determine the exact correct set of steps to un-freeze the 2.1 iPhone and will post it when it's ready. In the meantime it might be prudent to not update your phone/iPod to 2.1 just yet.
We were a little asleep on this issue unfortunately because although there were a few support tickets over the weekend that mentioned freezing, we had seen similar reports trickle in for the past couple of months (from users with earlier firmware) and so for a while we assumed this was just more of the same random iPhone hangs, and not something related to the use of our service. There were more reports on the problem, and more detail in the blog comments here than in the support e-mail, but we were focusing on the support e-mail.
Check back here for updates on this issue.

33 comments:

Richard Gordon said...

Thank you for acknowledging the issue first thing!

I am having the issue of the calendar freezing, and thought about removing Nuevasync from my email/calendar settings and then setting it back up to try to fix the problem - only to have the phone freeze when I try to delete the MSExchange account!

Thanks -- we all await your fix !!

Anonymous said...

Havign the same problem, calendar freezing since i updated to 2.1, though it seems to sync just fine - it freezes when i start searching throuigh the calendar

Henning said...

I had this error as well and even posted a long comment to the previous post. Someone posted a workaround and I tried it; restarting my iPhone several times and trying to delete the Exchange account locally on my iPhone but it didn't work.
Then I tried the reset functions in Preferences. First Network prefs but that didn't delete the account - it only deleted my wifi settings apparently.
But the top reset option which is just reset preferences worked. It deleted the Exchange account locally and the calendar events even stayed on the iPhone indicating they now belonged to the phone and could sync to iTunes.
Then I did the other thing on Nuevasync although not deleting my account but only disabling and enabling the services.
Then when created the Exchange account again it all worked perfectly as before. Syncing, adding new events and all. Just perfect.
Although I study computer science, I don't know the details of Exchange methods but it seems that the update to 2.1 somehow corrupted the account which had to be created again.

Reset preferences on iPhone (Intellisync Exchange account)
Disable and enable services on Nuevasync
Create new Exchange account on iPhone

No events are gone and everything works.

Now bring us multi colored calendars to our iPhones. It's the next big thing I look forward to.

Javier said...

I have a similar problem, but using a different device.

Recently I have get a Nokia E66 smartphone and I have tried to sync my calendar with this device using Nokia Mail for Exchange (as mentioned in the link in NuevaSync webpage).

But, when I don't suffer a problem trying to connect to the serve, I am unable to retrieve all my data because it seems that, after downloading 1 or 2 of my calendars (total: 7 calendars), the server reports an error and the connection is lost.

Anybody has the same problem? Any recommendation? Maybe is this the same problem experienced by iPhone users? (I also have an iPod Touch 1G with firmware 2.1 and synchronization works fine).

Kevin said...

francis' steps on the previous post worked for me.

Unknown said...

I was among those where my touch was freezing every time it tried to sync. This just started after I updated to the 2.1 software. I did what Henning said above and it worked flawlessly. No more problems.

This is a great service. Keep up the good work guys.

5400 said...

iPhone 2.1 have sync problem with microsoft exhange all over the Internet I read the same and same problem for me to it just hang the only solution is tempory restore from iTunes last backup but the problem is back so why Apple not say any ?
Jan

Rob Bartlett said...

Hi All, Just to say used Henning's method above and it's worked a treat, thank you! (only side effect is it resets your shortcuts so you have to arrange them again, no biggy)

Unknown said...

my phone completely froze. calender and mail wouldn't even show up. i had to do a full restore. it took a while, but very interesting to see how well the phone did in fact restore itself. I backup frequently so actually i lost nothing! and after the service worked perfectly. I can't say that my phone froze because of nuevasync since it's still unclear to me, but this solution might work for some of you as well.

Jay said...

Just to add myself to the list. The same issue is happening for me. Freezes when I open the calendar and I can not make changes in settings or delete the account.

Unknown said...

Ok here's an update. I did Hennings solution and it worked for a few hours. Now it's back to freezing again.

I hope they find the cause of this.

mistartee said...

Same here... did the firware update saturday, calendar worked till yesterday, and now it doesn't open anymore. Just hang, and back to the springboard.

I can't even destroy my calendar account or modify it. the phone freeze trying to.

Help !

Joshua said...

Add me to the list as well... The same issue is happening for me. Freezes when I open the calendar and I can not make changes in settings or delete the account.

Jessica said...

I'm pretty sure sync-ing was working on my (new, OS2.1) touch, but it stopped working today, and froze up on me whenever I open the calendar (after a few seconds of working) or try to change the settings

Greg Harris said...

For me the crazy thing is that my calendar is syncing fine (though it took awhile for it to initially sync), but my contacts are still not there. I've tried
1. turning them off and then back on
2. delete the account on the phone and recreating it
3. during off the service through nuevasync and restarting it.
4. full restore and start as a new phone.
None of these has worked. I even tried to downgrade back to 2.0.2 and guess what.....you can't. Great job Apple

Black Biretta said...

Got a new iPod 16GB touch. While trying to sync with Google Calendar, my iPod goes back one year ago and only records half or less of entered items from Google. I am unable to get the device to only sync a week before and to sync ALL future appointments. PLEASE help

Toss Mysianman said...

***NOT RESOLVED***

For those who tried Henning's method (also by another commentor on the previous post): By resetting iPhone's settings; disable and enable service on Nuevasync; and re-create the Exchange account.

WARNING: This only works temporary, it WILL freeze again.

Alexandre said...

Exact same problem here and resetting settings as per above indeed worked.

I'm still worried as I am pretty sure everything worked just fine with 2.1 for a couple of days before it strated freezing in contacts or calendar. So I'm not convinced this fix will stick...

Toss Mysianman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Toss Mysianman said...

Once again.

***NOT RESOLVED***

For those who tried Henning's method (also by another commentor on the previous post): By resetting iPhone's settings; disable and enable service on Nuevasync; and re-create the Exchange account.

WARNING: This only works temporary, it WILL freeze again.

Jay said...

I also found resetting and etc, etc, (henning method) is only a temporary fix. The problem returns soon after.

Unknown said...

I've got the same problem, and resetting is only a temporary solution.

What I've also noticed is that the standby time is the same as the use time, is this related? It used to display correctly before the nuevasync problem and after the 2.1 update.

Henning said...

I hope Apple will fix this in 2.1.1 and that it will be out soon.
I haven't had the problem again though. Yesterday all events were gone and came back after a resync for some reason, but no freeze here yet.

Unknown said...

I now have the same problem on my iPod Touch, grrr.

I've had enough!

Going to reset settings again, and delete the nuevasync account, till the problem is resolved.

Kevin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill B said...

I had this problem too, it was caused from a "blank" event on the Google Calendar and was freezing the calendar and syncing constantly. I rebooted the phone, deleted the Exchange account which wiped the phone and allowed me to access the calender, when to the online google calendar, found the event, deleted it, re installed the exchange account and everything has been fine - this was on the iPhone 3G / I had a touch also that required a full restore and reinstall of everything from scratch - not a backup, it would not let me delete the Exchange account for nothing.

Alexandre said...

Just wondering: is it only happening to Nuevasync users or all Exchange users ?!

StrawandBerries said...

Version 2.1. Calendar freeze, no sync.

David Boreham said...

bbone : can you give me more details on this 'blank' event ? I tried to create an event with no content at Google but it inserts the subject '(No Subject)' and sync proceeds without problems to my 2.1 test device.

Toss Mysianman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Toss Mysianman said...

@ Peter Colin,

I have also noticed that the stand-by time is the same as the user time--with Nuevasync.

Although, I have had this previously with 2.0 to 2.0.2--with Nuevasync.

This made me believe that it might have to do with the connection with Nuevasync (***Or anything that goes through Microsoft Exchange). Or it might have to do with the iPhone firmwares not being stable with this over-the-air feature. :-( NOT GOOD.

Unknown said...

Well it seems that the iPhone only freezes if you add/modify an event on the device. If it is only reading from the server, it's working just fine. As soon as I try to modify it on the phone, freeze again.

aaron.fidler said...

NOTICE: Henning Vestergaard's workaround is a viable fix for this issue, fairly simple and much easier than I figured this problem would be to fix.