News (EN)

Recent iOS system update blocks iPhones and causes severe battery and Face ID problems

Celular, Iphone
Photo: Celular, Iphone - Kaspars Grinvalds/ Shutterstock.com

Apple has temporarily suspended distribution of its latest version of the mobile operating system following a series of reports of critical failures on devices around the world. Usuários who installed the software in the last few hours reported that their devices entered a continuous reboot cycle, making daily use impossible. The problem directly affects the vital functions of smartphones, preventing access to banking applications, communication tools and work resources.

In addition to the complete blocking of the device, the complaints detail the loss of essential biometrics and energy management functionalities. The facial recognition flaw prevents quick unlocking and authentication of payments, while the battery experiences abnormal draining even when the device is at rest on a table.

iOS 26.

The manufacturer’s technical support recorded a significant increase in the volume of calls, with virtual queues and physical stores full of consumers looking for specialized assistance. The situation forced the immediate interruption of sending the data package to new devices, while the company’s engineers try to isolate the source of the error in the source code to release an emergency fix.

Direct impact on hardware and overheating of devices

Among the devices most affected by the software failure is the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which has a drastic drop in charge retention and failures in processing background routines. Relatos indicate that the device reaches high temperatures a few minutes after being unplugged, even without running heavy applications or games with complex graphics.

Excessive heating caused the thermal protection system to reduce screen brightness and limit processor speed to prevent permanent damage to internal components. Essa Forced throttling results in extreme slowdowns during basic navigation and constant crashes when switching between different screens of everyday applications.

Instability in mobile and wireless network connections

The update also compromised the smartphones’ communication modules, generating abrupt signal drops in areas with full coverage by telephone operators. The transition between fifth-generation mobile networks and home connections repeatedly fails, requiring the user to restart airplane mode several times a day to force the search for nearby antennas.

The connectivity error directly affects the receipt of voice calls and the synchronization of messages on text platforms, delaying important work and safety notifications. The system fails when trying to reestablish communication with cell towers, leaving the device isolated from the network for long periods without any prior warning in the top status bar.

Specialized technicians point out that the problem lies in the corruption of the modem’s firmware during the installation process of the new operating system. The absence of a stable communication channel even prevents the device from receiving emergency corrections via the internet, complicating the remote recovery process that the manufacturer usually uses in these scenarios.

Storage error and internal memory exhaustion

One of the more peculiar errors reported after installing the software package involves the inexplicable consumption of the phones’ internal storage space. The operating system starts generating error log files at an accelerated pace, occupying tens of gigabytes in a matter of hours without any intervention from the device owner.

Users report that the system’s data section displays a footprint exceeding thirty gigabytes, blocking the capture of new photographs and the download of essential documents. Lack of free space prevents third-party applications from functioning properly, which close unexpectedly when trying to write temporary information to the smartphone’s solid-state drive.

Attempting to free up space by erasing personal media or uninstalling programs has no effect, as the system continues to fill any empty sectors with corrupted data generated by the failure. The device’s default browser also presents instability when trying to load web pages, displaying error messages related to the lack of available cache memory to render images and texts.

Storage saturation worsens the crash cycle, forcing the device to restart in an attempt to clear the temporary memory, which restarts the entire crash process in an infinite cycle. Especialistas in maintenance recommend not to force manual restart repeatedly in these cases, as abrupt interruption while writing critical data can permanently corrupt the hardware boot sector.

Suspension of digital signatures and blocking of rollbacks

The manufacturer took the decision to stop digitally signing the previous version of the operating system just hours before reports of failures began, making it impossible to safely return to a stable version. The rollback process, technically known as downgrade, requires the company’s servers to validate the installation package, but this communication has been disabled globally. Consumidores who try to connect the device to computers to force the manual installation of an old system are faced with error codes that interrupt formatting immediately. Essa security measure, originally designed to ensure that all users utilize the latest intrusion protections, has turned into a severe obstacle to the recovery of phones affected by the current flaw.

In physical stores and authorized repair centers, technicians were given strict instructions not to attempt to restore devices using unofficial methods, but to simply collect hardware diagnostic reports. The internal guidance is to wait for the release of an emergency correction package that can be injected into the devices through wired recovery tools for exclusive use of assistance. The volume of customers seeking in-person service exceeded scheduling capacity in several capitals, forcing support teams to prioritize cases in which the device became completely inoperative. The lack of an immediate solution generates frustration among professionals who depend exclusively on their smartphones for daily commercial, financial and logistical operations.

Technical guidelines for preserving personal data

The main recommendation from information security experts at this time is to disable automatic updates on devices that still operate with previous versions of the system, avoiding the accidental installation of the defective package overnight. Para users who already find their devices in the restart cycle or with severe storage failures, the instruction is to avoid restoring to factory defaults without the absolute certainty that there is a recent backup stored on cloud servers. The formatting process irreversibly erases all photographs, contacts, two-factor authentication keys and chat histories that were not previously synchronized with the company’s remote servers. Attempting to recover the system yourself using unapproved third-party software found on the internet may result in the permanent loss of the hardware warranty and expose the device to additional security vulnerabilities. Software engineering teams work with maximum urgency to compile a new version of the system that can overcome the initialization error and preserve users’ local files during the process of overwriting the corrupted code.

Repercussions on the corporate environment and fleet management

Information technology departments at large companies have issued internal alerts prohibiting the updating of corporate phones until the system’s stability is proven by independent audits. Failure in biometric recognition and connection drops make the use of virtual private networks and contract approval applications unfeasible, paralyzing entire administrative routines that depend on the mobility of employees in the field.

Failures in synchronizing peripherals and accessories

Operating system instability also affects communication via Bluetooth with wireless headphones, smart watches, and integrated car entertainment systems. The connection drops repeatedly while playing media or in the middle of important phone calls, requiring the user to constantly manually pair the devices.

The software bug prevents the accessories from accurately recording health metrics and sending voice commands to the smartphone’s virtual assistant. The failure in the wireless communication layer isolates the phone from the brand’s entire ecosystem of products, drastically reducing the usefulness of the complementary equipment purchased by consumers over the years.