[tommyd]

Good to hear someone has got to the bottom of this. Been unable to use Safari for a few days due to it. I haven't updated any apps for months (I don't trust auto update to not leave my apps in a half downloaded state so I just let them mount up until I eventually download hundreds of updates!) so iOS must periodically check this list automatically rather then just when an app is updated/installed.

The combination of a lack of an official response from Apple yet, the fact that this was apparently found by beta users (not that the issue is related to 9.3 directly, but it was reported as a beta issue by some), and the inability to change default browser leaving my phone in a pretty broken state has got me seriously considering a switch to Android though, where at least such a bug could probably be worked around through changing defaults or worst case flashing a new ROM.

The iOS 9.3 release suggests Apple's QA process is rather lacking and incidents like this won't help confidence in their devices - it's okay for users who know how to work around it and understand what is going on, but my parents would probably think the whole internet was broken!

Rant over, glad to see this on HN as it has been p*ing me off for a few days :)

[bluedino]

>> The iOS 9.3 release suggests Apple's QA process is rather lacking

You can say that again. My battery runs down far more every day than it did before, my email doesn't fetch on schedule or push anymore, and things crash that never crashed before. 9.3 has been a mess so far.

[protomyth]

Here is my weird 9.3 behavior: go to a mail inbox and do the pull-to-refresh and nothing happens. If I go to the page with all the inboxes displayed and do pull-to-refresh, it actually refreshes. Battery is a huge issue for me too.

[tommyd]

Yeah pull to refresh on Mail is dodgy, but it always has been for me. Seems to work on the second or third try...

[ricardobeat]

Same here. I hesitated to upgrade to 9.3 when prompted but went ahead anyway, guess what I'm going to do next time...

It baffles me that Apple let this bug go live when it was reported multiple times during betas. And the impossibility of avoiding the issue by using a different browser only adds to injury.

[fnayr]

Then get ready to have to daily respond to an unwanted popup dialog trying to force you to update. It's infuriating that Apple thinks it's ok to repeatedly harass you to update with NO option to turn off the prompts.

This issue alone has made me want to switch to Android and I'd never thought I would say that.

[Buge]

I'm not sure if Android is any better. My Samsung phone would have an update popup several times a day it seemed like. One day I was in Chrome, about to click on a link and the update poppped up right under my finger causing the phone to update.

[NicoJuicy]

I don't understand why everyone loves Samsung... I always go for a Nexus... Which at least has fast updates and is the best type of Android Phone in my view.

PS. Sony also does a hell of a good job :)

[giovannibajo1]

Updating is vital for the security of your device, and Apple has been repeatedly praised for getting literally hundred of millions of people to timely update their devices.

Sometimes, an update can be broken, and Apple better be fast at fixing it. It doesn't change a thing on the fact that Apple must continue forcing users to update as soon as possible their devices.

[disposeofnick9]

Most people don't connect unpatched devices as easy pickings for fraud and abuse.

I was at the mechanic the other day, and this loud-mouthed boor bragged about never doing updates. The kind of guy whom would surf for porn on iOS 6 Mobile Safari and wonder why his contacts complain about X-rated spam.

For users like that, Apple has to just force people to update without their permission some number of years out because they won't do so willingly. Maybe enterprise-provisioned should have a greater exclusion, but not much more.

Because PEBKAC.

[jlarocco]

The annoying login and update prompts are going to push me to Android faster than anything.

I get prompted to log in to iTunes or iCloud literally 5 or 6 times just opening the Music app, navigating to a playlist, and clicking on a song. It's infuriating.

[globalgoat]

I actually rolled back to 9.2.1 manually but this didn't fix it anyway, which was even more disappointing! Also the restore from backup was sooooo slow over the weekend, presumably because of all the 9.3 downloads, that after 24 hours my 2 gb backup was still stuck on estimating, so in the end I rebuilt from scratch. I'm glad that I have everything backed up elsewhere and not just in iCloud, which is of course the real moral of this story....always have multiple restore options!

[aratob]

I can confirm that the bug also present in IOS 9.2.1, running on an iPad Air 2

[disposeofnick9]

For links not opening, tried pressing harder or turning off/recalibrating 3D Touch?

General > Accessibility > 3D Touch

For folks reverting iOS, it seems like it's probably a preference thing (sans that bookings app.)

[update]

> I actually rolled back to 9.2.1

How? I thought Apple didn't allow that. I'd like to go back to 9.1 if possible

[xeroaura]

Apple leaves the signing window for older versions for usually a week after the newest version drops. Go to a site like https://ipsw.me/ and find your device. If the iOS version in the drop down menu has a green background, you can still restore to that version. You download the ipsw file and hold shift + click restore/upgrade on iTunes to manually target the ipsw you want to downgrade to.

[globalgoat]

I used this link, but same principle as the other reply. http://osxdaily.com/2016/03/22/downgrade-ios-9-3-back-to-ios...

Thing to note is that I didn't have the bug in 9.2.1 so I assume that something else changes within the upgrade process (i'm no iOS expert plainly) whether it be firmware of whatever, which doesn't get downgraded.

I find it somewhat questionable that I can revert to a previous version and still have that the problem the upgrade caused. I'm guessing this is my lack of understanding about mobile devices though. The whole process made me feel rather impotent compared to troubleshooting a PC or similar.

edit: (I should point out that I had to go to a laptop to post this comment, since the reply link still won't work on the iphone!)

[Caballeras]

That's odd I'm not seeing any issues nor any one else I know. I use Safari constantly both on my phone and on my MacBook.

[tommyd]

The current theory according to the article is that booking.com's app downloads a 2.4mb file of links for its "universal links" data (that annoying thing where you get taken to an app rather than a website and you can't disable it without removing the app...) which causes the database to slow down/become corrupt.

Therefore if you've not got booking.com's app installed, you should be okay (for now). Needless to say the fact that a third party app can break such a core OS feature rather shatters iOS's reputation for security above all else...

[MBCook]

Technically it's not insecure (the app doesn't get to set data it shouldn't), it's just a DOS.

Seems odd that they wouldn't test this particular case (or put a predefined limit on it). This seems like exactly the kind of thing someone would do without thinking about it too hard (I'll just write a script and....) and cause an issue.

I'd really like to have more control over the feature anyway. I want to redirect Twitter links to a 3rd party app and turn off these links for Amazon and a few other apps.

[tommyd]

You're right, I guess "stability" is probably more accurate.

At the end of the day, it represents app(s) breaking the phone in very fundamental ways, in spite of the sandboxing iOS enforces (obviously this is a different vector in reality, but from a layman's point of view the end result is the same), in a way more severe than any Android app (which arguably have a reputation of being "less secure") has broken that OS as far as I am aware.

This stability/security was one of the reasons I've stuck with iOS for so long, but this particular issue has forced me to reevaluate my thinking somewhat, as I'm sure it will for many others.

[MBCook]

To me it's just a bug, they'll get it patched. None of my data was at risk. For security I won't worry about it.

Now the inability to click links on my phone would drive me NUTS. Seems to me like a case of 'someone did something crazy, Apple wasn't ready, these things happen'. But I may have had a different tune if it hit me.

There are some annoying bugs I hit from time to time (especially involving CarPlay), but they haven't driven me off yet.

[tommyd]

Yeah, you are right. It's just a particularly annoying bug because: 1. It broke my phone pretty fundamentally, 2. It was a third party app that broke core functionality (in a roundabout way), which shouldn't be possible on iOS, 3. Lack of response from Apple, 4. Such a bug would be much lower impact on Android due to (IMO) silly restrictions on iOS. These factors combined with a lingering slight dissatisfaction with iOS has left me a bit annoyed (but I'll probably forget all about it soon!)

[jasonjei]

I'm not a fan of the app launches from Safari. If I wanted to use their app, I would have opened their app. App launches (especially those opening up the App Store) seem eerily similar to pop up ads of the late 90s.

[eridius]

I believe iOS updates the app associations when either the app is updated, or the OS is updated. If you don't update the OS and don't update the app, it doesn't fetch a new site association, which is why the problem didn't surface until the release of iOS 9.3.

[tommyd]

Interesting, I am fairly certain the problem didn't surface until a few days after installing 9.3 although I could be wrong.

[coldtea]

>I don't trust auto update to not leave my apps in a half downloaded state

Huh? That's never happened to me, for one, and I update as soon as there's an update, ever seens iOS app updates were a thing...

[tommyd]

It's happened to both me and my girlfriend. It's not very common but seems to happen sometimes when software is updating when it has a good signal/wifi and you move into an area of no signal. Having been caught out a couple of times being unable to access important apps because of it (one time being in an unfamiliar area with a half downloaded Google Maps and insufficient signal to download the app again), I just don't risk it any more... Which is a shame as otherwise it makes sense to stay up to date obviously.

I did report this as a bug to Apple, who requested a device log of some kind when it next happens, but it's hard to reproduce manually.

[disposeofnick9]

Probably a practice best to run iOS updates fully charged, plugged into power and over stable Wi-Fi. Also an iCloud backup beforehand and an iTunes full-backup where possible seem like good ideas.

[coldtea]

Hmm, while I do update outside the house/office, e.g. when I'm bored at some place, I never update apps on the move (e.g. in a car, walking etc), so that could be a factor...

[LCDninja]

I had the same problem today - what a mess! Likely good business if you're a browser app vendor. I tried several browsers I'd never heard of - Puffin worked.