Common iOS 7 Problems and Their Fixes

All the new software bring  different kinds of problems with them and the Apple iOS 7 is no exception. While there are a lot of people who have successfully been able to update the software, there is a large group of people who have also faced small malfunctions and few major issues. We will talk about few of the common issues faced by the users of iOS 7 and discuss some simple tips to resolve the problems.

Read also- Common iOS 9 problems and their fixes

List of problems and their fixes

Stuck on the Apple Logo

If the software fails to update successfully then you might face problem to start up the device, usually, what happens is that while restarting the device after the update it gets stuck on a blank screen or the Apple Logo.

Fixes:

The possible solution to this is connecting to iTunes and trying the DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) Mode using the following steps below.

  • Turn off your device by pressing the Sleep button
  • Open iTunes on your PC or laptop and connect your device
  • Hold the Sleep/Wake and the Home buttons together for a few seconds, and then let go of the Sleep/Wake button.
  • Continue to hold the Home button till you see a message on iTunes saying “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes.”
  • Your iPhone screen must be blank; if you see an Apple logo or any other message then you are not in DFU mode.
  • Select iPhone in the left column of iTunes and click to select Summary now Restore.
  • You might have to install the iOS 7 update again.

Rapid Battery Drain

Users are finding their iPhone to drain more battery after the upgrade to iOS 7. Let us take a look at some of fixes which can help you save your battery life.

Fixes:

  • Try disabling the parallax effect that gives your home screen that 3D look, go to Setting > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion.

    Image source - www.copytrans.net

    Image source – www.copytrans.net

  • Turn off those apps running in the background by turning off the app refresh for some of your apps by going to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
  • Toggle off the AirDrop by swiping up from the bottom of the screen of your device and selecting the Control Center.
  • Toggle off any applications that you don’t want to include, go to Settings > Notification Center.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth not Working

Many users have found that the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions are not working properly after they upgraded to iOS 7. They appeared to be greyed out in Settings and won’t toggle on or appear to toggle on, but turn off again immediately.

Fixes:

  • You should try and reboot your device and your router.
  • Many people have had the bug fixed by removing an apostrophe from the iPhone name. If your iPhone is named something like “Peter’s iPhone” then this might work for you. All you need to do is go to Settings > General > About > Name and change it to a name with no apostrophe.
  • Many people have succeeded when they turned off the Airplane mode ON and then going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
  • You could also try disabling Access on the Lock Screen. Go to Settings > Control Center and disable Access on Lock Screen, now switch off your iPhone and turn it on again.
  • Check if your router firmware is updated.
  • Try to back up your iPhone data and then restore it.
  • If nothing seems to work for you, get in touch with Apple or take your iPhone to a nearest Apple Store.

Keyboard Lag

This is a problem for most iPhone 4 owners; however there are other users of different iPhone models who have complained about this problem. They have complained about lag with iOS 7 in general, with some grave delays when typing on the virtual keyboard of the device.

Fixes:

  • There might be a lot of data storage in the form of messages which might be making it heavy for the processor to work especially after the upgrade to iOS 7. Documents and data are the messages on your phone. Go to Settings > General > Usage to check which app uses the most space. Messages will be the biggest space absorbers. Go to your messages, take snapshots of the pictures and messages you want to keep and delete the rest of the messages. Now connect your phone to your PC and copy them. Now go to Settings > iCloud and turn Documents & Data off.

    Image source - 9to5mac.com

    Image source – 9to5mac.com

iTunes Keeps Crashing

Users have found iTunes Store App to crash whenever they try to open it.

Fixes:

  • Click to open the Music app and click on Store in the upper left corner. You should find the app now working.
  • Double click the Home button on your device to open multitasking menu. Close iTunes Store if it is listed below. Now go to Settings > iTunes > App Store and click on your Apple ID and select Sign Out. Now Sign in again and open the iTunes Store app. This should fix the bug.

FaceTime or iMessage Not Working

After the iOS7 upgrade many users encountered problems while sending text messages on iMessage, others couldn’t activate it. Others complained of that their calls on FaceTime were failing.

Fixes:

  • Turn off FaceTime or iMessage off and then turn them on again from the toggles in Settings.
  • Turn off the Cellular Data in Settings > Cellular and make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi, now go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. You will have to set up your network connection again, but iMessage and FaceTime should now work.
  • If nothing else has worked then back up your device data and try to restore it.

Frozen Screen

Some users have complained about their screen freezing after the iOS 7 update.

Fixes:

  • Hold the Sleep/Wake and the Home Buttons together till you see the Apple logo.
  • Try resetting your phone, before that you should consider taking a backup of your phone. Now go to Settings > General > Reset >Erase all Content and Settings, it might prompt you for a password. This will erase all your settings but the problem might be fixed.

Apps Keep Logging Out

Users have run into issues with apps like Snapchat and Mailbox logging them out. This might be a problem in the iOS 7, the way its background refresh works.

Fixes:

  • You can go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn it off for any apps with which you have issues.

    Image source - sanziro.com

    Image source – sanziro.com

  • This could also be the problem of the app, you should check for an update for the app. If your app is updated you would have to wait for some time till the developer comes out with a new upgrade.

Unread Mails

Many users found that they had hundreds and sometimes thousands of unread emails after updating to iOS 7. The problem seemed to be common for Gmail users, but it could happen for other email accounts.

Fixes:

  • Go to your email account on your PC or laptop and select all your emails and select Mark as Read. Now go back to your Phone and the count should be reduced drastically. It may be faster to select all, select Mark as Unread and then select all again and click Mark as Read.
  • You can also select Edit > Mark All > Mark as Read on your iPhone, but for this solution to work, you will have to download all your emails to the iPhone first and then proceed with the fix, this could take some time.

iPhone Won’t Turn On

Some people complained that their iPhone did not turn on after the iOS 7 upgrade and plugging it to its charger did not seem to have any effect and in some cases, the device was not recognized while connecting it to a computer and connecting to iTunes.

Fixes:

  • Please make sure that you use an Apple cable only. Apple is working on blocking third-party chargers and cables by adding an authenticator chip in its official cables.
  • Try holding the Sleep/Wake and the Home buttons together for a few seconds.
  • Charge your phone for a couple of hours before you try the Sleep/Wake and Home button again.
  • Try DFU mode, we spoke about it earlier in the problem when the Apple logo was stuck.
  • If none of these steps work for you then you should contact Apple or take your phone to the nearest Apple Store.

Motion Sickness

A lot of users have reported motion sickness after the new iOS 7 upgrade. The bright icons, parallax effect, and the zooming transitions might cause dizziness or nausea. There are a few fixes you can try to reduce the problem.

Fixes:

  • You can go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion.
  • Make sure that you are using static wallpaper and not 3D wallpaper, go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and now choose from Stills or use one of your own photos you would like as wallpaper.
  • There is a possibility that larger text will help fix this problem. You can go to Settings > General > Text Size and increase the font size.
  • You can also reduce the transparency of your device by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase Contrast and reduce the transparency of your phone.

Speakers Not Working

Some users have reported problems with the speakers of their Apple devices after the iOS 7 upgrade. Sometimes they do not get any audio from the speaker, sometimes the audio is gone only while playing media and sometimes it was not working with headphones either. There are a couple of possible solutions which you could try.

Fixes:

  • If you seem to have a problem with your iPad, try toggling the side switch. You can also check going to Settings > General > Use Side Switch and check if it is muted.

    Source - www.igeeksblog.com

    Source – www.igeeksblog.com

  • Look under Settings > General > Accessibility > Mono Audio and make sure it is off.
  • Hold the Sleep/Wake and the Home buttons and reboot your phone.
  • Restoring your phone could solve the problem.
  • If you find that your headphones are working then there could be a problem with the port of your phone. Try brushing it gently or use compressed air to clean it.

Media Controls are Not Working

Many users have found their media controls in the Control Center and on the Lock Screen not working after the iOS 7 upgrade. Luckily there is easy solution to this:

Fixes:

  • A soft reset should solve this problem, you can hold the Sleep/Wake button till the red “slide to power off” appears and slide it. Once the device is off, simply turn it on till you see the Apple Logo.

Receiving Someone Else’s Messages or Contacts

You may see that after updating your phone to iOS 7 you might end up syncing contacts, or even receive messages that belong to one of your family members. Probably because you are using the same Apple ID. Your best option would be to create a new Apple ID for you (you will still be able to share an iTunes account).

  • You can go to Settings > Messages > Send and Receive and you can select any number or email that you don’t want to be share your messages with. You can also change your Apple ID here.
  • For the problem in contact is probably because you are sharing iCloud. Go to Settings > iCloud and choose Delete Account and Keep on My iPhone. Now use your new Apple ID and set up a new iCloud account just for your device.

Cannot Send Any Text Messages

Some people have reported problems with sending text messages after the upgrade of iOS 7 on their phones.

Fixes:

  • If the issue is in the iMessage then it may be because iOS 7 turns the send as SMS option off by default. You need to go to Settings > Messages and turn Send as SMS On.

    source - www.howtogeek.com

    source – www.howtogeek.com

  • You can try the steps mentioned under the Bug: iMessage or FaceTime not working.
  • If the problem is with sending texts to phones other than iPhones, it could be because the receiver is still registered with Apple, or has another Apple device. It may be worth checking if they owned an iPhone earlier that they never unregistered, or if they used their SIM in an iPhone device in the past.

Cannot Download App Updates

Many users found they couldn’t download any app updates after the installation of iOS 7. There could be many apps that show updates are available, but they don’t start updating. You could try the below solutions.

Fixes:

  • Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store and click on your Apple ID and select Sign Out. Double click the Home button and swipe up to close any problematic apps that are running, now reboot the iPhone and sign back in to iTunes to try the update again.
  • If this doesn’t work go to Settings > General > Usage and select the problem apps and delete them. Reboot your phone and download them again.

Camera Not Working

Some users reported that the main camera of their phone kept freezing or refused to load; they just got a black screen. Others are complained that the front-facing camera was extremely blurry. This could be because of an app or it could be a hardware failure. Here’s what you can do.

Fixes:

  • Close the camera, double click Home button and swipe the camera app up to close it, now reboot your device and try opening the camera app again.
  • Now go to Settings > General > Restrictions and check if the Allow Camera is on.
  • If an app is the cause of problem then removing the app might help fix your camera. Delete third-party apps one at a time and then reboot the iPhone and now test the camera.

Home or Sleep/Wake Button Not Responding

Some iPhone users have found that their device’s Home button and their Sleep/Wake button or both are not responsive after the iOS 7 upgrade. It took them several button presses to register and the fault worked perfectly sometimes then refused to respond. Here are some of the possible repairs.

Fixes:

  • You can go to Settings > General > Accessibility and toggle Switch Control on and off again.
  • Back up your device with iCloud and try to restore it.
  • You can try visiting an Apple Store if nothing seems to work.

The Ringer Volume is Too Slow

Many users reported that the ringer volume of their device was much lower after they updated to iOS 7 and that caused them to miss their incoming calls. There are a few things that seem to have worked for some people.

Fixes:

  • Create a ringtone of your own using a song and try cranking the volume up.
  • You can go to Settings > Sounds and then toggle Change with Buttons, then try using your volume rocker.
  • Go to Settings > Music and turn Sound Check off.

    Source - iosguides.net

    Source – iosguides.net

iOS 7 is loaded with features and a few bugs shouldn’t discourage you from upgrading as we already have fixes for you. If nothing seems to work get in touch with Apple or visit the nearest Apple Store.

You may also read- iOS 8 problems and their solutions

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