gadget & iphone & technology rob on 27 Jul 2008 09:13 am
iPhone White Screen / Sleep State Problem
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I ditched my Blackberry Curve and picked up an black 16 gigabyte 3g iPhone last week. It had been a great experience so far, with only a handful of complaints.
[Note: Since this entry was written, I have been releasing iPhone applications to the iTunes store. You may be interested in checking out our iPhone and iPod Touch Applications. -rob]
Yesterday, however I had a serious problem with the phone. I was at Rock the Bells in Mansfield, MA and reached for my phone only to find that it had a solid white screen. It would not respond to the sleep or home button. I tried the hard restart (reset), and it would go blank, then if I did it again, flash the white briefly. I did the hard restart (10 seconds home and sleep) a few more times and got to the Apple logo.
The device then boot up normally to the home screen, however the moment it went to sleep it would not come back to life. It would just be a dead screen. I could get it to come back to the home screen again by doing multiple hard restarts (not every one was successful in getting to the Apple loading screen, sometimes holding the two buttons only resulted in a vibration) but even then it required multiple attempts. If I missed the home screen and it went to sleep then the process had to be repeated.
When I got home I plugged the device in and even though the screen was blank, my PC and iTunes would make the device vibrate briefly and see the device as working. However, no combination of hard resets and plugging it into the USB would get things ‘back to normal.’ I should note that I did have enough power in the phone during the course of this white screen / sleep problem. I could tell because on occasion when it would get to the home screen, it would show I had battery power left.
I went ahead and tried a restore of the device to factory settings, since iTunes was seeing it fine. Then I went ahead and restored my backup. Same problems, sleep state problem, white screen problem. My final measure was to do yet another complete factory restore and see how the phone operated, i.e. was there something wrong with my previous settings such that it was causing the operational problems?
No. Same problems. I took it into the Apple store on Boylston downtown Boston this morning and a person at the Genius Counter replaced after a I provided a brief description. The Genius Counter technician did not spend any time troubleshooting / verifying them. This leads me to believe that this could be a common enough problem that it is occurring in other phones i.e. a white screen / sleep state nonresponsive.
I asked what might have been the problem and he seemed firm that it was a hardware issue and did not express any surprise. He suggested that possibly there was something going wrong with the screen power. I wasn’t going to argue with him, because I really just wanted to get my iPhone working again and was happy to have a brand new replacement. But the glitched confused me because it seemed intermittent. Why would the iPhone occassionally operate fine after boot but only then become unresponsive after sleep.
Another clue was that the tech also suggested that I set up the iPhone as a new phone rather than restore my backup, ‘just to be sure.’ This means that the tech felt there might have been something that had simply gone wrong in my backup. I’d like to say that this was some variant of the “white screen of death” or some type of bug in the 2.0 firmware, but unfortunatly all I can do is speculate.
Perhaps the symptoms I described represent an unofficial known issue. If it has been recognized as such a problem and is grounds for immediate replacement. Or, perhaps Apple is just taking a pretty wide ranging returns. I am a brand new Apple customer and the support experience was a good one.
I did do a fair amount of searching the web for solutions and troubleshooting prior to taking the phone in to an Apple store. I found both this Howard’s Forums thread and this Apple Support Forum thread that described white screen problems that were different from mine.
You should know that when you swap out your iPhone for a new oneyou must set up your voicemail again. I lost all of my old voicemails and had to re-record my greeting. This is sort of a bummer. Fortunately, my SMS messages and iPhone photos were a part of the iPhone backup, so all of those conversations were retained.
All audio and video files had to be re-synced and for whatever reason the restore removed a few of the iPhone applications I had installed, Google, Facebook and in my library. A few applications were also not uninstalledremained including AIM and Tap Tap. iTunes actually issued a warning dialog that Tap Tap could not be uninstalled / removed properly and gave a hex identifier for the error.
Finally, I did have a look at the iPhone crash recovery logs directory to look for any evidence of the problem I had all day yesterday. Interestingly, there are no logs from July 26th, the day where the white screen / dead sleepstate problem occurred. There are logs from when I tried syncing after midnight from Mediaserverd and MobileSafari. I don’t see anything that suggests tracking of all the hard restarts I attempted throughout yesterday afteroon. The last crash had bug_id 115.
If you have had a similar problem, feel free to post in the comments to share with the web.
Don’t forget to follow me on twitter.
on 27 Jul 2008 at 10:36 am 1.Jack said …
I work at an AT&T retail location and we have 2 demo phones exhibiting similar problems. They just never go dark.
I’ve been googling “iPhone 2.0 sleep” and similar and found this page. Interesting that yours was replaced. Might be an “unreported defect” or something.
on 27 Jul 2008 at 7:04 pm 2.kevin said …
I have had the same problem…one day my phone works, the next, it doesn’t work and I get that white screen of death…I am not happy with AT&T because I switched over from Verizon (with whom I’d been with for 4 years and had 0 problems…zero) and even though I had to wait 2.5 weeks for them to ship me one, and all the hassles that went in with that…I’m almost ready to just return it and get a refund and go back to no hassles…except the iphone is so nice…
thank you for the post, I will try the hard resets and otherwise take it back for them to tell me it’ll be 7-10 days before i get another one
on 03 Aug 2008 at 11:58 pm 3.Mike Rundell said …
I have the same problem with White screen, however the iphone now wont even reset.
I have spoken to Optus whom sold me the iphone and they have advised me that it is a hardware issue with the iphone and to bring the phone back to the point of purchase.
on 10 Aug 2008 at 10:50 am 4.Bernie said …
Just had the same thing happen to me yesterday with my brand spankin’ new iPhone I just got to replace my 1st iPhone. Screen went white and wouldn’t respond at all (battery had >75% remaining). Got home, hooked it up to iTunes, tried to restore, but had to run it twice and restore it as a “new phone” not from backup before I was able to get the phone to respond. Very worrisome. Would love for Apple to address what caused this and not just replace the phone again (would be 2nd time in less than a week!) Note that iPhone is well taken care of, but numerous issues including hardware, software and connectivity have arisen over the past 2 months. Any other forums re: these recent issues out there?
on 18 Aug 2008 at 5:55 am 5.Vero said …
I’ve had my iPhone for 5 days now, and saw my first white screen last night.
I haven’t even had the chance to install ANY applications on my phone before the screen went white. I pushed the Phone icon to look at recent calls, and then the Home Button again, but it wouldn’t come back to the Home Screen. Turns out I could only navigate through Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad and Voicemail. Hitting the Sleep button on top didn’t even do anything, and turning it off didn’t work. Then after about 15 minutes of this, the screen just went completely white and nothing could be done about it.
After reading a few threads in other forums, I tried holding the Sleep and Home buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds. And then the Home button by itself. This prompted the black screen with the white apple, but nothing else. So i repeated this process, and saw the apple again.. I had to do this about 4 times and then everything came back to normal. I could access the Home screen and everything on my phone.
When my phone was in the White Screen state, I plugged it in iTunes and it displayed there correctly. I was also able to access all the pictures on it thru My Computer.
Other weird fact.. An extra picture appeared in the Photos Folder. It was a PNG picture of when my phone was stuck on the Favorites screen. hhhmmm… weird.
on 21 Aug 2008 at 5:12 pm 6.Stew said …
in response to #5 - Vero, I just experianced the exact same thing, except i only noticed the problem when my phone was in my pocket and it took a picture without me touching it. i took it out and i could only look at the phone functions. except my pictures i found in my folder were, in this order, a black screen. the favorites screen, then 2 white ones.
on 22 Aug 2008 at 10:12 pm 7.robo said …
had the white screen as well. freaked me out!! i tried #5 vero’s got and it to at least get to the apple screen. repeated that 5 times and plugged it back into my pc and that seemed to be the final kick in the pants it needed. itunes also prompted me to send new info on the phone to apple which i did.
on 25 Aug 2008 at 8:51 pm 8.Linda said …
I had the exact same problem. Phone was working fine - accepting calls, playing music, launching apps, etc., then the White Screen of Death. The phone would not respond at all not matter what buttons I pressed. Two hours later same problem - finally get back to my car and plug into the car charger and the phone come back to life…Not sure what caused it or what fixed it, however, not a good feeling when you are out of town with no phone access. Previously the phone would have periodic lockups with black screen - other issues poor battery life, drop calls (at least 6 a day) and poor reception. I take it into the store today but I was informed I would have to schedule and appointment or leave my phone for 24hour to diagnosis. Not sure what the extended warranty coverage does for me….my phone is 20 days old.
on 28 Aug 2008 at 4:31 pm 9.T said …
Had the same issue and found this site first. With a little patience and holding the sleep and home for 10 seconds then the home button by itself. I was able to clear the white screen and shut it off. I left it charging with iTunes open for a while, then turned it on. It came up normally. The origional symptoms were I was stuck on the phone section. I could browse contacts, pull up the keypad and make calls, listen to voicmail but I couldn’t home out of it… while tooling around from there it popped to the white screen we all love…
Patience.
on 30 Aug 2008 at 7:43 am 10.Sonya said …
This just happened to me. Thankfully, I found this site and did the whole hold the restart and home button for 10 seconds. It was weird that when i connected to my computer there was a screen shot of my phone stuck on my favorites screen, that i did not take. I didn’t even know that was possible.
on 01 Sep 2008 at 9:11 am 11.Glen said …
My iPhone failed also, the White Screen. I can add that my cars navigational system did recognize my iPhone during this time and I was able to send and recieve calls.
On the occasion of its failure it had just been plugged in for charging, it vibrated for about 60 secs and I was unable to recover from the white screen.
My iPhone has been replaced. This after a mandatory software download. How many times Will our Phones require replacing?
Glen
on 02 Sep 2008 at 3:45 am 12.sam said …
Same problems with the white screen. I’ve had my iphone g3 for a week. It has gone to a white screen and been stuck there 4 times now. I’m taking it back to the telstra to get repaired. They send it away for 6 days. Had so many problems with Telstra i suggest that no one by the iphone from Telstra.
on 05 Sep 2008 at 12:58 am 13.richard said …
After finishing talking on the phone I encountered my first white screen problem tonight and got it fixed after 6 attempts repeatedly holding down the home the sleep buttons. This forum has been great to help me fix this problem in 20 minutes late at night.
My experience was similar to #5 Vera and #6 Stew. I also got a snapshot of the iphone picture when I plug into my PC on iTune. I hope this will not happen again on my new 10 days old iphone. It is rather annoying when you do not know what has caused the problem. I will call my Fido dealer in Vancovuer tomorrow to report this.
on 08 Sep 2008 at 10:15 am 14.Kevin said …
This just happened to me about 15 minutes ago. I just purchased my iPhone last tuesday, and I’ve babied it ever since. I’ve had minor problems, nothing major though. Well, this morning I wake up to take a shower, and set it on table. When I get out I see that the screen hasn’t gone to sleep, and it’s stuck on the pageonce app. From there I pressed home a few times and dabbed my fingers around, which randomly took me into iPod. The home button wouldn’t respond, and then a few seconds later, the white screen of death. I frantically googled and found this page, worried my phone had bricked, but after connecting it to iTunes (and letting it sync/back up) once and then doing another hard reset, it brought everything back to normal.
Just as this post mentioned, I ditched my blackberry curve, which I’ve had minimal problems with, to get the iPhone 3g. And then there seems to be lots of small glitches, lags, and of course the white screen of death. I have to say, I’m slightly disappointed Apple.
on 08 Sep 2008 at 10:34 am 15.Kevin said …
Also-to everyone commenting on the pictures of your iPhone display, if you hold home and press the lock/sleep button, it will snap a picture and put it in you camera roll. You will usually accidentally do this while performing the hard resets.
on 09 Sep 2008 at 4:33 am 16.Adriashounk said …
I am from Ecuador, had the same problem today. Made the 10 seconds thing and got okay… I didnt even need to plug it with iTunes.. I hope it just is a firmware problem that can diappear with an update… Good Luck to all!
on 10 Sep 2008 at 4:30 am 17.khimsoo said …
i am from Singapore, also encountered the same problem. White screen of Death. It happens after i received a phone call.
Apple really need to relook at this batch of screens…..
Bought the phone on 25 Aug 08 in Singapore, today is 10 Sept 08…. Sucks…
on 10 Sep 2008 at 4:57 pm 18.AC said …
Same story as everyone else. However, I have the first generation iphone (not the new 3G iphone). This leads me to believe that it is a 2.0 software bug that causes a temporary “freeze” on the device. What worked for me was to plug my phone in and do a hard reboot (hold in the sleep and home screen buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds). If it doesn’t work, then try and try again. Hopefully Apple gets this thing figured out. I love the phone but I wouldn’t hesitate switching back to my Blackberry if this problem persists. BTW… everyone should keep posting with their problems. I was once lost too with no where to turn for help. Thanks everyone!
on 17 Sep 2008 at 10:23 am 19.David said …
Thanks #5 for the tip. I put that together with patience when plugging it back into my computer. It took many seconds for my computer to recognize it. Once it did it was running completely normally. Nothing changed or lost. What might’ve prompted this problem for me was I had been trying to send a text message and there was an error sending for a few times. When it was doing it again, right in the middle of giving me the “error sending” message, I pressed the home button. My problem started immediately after that. But all is okay now.
on 17 Sep 2008 at 8:20 pm 20.G said …
Thanks guys/girls
having same problem just a short while ago and found this site, have had the phone for 3mths with no dramas , phone is babyed, not sure but only last week down loaded new update for phone which came in automatic , has/does anyone know if this is a possible cause?
on 18 Sep 2008 at 11:16 am 21.TJ said …
After ditching Verizon wireless I got my iphone 3G last night [9:00PM] and only added few numbers , took couple of pictures & made couple of phone calls and today at work , set up the network , surfed web for few minutes and at 2:30PM without any warning it went “dead white” on me. After googling frantically, landed up on this site, thanks for all the tips. After 4-5 hard boots I could revive it [Hshhhhh]. I haven’t even connected to my iTunes yet.
Apple should definitely take note of this issue.
I just hope this does not happen often.
on 21 Sep 2008 at 10:19 am 22.hugo said …
I have identical problems as Rob. It seems to be regardless of any restore, DFU etc. The screen goes white for a bit then blacks out altogether. Itunes will think everything is just fine. Worst of it is, my phone is first get and was a gift and is out of warrantee. -hugo
on 22 Sep 2008 at 8:15 am 23.Jim said …
I am having a similar problem with the origional Iphone (not 3G), I have installed the latest 2.1 software update over the weekend along with some additional updates apple iphone updates totaling 400+ MB, and just now, as soon as I finished a call, the screen went totally white and I have not been able get the white screen to change back to normal.
It worked fine for several days after I updated it, just now I am having the white screen of death problem.
Rebooting it does not fix the problem. From the sounds of it, it looks like a problem may exist in the 2.1 software update or one of the updates before that.
on 27 Sep 2008 at 8:01 pm 24.Kylie said.. said …
Mine is currently in the white screen of death mode and will not come out. I called apple and restored it to my old settings and then again as if it were a new phone and no change. Everything works on my phone like the buttons, slide to unlock, and people can call, but i cant see anything. I tried holding both buttons for 10 seconds and no response. I am going to take my iphone into apple tomorrow. And hopefully get a replacement.
on 28 Sep 2008 at 7:07 am 25.Michael Leibrock said …
Kylie (post#24),
I would like to know what you find out as this is where mine is too, I can slide the imaginary bar across to receive a call bu there is nothing on the screen.
on 30 Sep 2008 at 7:45 pm 26.Vince Ferg said …
My friend just called me with the same problem. I googled it and came up with this site to help him out. Even though the screen is white it appears everything still works correctly. I can call him and he gets the call. When I see him I will tell him about the hard reset. Feel bad for him but to me its kind of funny, guess I’m glad I still have my good ol blackberry.
on 02 Oct 2008 at 12:32 pm 27.Matt said …
I have experienced the “white screen of doom” a few times now. However, in my case it seems to be connected to a case I ordered online.
I wanted a case with a flap that covers the screen. The one I got seems to have a magnet in it to hold the flap closed. When I leave it in the case for a while and then open the case, it has the white screen. However, hard reset and taking it out of the case seem to have eliminated that problem. Has anyone else possibly had magnets invovled?
on 03 Oct 2008 at 7:57 am 28.Linda said …
I have been having white screen issues too. Took my first iphone (3G 16G) back to the apple store and it was replaced on the spot. I was pretty happy with that…until the replacement started doing it before I even got home to do a restore or anything. White screen is sometimes solid for most of the day, other times “fritzes” in and out. I was told that it was a software issue and that the upgrade would solve it (that was, of course, the day after the last release). I am getting so frustrated…cannot count on being able to use my phone when I want it or need it
on 04 Oct 2008 at 4:50 pm 29.Bryan said …
im having a problem with my bosses wifes phone it will freeze if I let it sit or if I make it hibernate then when I go to use it its this blueish white screen with like lines in it I posted a video on youtube maybe someone could take a look an gimme there thoughts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ld2wPVv5Ik
on 04 Oct 2008 at 4:52 pm 30.Bryan said …
also if I just set it to never autolock it will run forever well until the battery dies its friggin weird
on 05 Oct 2008 at 4:52 pm 31.Rhino said …
Glad to see I am not the only one having the same “white screen” issue. I am curious as to how big this problem really is.. After coming across this article, I used all the tips mentioned above. The reset worked for me as well.
My question is; even though everything seems to be fine now, should I get this phone replaced with a new one? What are the chances of this “white screen” happening again? Is this a sign of many more glitches to come??
Please post a comment is anyone has some insight. Thanks!
on 11 Oct 2008 at 8:33 pm 32.tong said …
thanks a lot for your blog! It saved my iphone!
on 13 Oct 2008 at 8:31 am 33.angry said …
i dont know if i beleive it is a hardware problem. i just had this problem with my 1st gen iphone. screen went white and the phone crashed. the first time i did a hard reset and it rebooted ok. a few days later the screen goes white again. i did a hard reset and nothing. now itunes recognizes the phone but the phone itself it totally unresponsive. i have had this thing for a while now and gone through all the various software updates and unlocks. nothing like this has happened before and i have no idea what to do. i tried restoring and nothing
on 15 Oct 2008 at 5:54 am 34.tommy said …
i want to thank everyone who responded re: the white screen. I freaked out until i read this thread. I restarted my phone and it worked.
thanks!
But should i be concerned?
on 17 Oct 2008 at 5:49 pm 35.Jessica said …
Read #5 Vero’s statement and that is EXACTLY what happened to me tonight. It took about a half hour and alot of messing with the phone before it came back.
on 19 Oct 2008 at 7:45 pm 36.Chris Heuer said …
Just bought mine THUR night and it crashed this evening with a white screen of death. I was responding to Gmail, hit the home button and it went to ‘recent phone calls’. All of a sudden the iTunes interface showed on only the top third of the screen. Tried to do a soft reset and it went to the white screen of death… sux. Going to try to do a restore next and hopefully it will work, else I have to go get a replacement tomorrow.
on 20 Oct 2008 at 7:52 pm 37.Chris said …
Has anyone solved this white screen issue by battery replacement? I’ve heard this has been a possible culprit.
on 24 Oct 2008 at 9:27 pm 38.Shawn said …
My husband’s iPhone is a gift from his sister when he was visiting Russia. Guess what? The White Screen of Death, that’s what! I am so glad I found rob’s blog! I suspected that the hard reboot would work, but am astonished at this occurrence, and the apparent prevalence of it…. This blog is a godsend. Apple, what’s up? Do I have to go buy my hubby an Android or G1 phone to replace his iPhone?
on 26 Oct 2008 at 11:00 pm 39.SMan said …
I just had the problem, after getting latest updates from cydia and trying to access appstore. the screen hung up and white screen appeared. tried restarting the phone by holding home and power button. It worked after the third time and it rebooted. Its now working fine. not sure about the problem though..
on 30 Oct 2008 at 9:50 am 40.Julie said …
I am continually having this problem, can some of you tell me what operating system, email accounts, etc. that you are using. I am now on my 4th iphone 3g, it seems to me that something is causing a conflict, any help would be appreciated. As stated by others of you, Apple doesn’t seem interested in fixing the problem, just replacing iphones that will have the same problem.
Thank You
on 03 Nov 2008 at 7:51 am 41.ivan said …
Same with me! Froze for 10-15 min, and after i done what #5 did all was OK. 10x #5.
on 03 Nov 2008 at 12:23 pm 42.Heidi said …
I had the problem. Phone was working fine and suddenly it would not go anywhere outside of the phone functions - it would go to keypad, favorites, contacts, recents and voicemail. The home button would only go to the favorites screen. While fiddling with it, it finally just went to the white screen. Did the hard boot (holding home button and power button for 25 seconds, it restarted - but stayed longer on the apple screen than usual. And yes, there are images on the favorites screen and the white screen in the camera roll now.
on 08 Nov 2008 at 2:56 pm 43.Jason said …
I have a first gen iPhone, and I THINK I had this problem about 40 days ago. Randomly clicking and holding buttons finnaly worked (at the time I had no idea of the 10 sec hard boot).
That was the only problem untill today. Last night I upgraded to ver 2.1. Today I had it on my docking station and it would not power down the screen. It would even freeze it, saying the time was whenever I last used it. Same thing after I took it off the dock. I went to check my phone after getting out of the shower to see if I had any missed calls. But the home button wouldnt work, it was more or less stuck in the Ipod section of the phone. So I try my random playing with buttons trick that eventually worked in the past and low and behold I hear the picture noise (as mentioned by post 15. Kevin, ty btw for that post) and then the white screen of death.
Hooked it up to iTunes to no avail, but searched for it on the web and found this site, did the hard restart and it works fine now.
I almost wonder if its a flaw/error with the self picture function. Because a white screen flashes when you use that function.
I dont know, thanks for the posts though.
on 12 Nov 2008 at 7:32 pm 44.Hector said …
I recieved my phone through my job. I am flipping, because the screen went white. I dont want to be the first one to go to the boss and ask for a replacement phone. How can you restart? This is rediculous. I’m glad I didnt have to pay out of pocket for this phone.
on 13 Nov 2008 at 12:58 am 45.timo said …
bought the iphone in munich, germany. 4 weeks later while browsing my phone contacts appeared the white screen.
hard reboot worked fine: pressing Home + Power Button at the same time.
on 15 Nov 2008 at 11:06 pm 46.Mario said …
This just happened to me. i was installing an app and it froze. but restarting it works just fine.
on 17 Nov 2008 at 6:36 pm 47.Neil said …
Had the 3G about 10 days. The White Screen of Death happened after it first froze in the phone mode, then while pressing buttons the WSD appeared. After reading this site I tried a hard reset except I did it for at least 45 seconds while it was on the charger and the white apple appeared, but stayed longer than usual?? When the reboot completed, everything returned, no data lost, everything functional. Fingers crossed that this was a one time occurrence.
on 18 Nov 2008 at 9:16 pm 48.suvo said …
I am having this problem again and agin, can some of you tell me what operating system, email accounts, etc. that you are using. I am now using iphone 3g, it seems to me that something is causing a conflict, any help would be appreciated. As stated by others of you, Apple doesn’t seem interested in fixing the problem, just replacing iphones that will have the same problem.
Thank You
on 21 Nov 2008 at 11:53 am 49.jaclyn said …
The white screen/Freeze just happened to me. I called apple and they suggested to do a master rest. I pressed the pwer and the home simaltanously, then the apple signed appeared. It took about a minute to load then everything was ok.
on 27 Nov 2008 at 5:55 pm 50.Betsy Vance said …
Happy Thanksgiving! — I am all snuggled up here at my cabin in Priest Lake, Idaho looking forward to using my 3G Iphone that I purchased at Best Buy in September.
Boom! I woke up this morning, Thanksgiving morning, and nothing on my iphone but a white screen with black lines coming down vertically on 1/2 the screen on the right hand side. I have read everything I can find on this — and tried all the suggestions — but, nothing is working.
Odd– people have called me on this phone– and it vibrates — but, there is nothing else — except the white screen. The laptop finds it on Itunes. Nothing has made the white screen go away and it won’t turn off. I have tried to call Apple — but, of course, no answer as it is a holiday. I will call Apple tomorrow — and hope that something can be done. I really love this phone– have downloaded 52 apps — have 2,800 photos — and yet,still a lot of room left. I keep thinking I put too much stuff on it — but, it shows (showed) a lot of room left. I am so bummed — I really have fun with this phone — now, I hope I have to wait at the Doctor’s office, so I can play spades, pong, etc. ( I know, I know I need to get a life) Any thoughts anyone has on this would be helpful. Hope your Thanksgiving day was great.
on 28 Nov 2008 at 9:53 am 51.Sandro said …
Hey I had the same problem twice, but on my iphone 1G it’s even weirder!!! When I first had this white screen I found this page and tried everything that stood in the posts…nothing happend!
However one day later I pressed home and power butten, just power button, just home button a couple of times …and suddendly I saw the apple sign in the wrong direction(it was kind of mirrored so the bitten/open part of the apple was left). Furthermore there was no backlight so you could only see it with light of a lamp.
Well than I could suddenly restart it and everything was normal.
So than a few days later it happend again…i pressed all kind of stuff again…and this wrong apple sign appeared again. - So than I restarted and everything is perfect untill now…, but I realy don’t now whats wrong with it.
on 01 Dec 2008 at 9:44 am 52.David said …
#5 you explained exactly what happened to me last night.
Fortunately I did Google the issue and found this page, did the 2 button reset and voila, back to life.
on 02 Dec 2008 at 10:28 am 53.Loyal said …
My iPhone started with just white flashes but would always go back to normal. As time passed it finally progressed to the same white screen with vertical lines everyone else is talking about. The funny thing is I can still punch in my pass-code just by remembering where the numbers should be on the screen and start my iPod program because I know where it should be.
Today I’ve found that when the white screen appears if you hold the edges of the iPhone in both hands and twist it slightly in opposite directions (sort of like wringing out a towel) the white screen goes aways and my iPhone is back to normal and life has meaning again. Which leads me to the assumption that there may be a faulty connection on the inside. I just hope they replace it with a brand spanking new one when I go for my Technical Support appointment at the Apple store tomorrow.
on 10 Dec 2008 at 9:57 pm 54.Marin said …
I have the new iphone 3G and just experienced my first “white screen of death”. I have no clue why it is doing this. I have only had it three weeks! It was a gift for my 21st birthday! I love the phone but there has been little glitches here and there, nothing huge enough to freak out about. BUT THIS is horrible! I have dont the hard reset about 20 times and nothing. I can recieve phone calls, it rings vibrates and dings when I get a text message. I can slide the slider bar but cannot unlock the screen because I can not see the numbers to enter the code(bc its white duh) I called technical support and was on hold for 30 minutes to find that I need to drive to an apple retailer…and the nearest one is 90 miles away in dallas! can I not just take it to the place i purchased it and they replace it?
on 10 Dec 2008 at 10:00 pm 55.Marin said …
oh and also, i have seen many people say that when they plug it into the computer they see a picture of their homescreen. There is a short cut to take pictures on your phone of screens, if you touch the home button and then the sleep button and hold it for a few seconds you will hear a shutter and it will take a picture of whatever is on your screen(not through the camera lense) so it probably was an accident when you were trying to do a hard start considering its the same buttons in the opposite order.
on 11 Dec 2008 at 7:49 pm 56.Donald said …
I survived the white screen of death. Don’t know how. Tried hard reset several times. Tried synching several times. Heard the photo shutter sound go off once. Let the phone rest while I went agro thinking about time I’d be wasting driving to get a “Genius” to replace the phone. Hit home button and . . . . wala, back to normal. I was using Wide Mail app when screen went white.
on 12 Dec 2008 at 1:34 pm 57.Ingurido said …
Same problem as #42 today. The iPhone got stuck in the phone mode, wouldn’t Home out.
But I got the white screen when I did the 1st hard reset (Home+Sleep for 10 secs). iTunes happily synched, with the white screen still on. Then I unplugged the USB, reset again, and the screen went blank. So I plugged the cord back in and voila, apple logo and then Home screen.
on 15 Dec 2008 at 8:23 pm 58.Katherine said …
I was having the same problem. Thank you #5! Your solution worked for me. As an aside, my camera took a picture of the login screen when it was stuck… very strange.
on 18 Dec 2008 at 7:02 am 59.carolinagirl said …
I have also fallen victim to the white screen of death. The crazy thing about mine is after I get the white screen my phone goes black and then will not respond for several hours.
on 18 Dec 2008 at 2:13 pm 60.Marcus said …
Well,
I have two iphones, as my original cracked. And my new one experience the white screen, and I’m stuck in a snowstorm, so I’d been using my original, which within an hour…Got the screen of death as well!
So now, stuck at home, phoneless, in the snow, with two white screens. I did the reboot, and restore, and it somewhat helped the newer one, but if unplugged from my computer, it goes white. My other, is still white.
Of course, I can’t get to the apple store because of the 6 inches of snow! Merry x-mas!
on 18 Dec 2008 at 5:30 pm 61.Legend said …
Thanks for the 411. I was eating at a restaurant and had the same problem. I had to rush my dinner because I didn’t want to think it was busted. My iphone is only a month old. You rock! I wish info online are always as reliable as yours. Pls don’t publish my email address.
on 18 Dec 2008 at 8:29 pm 62.jeff said …
I tried the reboots like #5 suggested to no avail. What I did to fix the issue was
1.) connect to itunes.
2.) Restore and select backup before.
3.) let the phone backup and then restore.
4.) Sync the phone.
Everything is now back to normal. This has to be a software issue.
on 24 Dec 2008 at 12:30 pm 63.Maggie said …
I’ve had my i-phone for a month now, and I’m absolutely in love with it =] Yesterday, I was texing and all of a sudden, that stupid white screen popped up. I tried a number of things like sending texts from my friends phone, calling it, and holding thehome button….nothing worked. I decided to plug it in to my charger and leave it over night, but it didn’t even react to the charger. I started freaking out!
I would just like to thank you because after holding sleep and home for 10 seconds, my phone turned back into its normal state, and now everything is fine. I was afraid At&t was going to try to make me pay for another phone! Thanks so much! You have just made my Christmas Eve so much more enjoyable!! Happy holidays!
on 24 Dec 2008 at 12:45 pm 64.Maggie said …
And I also have that strange picture that #5 talked about!!
on 24 Dec 2008 at 1:33 pm 65.Maik said …
Mine is an year old first gen, and it just happened yesterday. I restored, etc etc etc… And I just can’t get rid of it… It’s really stressful.
on 01 Jan 2009 at 3:46 am 66.Edward Mendoza said …
Thanks guys for the comments, I had the white unresponsive screen and had no clue what to do until I found this site; I’m a video director so I didn’t want to give up my iPhone!
I just went through the whole process and for me what worked was:
1) Hold the sleep and home buttons until the screen flickered and the apple icon on a black screen shows up.
2) Then I just held the menu button for several seconds for the reboot.
If it does this frequently I will be taking it back to the store for replacement…
on 03 Jan 2009 at 11:14 am 67.Segovia said …
First saw this last night when I tried to charge my phone and it didn’t respond to the power adapter. I figured it might have been the charger that was broken or faulty as it wasn’t working for either my phone or another iphone I had access to.
Then I noticed that I could no longer navigate back to the HOME screen and I was stuck in ipod mode. I could jump back and forth between ipod and itunes by using the “Get Updates” while viewing a podcast, but still not way to get to the home screen.
I tried a hard boot and that didn’t work, next thing I know I get the “Black Screen of Death” and then a few minutes later, after I held down the sleep button for about 15 seconds and then tapped the home button I got the white screen next.
I did what was suggested in the above #66 and everything went back to normal - so far… cross my fingers it doesn’t repeat itself.
on 04 Jan 2009 at 4:10 am 68.-={OnE aMoNg MaNy}=- said …
I’ll say that I’m not too happy with my ipod touch
because I am having the same symptoms…
white screen…unresponsive….wont soft reset…
What just rubs me the wrong way about all of this is that this seems to be an all too common issue…with technology that should endure at least a 8 to 12 month period before going through major glitches.
Especially when the average consumer is putting down quite an investment for…lets be real..a pocket toy.
This low quality, unreliable piece of technology has been obviously overrated.
I suggest to all who have had this issue to send apple an e-mail stating the clear lack of quality.
I know I will…
on 04 Jan 2009 at 2:42 pm 69.Zoe said …
Today i experienced the white screen of death and many thanks to this site i managed to get my iphone back to life by holding the Home and Sleep button for 10 seconds.
I do hope that this is not going to be a on-going problem or my iphone will be going back to the store.
Would like to say a thanks for all your usful advice.
on 10 Jan 2009 at 12:41 am 70.luther said …
ANSWER: “Today i experienced the white screen of death and many thanks to this site i managed to get my iphone back to life by holding the Home and Sleep button for 10 seconds.
I do hope that this is not going to be a on-going problem or my iphone will be going back to the store.
Would like to say a thanks for all your usful advice.”
CORRECT.
on 11 Jan 2009 at 6:24 am 71.joy said …
Just happened to me this morning. did not work till i pluged it into the computer
on 12 Jan 2009 at 7:19 pm 72.Mike said …
It whited out on me two more times yesterday, so I took a razor blade and cut the magnets out of the leather case I had bought (one in the front flap and one in the rear cover); Problem solved. Magnets will definitely mess up your iphone!
on 17 Jan 2009 at 8:30 am 73.angela said …
I just had the same problem as everyone else…very annoying.
This website helped me though thank you so much. I hope this doesn’t happen again 
on 17 Jan 2009 at 2:44 pm 74.Hilary said …
Had the same problems aswell, you could here the keys unlocking for the unlock screen but had the white screen of death, had the weird camera thing happening too, took a photo with out me taking one then when I fixed it (home and sleep buttons) I plugged it into my PC and my screensaver came up as a photo? Weeeird anyway it’s fixed for now I reckon if I have more problems I’ll just take it back, this site is a godsend thank you so much!!
on 19 Jan 2009 at 6:42 am 75.zammy said …
hello
yeah i had that same problem but my was weird. all the sounden my iphone stay in the tap seccion of the phone i mean where you deal and see your contacts to make calls, but then i press the home button and it just did not leave the seccion, as much as i press the home button it never decided to quit. i decided to press the home and the power but at the same time and all it did was like a snapshoot camera sound and my screan went white. i was like OMG than i try to chill jaja because it can get very anoying and all i did was i notice that in the white screan it never changed so i decided to leave it like that the whole night so that the battery would dry (you know what i mean) next morning obvious the phone was off, that was my puporse, huck up to computer and the phone turn on, but it took few min to reload but at least nothing mayour happened. so you could try at least that simple option!
on 19 Jan 2009 at 10:50 pm 76.John in Fremont said …
White Screen came up for me tonight. Thankfully this site existed to show its not only me. I reset from Factory settings and then restored from iTunes. Hopefully this issue is resolved. I like the iPhone and it has been very cool but don’t want to be stuck high and dry when I’m paying top dollar for two of these. John
on 20 Jan 2009 at 8:38 am 77.Lita said …
If the white screen shows on your iphone…simply hold the home button and power button for 10 second. It should restart your system and everything should back to normal. Hope that’ll help you.
on 20 Jan 2009 at 12:04 pm 78.Ivy said …
The white screen came up for me just this morning and really made me freak out. Luckly I was able to get rid of it by pressing the two hard reset buttons for 10 seconds. Worked like a charm. Hope it doesn’t keep happening.
on 20 Jan 2009 at 3:12 pm 79.carlos said …
to zammy #74
same thing happened to mine right now I took a snapshot of my favorites screen then it went blank and it just keeps taking snapshots!!!
on 23 Jan 2009 at 10:48 am 80.Anon said …
So. Not sure if this will help everyone or not, but here’s what I’ve learned (the hard way).
Work at a company with 6-8 iphones in organization. All except one have been working perfect (these are all 3g 16gig units, as well). The one was getting the white screen. Instructions above would recover/wakeup the phone, but the whitescreens would happen 1-3 times a day on average. Not acceptable.
We replaced the SIM card, swapped the physical unit, had it replaced through Apple. No matter what combination we used, what handheld, what sim card, still happened. At this point, we were baffled. The last time we didn’t even restore from itunes, to assure it wasn’t an app or song or something causing it.
Now it’s fixed, haven’t had it happen in weeks. I don’t understand how this is possible, but here was the fix.
The one user having problems with this, was using an oldschool blackberry leather case (the one with the flap with a magnet). We all use the new ones of those. We gave her a new case. Hasn’t had a white screen in weeks. Baffled. Also, keep in mind that it would white screen at times, when NOT in the case.
Only thing I can think is the old blackberry cases had stronger magnets in them, and that may have caused the issue.
Either way, weeks have gone by without issue, and after replacing the phone, sim card, apps/files, it turns out it was fixed by using a different carrying case. O.o
on 23 Jan 2009 at 11:42 am 81.Matthew said …
Bought mine today, got it home linked it to the computer, followed the onscreen instructions, got a message on iPhone saying “Activated” and I had an option to dismiss. Then I was welcomed by a fuzzy/distorted screen followed by a continuous white screen, left it for a few mins to see if it would go off, didnt. So I held the off button, it went off, now i cant get it on. Master reset wont work, plugging it in to charge doesnt work, and syncing doesnt work, just a turned off phone. Im in UK and got it from O2, will be taking it back tomorrow -.-
on 24 Jan 2009 at 12:35 pm 82.Neal R. said …
Just wanted to chime in too. About 4 days ago my new (1 month old) iPhone got stuck on the Favorite Contacts page. After some random pressing of the home button and sleep button I got a black screen that wouldn’t go away. Somehow, after 10 minutes, the phone came back on, no problems. This evening, same Favorite Contacts freeze, then the White Screen that wouldn’t go away, no matter what I did. Button pressing, plugging into power, plugging into desktop computer - no dice. Am currently restoring from iTunes, but only to get it working in the short term. My plan is to march into the O2 store (I live in London, UK) and demand a new phone immediately. Immediately. Immediately. This reminds me of the giant run of glitchy iPod minis that came out in 2004 (or 2003? somewhere around there anyway). It really, really bums me out because I was - am still - so in love with my iPhone. I feel betrayed. The bitch.
on 24 Jan 2009 at 12:52 pm 83.Neal R. said …
And following up…
Having just done the restore of the iPhone, and then restore from the back up, it’s back to working okay. Although now I’m panicky about when it’s going to happen again. I’m assuming O2 will replace it, without me having to pitch some horrible fit. Anybody have any experience replacing iPhones in the UK?
on 24 Jan 2009 at 7:12 pm 84.Patrick said …
Hi I got a new 3g iPhone before Christmas had no problems with it until I dropped it on a pavement only about a 2 foot drop no prob before to my previous 10 years of nokias. Got the white screen of death that was constant and would not go to home screen all white after drop rang apple and they replaced the phone for a perfect new one which is a good service by them but , after 3days with this new phone I’m getting the white screen again that can return to home screen after a while . This phone has never left the house is just out of it’s padded box perfect care. I get white screen every day now about 4 or 5 times I think it’s a hardware flaw because if u slightly but pressure on the screen with a finger or slightly Twist the phonebin your had it goes back to home screen and screen of death dissapears. Only for a while though goes back to white screen maybe after an hour or so. Apple need to addresss this flaw it might be a manufacture flaw on the contacts between the phones screen and the phones circuit board I have seen problems like this before in other electronic screens as I work in electronics. I love the iphone but this is being eroded now it’s like owning an expensive unreliable Italian sportscar.
on 25 Jan 2009 at 7:37 am 85.Todd said …
I had essentially the same experience as poster #5. Here’s how it went down:
I was navigating phone contacts when something went awry, and I found myself stuck in phone mode. The home button refused to bring me back to the home screen, instead flipping me between the various phone menu options — favorites, recents, contacts, etc.
I tried putting the phone to sleep; but upon waking, it would return to phone mode. I had no access to the home screen whatsoever. I couldn’t restart my iPhone either. I kept fiddling with it, trying to unfreeze the system, when the screen suddenly went totally white! It was late and I was exhausted, so I just left the phone jammed in this useless white screen mode all night long.
The next morning, upon waking, I googled the problem, found this page, and followed the advice provided. First, I attempted a hard restart — holding home and sleep buttons down simultaneously for 10 seconds as suggested. It didn’t work for me after several attempts, but I kept at it for a while. Finally, I got the white screen to go away and the apple prompt to appear against the black background, but the phone would not reboot from there.
I kept at it. I held down home/sleep for ten seconds, over and over and over, making the apple logo appear and disappear many, MANY times. Still no reboot.
I then connected the adapter to my computer, and kept at some more. It took a good fifteen minutes of bring tethered to my PC for iTunes to finally recognize my iPhone. Then, out of the blue, something happened — I don’t know what — as spontaneous as the onset of the problem. The phone just suddenly reset, sync up, and everything worked fine again.
Talk about reliability! I’ve never had a cellular phone or PDA experience such random, unprovoked, complete and utter failure. The iPhone isn’t just a pretty toy to me — I am a professional, and I have come to rely on my PDA for work. This stupid problem threatened to shut down my operation. It is totally unacceptable behavior in a device that fancies itself ahead of its time.
on 28 Jan 2009 at 7:00 am 86.Dean said …
I had the same problem, but with the IPod Touch, not the IPhone. I was just playing one of the apps game and went back to the home screen to check my email. It was completely frozen so I tried to turn it off and then I received the white screen of death.
I search all over Apple’s website with no luck and googled it. I got very frustrated so I just did the restore through itunes, totally wiped every song, picture, and app I had on it. After starting the restore process I found this and will definitely try #5 out before doing the restore again!
on 31 Jan 2009 at 12:20 pm 87.Judy said …
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! To everyone that had this problem I followed #5 and it worked! I’m glad I got this site fist when I was trying to figure out what happened! In my case my son was playing with it and when I caught him it was at the white screen. I freaked out!!! but it’s ok now. Thanks again!
on 12 Feb 2009 at 7:44 pm 88.Jessika said …
I’m at Best Buy when I grab my phone to check my calls, got to the missed call but couldn’t go back to home screen. I try again by pressing the home button when i goes white. I’ve had my phone for about five months now so I knew I could not take it back to get a new one. So i found this forum and it was a godsend. Thank you for posting this useful information. I tried what #5 suggested and now my phone is back to normal. Thanks again.
on 23 Feb 2009 at 9:50 am 89.Alan said …
Thank you thank you thank you thank you. I ahd the same problem. Nothing was responding to the white screen and I ahd never heard of the Hard Reset. I hard reseted it and voila, It was fixed :~) only for this forum I would not have known how to hard reset it :*
on 25 Feb 2009 at 6:49 pm 90.G said …
I’ve had my iPhone 3G since my birthday in early December. I haven’t had any problems with it. Today, getting into my car, I dropped it about 3 feet. I had a plastic case on it and it landed with the screen facing up. The screen was ok for about 30 seconds and then the blank white screen came up. I tried turning it off, but it wouldn’t. I tried calling it and everything rings and vibrates normally. I tried the hard reset and it isn’t working for me. I also tried connecting to itunes and reseting it. That hasn’t worked either. Can anyone help me?
on 26 Feb 2009 at 8:03 am 91.Kelly Mayfield said …
New iphone - only had 2 days
Version: 2.2.1 Model: MB702LL
I was in my contacts list when my phone locked up and then went to the White Screen. It was bed time and my battery was low so the phone was dead by morning. I plugged it into the computer in the morning to charge and it was fine. Thanks for all the posts b/c I will try your fixes next time it happens. I just hope it does not happen often.
on 09 Mar 2009 at 6:14 am 92.Baz said …
I and the same problem put my ear phone jack in and the white screen of death, not responding to any thing tried the 10 secondtrick I will hard reset later to be sure and may be computer sync.
thanks guys
on 16 Mar 2009 at 2:18 pm 93.M P said …
Hi Guys
I had a problem with my old iphone that I had given to my son. It wasn’t picking up wifi. took it in to the genius bar and they said I needed a new one as it couldn’t be fixed. The phone was just out of warranty so I had to cough up £139. Two days later the new iphone goes white. While I was at the genius bar another person turned up complaining about this white screen syndrome. This stimulated me to look this up. I have seen many complaints about this. Screen turns white. After rebooting the iphone multicolour lines appear. I have only had the phone for two days. I am off to apple tomorrow to get this changed. i don’t want to spend another £139 for a replacement. I will also check that they are giving a new one. Hope everything goes fine. Will keep you updated.
on 18 Mar 2009 at 9:17 pm 94.Jenn said …
had the same problem…. white screen with black lines down half of it. hard reset did nothing. neither did restoring it. i guess i’ll take it to apple tomorrow & see if they fix/replace it…
on 20 Mar 2009 at 3:30 pm 95.k said …
I had white screen too on my 3g iphone firmware 2.2.1. Fix it by reseting it (home button and sleep button). I was playing with clock app and it just some how stay in phone mode doesnt let you go to home. So i press sleep and i got white screen.
and by press sleep and home button together (once, not holding them down) while in white screen i can hear iphone camera snap shot.
hence after i reset the photo back to normal to got white screen snap shot in my camera roll library.
Funny thing is that i also got a snap shot of my unlocking screen (the one with date, wall paper and slide to unlock tab) which i thing it quite cool.
when you look at that picture its like you are in the unlock screen.
cheers
on 22 Mar 2009 at 4:56 pm 96.morgen said …
thank you so much! (:
on 22 Mar 2009 at 6:12 pm 97.ML said …
Only have had the phone 4 weeks. Not sure if my problem is “white screen” exactly starts as white then develops horizontal black lines or black vertical lines. Sometimes the screen has colored lines and just flashes and rolls like a bad television set - I keep resetting sometimes it works but most of the time does not or it is only temporary. I can use the phone Sony about 30% of the time art his point. Just have not had time to go to the Apple store…..
on 22 Mar 2009 at 8:27 pm 98.Brandon said …
I just had the white screen about 20 minuits ago..i restored it to factory settings, and then backed all my stuff back on to it and it seems to be working fine now. But if you ask me its pathetic how they cant explain it.
on 09 Apr 2009 at 3:01 pm 99.kati said …
i’ve had mine for 5 days and it just happened. thanks you are a life saver!
on 11 Apr 2009 at 10:39 am 100.puppet said …
same over here with an iphone 3g 8gb, was working for three weeks smoothly. funnily before the WSOD (white screen of death :o)) it got stuck on the pin code pane not accepting any inputs, i’m happy i didn’t have to do an emergency call! after hard reset everything seems fine again. so when does apple fix this issue?!
on 13 Apr 2009 at 2:19 pm 101.Gocha said …
F this sheit
These iPhone issues are everywhere
Don’t get yours wet because it sets off the sensor and you rwarranty is going to be voided automatically. I took it to replace the LCD already .($100) and now this whitescren after sleep issue. This really does suck majorly for a company that I always supported ..now I’m quite thoroughly disappinted.
Gdawg
on 15 Apr 2009 at 10:21 am 102.Gras said …
HEy - my iPhone went blank - resetting didnt work, restoring didnt’t work and neither did sweet talk. The screen would change colour depending on nothing.
O2 (UK carrier) said it would take 5 weeks to repair so took it back to apple and they replaced it IMMEDIATELY. That is 1st class customer service (although unreliable technology!) that they get repeat clients from, pat on the back to them.
on 15 Apr 2009 at 10:32 pm 103.Samman said …
Had the exact problem as #100. Found that my wife left my phone on the contact page and it did not auto sleep. So I hit the sleep button and it goes off. Then I take a shower and after when I get an idea to search Google… I’m stuck at the pin screen. First it takes the pin number but does not advance to the home screen. Just makes the clicking sounds whenever I tap a number. Then after a few sleep button pushes, it no longer shows and input for the pin, just makes the clicks. Then I came upon this page and and learned about the hard reset and well the rest is history. My iphone is working now but I’m afraid for how long?
A side not about the reset though: When you get a apple screen… mine was a black screen with a apple logo on it, I believe that is the reset screen. Maybe we were suppose to let it load, like an operating system. I noticed that on mine, it kept showing that black apple screen and I would immediately do another hard reset. My last reset, I left it on longer than normal after the apple logo screen because something came up and I put my iphone down. When I came back, it was back to normal working order again. I dunno but its just a thought. If I get the white screen again, I’m gonna try to do it till the apple screen comes up then leave it be to see if I am correct.
on 22 Apr 2009 at 11:24 am 104.ned said …
i had the same problem 1st it froze so i tried to put in spleep mode but it wouldnt respond but then a few mins later it went dark so i tried to “slide to unlock” then i put in pass code but it wouldnt work then it just went white and all i could do was put it into sleep and vi-sa vir-sa and i couldnt even turn it off
but the i restarted it (hold home&sleep button 10 secs) and it works fine now
on 23 Apr 2009 at 4:43 pm 105.Margaret said …
Same problem, the white screen of death. Mine doesn’t have any lines just a completely blank white screen. Have tried numerous hard resets but nothing is working. As I hold sleep and home buttons down the screen flashes between white and black screens. I can play around on the blank white screen and I am getting keyboard noises but nothing else. This is my only phone I can’t even phone support or anyone. Not impressed at all.
Oh, my phone is about 4 months old.
on 30 Apr 2009 at 3:05 pm 106.Stacie said …
Thanks to all for posting on this– I just experienced my first White Screen of Death and was saved by a quick internet search that pulled up this blog. Hoping it won’t happen again. I’ve had mine since Christmas.
Is there any word on increasing the reliability at AT&T? I’m getting the same dropped call thing as Poster 8– and live I in Chicago so thought the network would be pretty good. If I didn’t love the phone so much I’d go back to Sprint– they’re much more reliable!
on 14 May 2009 at 3:17 pm 107.Michelle said …
Thank you! This blogged also saved my iphone! You all rock!
on 18 May 2009 at 12:51 pm 108.Angel said …
Thank heavens for the internet and this blog posting! I’ve had slow screen responses for a few days but thought it was just memory space, or the turning on and off a lot as I travel alot.
I’m not in FL for business and was driving in a monsoon and looked down to see the white screen. Of course, the first thing you think is “oh crap, that can’t be good.” Upon finally getting access to the internet in my hotel room I found this blog.
After doing 7 hard resets and plugging into iTunes it is now working again. I spend 75% of my time on business travel and can’t afford to have my phone die on the road…headed to my local Apple store this weekend.
Thanks again for all the posts!
on 23 May 2009 at 7:16 pm 109.Madison said …
#5!!! THANK YOU SO FREAKIN MUCH! Holy cow. This article saved my life!
on 29 May 2009 at 12:38 am 110.Jim said …
My iphone went white while I was in Vegas receiving a call from out of the area. Kept having to reboot but kept going white after working for a short time. Returned to LA (home) and all is now working fine. I had taken another trip to Vegas 2 months prior and had no problems on the 1st trip……..very strange.
on 30 May 2009 at 7:08 am 111.Chelsea said …
Hi everyone,
I had this problem up to 3 times a day, only my story gets a little strange. After having the white screen, I can use the home and power button to finally turn on my phone. One day this happened, and I decided to look through my pictures. This is where things get strange- I will have a screenshot of my favorite numbers page, followed by 3-5 white blank screen screenshots. I took my phone to the Apple store, where they told me I probably had a “defective part” and gave me a new phone (maybe refurbished, who knows). Now I am having the same problems with my new phone. I’m going to go to the Apple Store tomorrow and try to get to the bottom of this- this maye be another case of Apple using cheaper parts for more recent batches of products, similar to the white MacBook crack problem. My sister and mom both have iPhones, but have never experienced this problem, and they got theirs about 6 months before I did.
on 01 Jun 2009 at 5:14 pm 112.Linda S. said …
I purchased my Iphone in January 2009 and have had a few problems with it locking up. Today for the first time I received the white screen. I checked the web for similar problems and found this site. I tried using the home and power button a few times and finally got back to the menu. I also checked my photos and found pictures of my screen saver??? I’ll keep monitoring and hope this is a problem that’s been resolved.
Thanks to all for troubleshooting tips!
on 02 Jun 2009 at 8:48 am 113.Paige said …
I just had my phone replaced because I was one of the three people in the world whose iPhone spontaneously CAUGHT FIRE. I did the “stuck on favorites screen” thing and then after multiple attempts with the home/sleep button, I got it back, but had the odd photo of my favorites screen ther as well.
i hope I dont have to go abck tothe Apple store, there was a creepy guy there when I went to get my replacemnment-from-the-fire phone and he was harassing me so much the (Stepfordesque robotic) staff had to call the police!
My iphone has bad vibes.
on 05 Jun 2009 at 8:12 am 114.Tayler said …
My friend Morgan is loveing her phone but the stupid thing wont come off the white screen and when we restart it it goes black and then back to white
on 09 Jun 2009 at 2:27 pm 115.tony said …
my 2g is unlocked, and i just had the same prob you describe in your blog. but when i plugged into itunes it went apple logo for about 15 sec then went black. i pushed the home button and it came up as if it were simply locked and black-screened. now its normal. just thought i would throw the info out incase it helps ANYONE..
thanks for your time with the blog
on 14 Jun 2009 at 12:14 am 116.osamaladen said …
my iphone went white too! Ana (I/ME in Arabic) was so confused and don’t know what to do..
after reading this web, ana push both buttons for 10 seconds and everything is now cool..
you all rock
on 16 Jun 2009 at 4:47 am 117.Tom Brook said …
Well I was worried about my iphone to. I got it aprox. a year ago and recently had the white screen issue. Sometimes it just became whit. After switching of the screen and wait for a few minutes it was ok but then using it the white screen came back again. So I learned here what to do. Thanks. (It seems a software issue not a hardware issue)
on 16 Jun 2009 at 3:14 pm 118.Jenn said …
My has had her 16g iphone for 4 months. First the numbers would not respond when she tried to type in her pass code. Then we did a restart, same thing we could still call her but locked up again. Then we did several hard restarts. Then we gort the WHITE SCREEN…. Tried another hard restart, and got the WHITE SCREEN with a Bell on it. Tried again, now just the WHITE SCREEN.
Plan on calling Apple. What Crap.
on 24 Jun 2009 at 12:37 am 119.Lucy said …
I had the white screen problem, i pressed the home button and the off button and it came back to life, thank you soooo much!:) thought it was a gonner!
on 24 Jun 2009 at 12:04 pm 120.Apple fritter said …
Hi all !
I’ve just had my first white screen on a 3 day old Iphone 3G ‘S’ 32Gb. Unfortunately apple has experienced these hardware problems before, I suspect are using cheap foreign production facilities with little quality control and few properly trained operatives to produce the phones. The problem is due in part to modern solders which no longer contain lead. It is critical that the the printed circuit boards are heated up and cooled down at the correct rates to stop shrinkage and cracking of the solder joints later in the devices life. Apple should know better as they had the same problem with 3G Ibook computers, the graphics chips literally crack off the board. Unfortunately the only reliable cure is replacing the circuit board. This is not something that should be done at home with any electronics as most devices are static sensitive, touching the board will almost certainly cause damage which will cause more failures and problems in the future. Mobile devices which are exposed to temperature changes and vibration are often affected. I have previously had 3 different HTC windows mobiles with no problems (apart from windows) for 3.5 years without any problems………. kinda tells a story doesn’t it ?
Get on the naughty step Apple.
on 26 Jun 2009 at 9:56 am 121.Ryan said …
I had the same problem with my 2nd Gen and got it replaced, when I took it to the Genius Bar they said that it might be a software and/or hardware issue. I did the RESTORE and BACKUP already prior to going into Apple store and I was able to exchange it.
But, now I updated it to the 3GS and after a week it started doing the WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH and did the same thing, BACKUP and RESTORE and it is still doing it. I have an appointment on Sat. to replace it since all their appointment are booked up for Fri. we’ll see what happens, may be they will just replace it again no questions asked.
on 27 Jun 2009 at 4:09 am 122.Nathan Sevugan said …
This happened to me. I bought the phone on 24 Jun 09, 5 days ago - iphone 3GS.
My phone had 50% charge but the apple screen flashed for a sec followed by the dreadful while screen.
Holding the home button and reset button for about 2 times - 10 seconds each fixed it, I hope at least for now.
During the white screen mode my iTune recognized the phone and even sync-ed up with my iphone. I was even able to browse my pictures.
on 29 Jun 2009 at 11:27 pm 123.Brian Peppers said …
I bought my iPhone 3GS 8 days ago and just today I experienced the “White Screen of Death” I was browsing the web when the power in my battery went dead and phone turned off. So then I plugged in my charger and immediately tried to turn on the pkone so that I could continue browsing the web… only to have the phone come on with this damn white screen displaying. I couldn’t turn it off or anything… I didn’t know what to do. Well my phone was ringing from people calling it.. but I was unable to answer it the first few times because the damn screen was all white and I had no idea how to navigate with it in this state. After feeling with my fingers around the touch screen I was able to unlock it based on the sound it made… (I am assuming) lol and was able to answer some of my calls but it was kinda tricky to do so. Needless to say I was very pissed off and figured I’d have to go back to the AT&T store to get it replaced. Well anyways I searched GOOGLE to see if I could find out anything about this white screen of death and came across this site.
I held down the power button along with the Home button for 10 seconds and it worked…. my phone went back to normal. Lucky I found this site and was able to do the steps that so many of you suggested because I was getting ready to throw this phone against the wall out of anger. hahahah