gadget & iphone & technology rob on 27 Jul 2008 09:13 am
iPhone White Screen / Sleep State Problem
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.
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