Apple released a new test version of their iPhone software called iOS 17.3 beta 2 on Wednesday. But soon after, they had to cancel it. A number of people said their iPhones could no longer start up properly after installing the update.
Many iPhone users posted on Twitter to say their phones were stuck in an endless restarting loop. This is called being “bricked”, where the phone is useless until it’s fixed. It happened to iPhones ranging from recent models like the iPhone 12 to the iPhone 15 series.
Apple quickly took the new test version away. They said a small number of phones could not turn on at all after installing it. If this happens to your phone, you need to put it in a special recovery mode. Then return it to the previous test version of iOS 17.3 beta 1 or the regular iOS 17.2.1 version.
This would hopefully fix the phone starting up again. But you would lose all your data unless you had a backup saved from before. The backup could help restore all your photos, apps and settings after fixing the phone.
Reports say the issue may be related to a feature called Back Tap. This lets you do things by tapping the back of your iPhone. Some phones got stuck only if they had this feature turned off. But others still got stuck even with Back Tap on. So it’s not clear exactly what was causing the boot looping problem yet.
Apple will likely release a fixed version of iOS 17.3 beta 2 once they find and repair the glitch. In the meantime, it’s best not to install any new iPhone test versions until more testing is done to avoid your phone getting bricked.
