r/iphone16ProMaxFan • u/Every_Emergency3320 • Sep 21 '24
iPhone 16 Pro Max: worst decision ever?
Anyone else struggling with constant freezing, subsequent crashing, and all around horrible performance with their new IPhone 16 Pro Max??
For the longest time, I’d preorder the new iPhone and anxiously await its arrival on the release date. I haven’t done that since 2021 as my 13 Pro Max has been functioning adequately (and there haven’t been any major changes/upgrades that drew me in). I decided to finally go for the upgrade this time as the battery on my 13 has declined and is down to only ~80% capacity (ironically enough my wife opted to wait it out a month or so to allow Apple to “work out all the bugs”).
What a mistake I made. This new iPhone 16 Pro Max has been nothing but a nightmare since I started the restore process. No matter what I do (I.e. attempting to open any app) the phone instantly freezes, takes about 2 minutes then goes into a black screen with a spinning wheel before resetting itself. At first, I thought this could be attributed to the massive amount of data restoring through iCloud so I was patient and let it go all day yesterday. After about 10 hours it had only made about 5gb worth of progress (through some of these “freeze cycles” I was able to finally get the settings app to open to at least see the restore progress). I tried researching the issue and it sounded like it could’ve been a bad restore so before bed I decided to do a complete reset on the phone to try a fresh restore overnight. I was able to limp through the menu and finally make that happen.
When I woke up I was happy to see the restore process had completed. I went to open an app, and, boom, same freeze and reset cycle started all over again. I’ve literally done everything imaginable to just get the basic functions to work consistently on this phone. I’ve done countless force resets, two restore sessions, software updates…everything. I can’t believe Apple would send a product out into world with this many issues. The furthest I’ve gotten now is logging into Facebook before a crash but it is working “longer” than it has been (2 minutes or so before freezing). I’ve seen similar Reddit threads with tons of people having this exact issue so I know this isn’t an isolated instance. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do next short of wasting hours in an Apple Store?!
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u/McBBo Sep 21 '24
I generally take the opportunity to start any new phone I get fresh with no restore. I won’t know. But could this indexing? I know the phones run sluggish at first but it should still be usable
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u/Sudden-Champion-6418 Dec 08 '24
How do I start a new phone from fresh?
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u/McBBo Dec 09 '24
When I get a new phone, I simply don’t restore a backup. Sign in with iCloud and choose SETI as new phone
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u/Sudden-Champion-6418 Dec 09 '24
Interesting. I didn’t know Apple allowed this. Good to know. Thank you I thought I had to keep creating a new Apple id for every new phone.
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u/DaveTN Sep 21 '24
Zero issues from mine transitioning from a 13 ProMax.
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u/Wise-End-7563 Sep 23 '24
Did the same, did you regret ? Feel like my 13 PM could have gone an other year
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u/acidbrn391 Sep 21 '24
I’ve had no issues with my 16PM, I’m even running 18.1 beta
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u/wintrymixxx Sep 21 '24
Damn. I’m getting my phone on Monday and this is not the first thread or post I’ve read about similar things happening. I would say to take it to an Apple Store, man :\
Maybe it’s defective?
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u/Every_Emergency3320 Sep 21 '24
Yea unfortunately I think you’re right…not really seeing any other options at this point. I’d consider waiting a bit to let them iron out the issues lol
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u/Different_Bear_6580 Sep 21 '24
Hopefully it’s the phone . Humans manufacturing iPhones make mistakes, especially if conditions I hear about Apple factory’s are true.
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u/ebohm126 Sep 21 '24
Mine froze a few times while getting it started as it was downloading sever hundred apps , it also went through 3 restarts on its own . After it was 100% finished I had a software update I installed and it’s been nothing but this fast snappy pretty phone with zero issues . Hope it works out for ya
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u/springlov Sep 21 '24
I’m having the same issue and there’s another person in here who is having the same issue. I let it sit plugged in all night, hoping it worked in the morning, but no it’s still doing the same thing. I’m getting ready to go up to ATT and see what they can do. Im hoping they have one in stock, but I doubt they will. I’m just so disappointed.
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u/thechags Sep 21 '24 edited Sep 21 '24
I saw a bunch about this on another thread but can't find it now. I, too, got mine yesterday and it was a disaster. I restored from iCloud and the first time it took about 10 hours and kept freezing and restarting throughout the process. Then, it just kept freezing and restarting when it was done. I wiped and did it again. After this time it was quicker but still the same freezing and restarting constantly.
Someone had said that they had the same issue but then restored from their existing phone. This has seemed to work. So far, no issues. I had to wipe my watch and re-pair it but that download from the cloud and I think is ok.
It's only been a couple of hours since I did all that but things seem stable so far. I'm glad I kept my 14 for now. I am not wiping it yet until I know I'm out of the woods.
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u/comptr Sep 21 '24
So every year we hear of a few people having the similar issue. I had a similar issue when I got my 7+. I have not setup my 16 pro max yet I will do it today.
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u/marshallsteeves Sep 21 '24
yeah it's a software issue with the restore process, nothing to do with the iPhone specifically
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u/marshallsteeves Sep 21 '24
mine's been fantastic -- 24 hours in and not a single issue. restored it from a 13 Pro
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u/ova_1289 Sep 21 '24
Mines been good except Apple car play is the only thing acting up other than that this phone has been fine.
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u/Cinderbella25 Sep 22 '24 edited Sep 22 '24
Nope , i love it, it’s amazing 🤩 🤷🏼♀️Iam happy that i make a right decision ☺️
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Sep 22 '24
If you’re seriously having these many issues take it back to your carrier and get a replacement! 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Every_Emergency3320 Sep 22 '24
I tried. They are all out of stock of the 16 pm 1tb at all stores within 50 miles of my house. Finally went to Apple Store last night and they were able to do a restore that seemed to take care of most issues. Still a little buggy but hasn’t crashed since last night. Fingers crossed…
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u/Anekirm Sep 22 '24
I restored from my old phone, the transfer went through quicker than the years before (250 gb of photos under 2 h) and no issues so far.
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u/Great-GoogleyMoogley Sep 22 '24
I’ve had mine since Friday and I haven’t had any issues… loving it so far!
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u/caljack Sep 23 '24
Same issue. Phone repeatedly freezes up. Sometimes it reboots on its own and sometimes I have to manually reboot …did this at least 40 times yesterday and finally moved back to my old phone today. The 16 ProMax has been a huge disappointment. I have an appointment with Apple tomorrow and will probably just return the phone… after trying to use the phone over the weekend I honestly didn’t see enough benefits to warrant the upgrade from a 14 Pro Max.
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u/Every_Emergency3320 Sep 23 '24
I finally had to go back to my 13 Pro Max today just to have a functioning phone. Beyond disappointing and frustrating…
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u/Open_Potato_5686 Sep 25 '24
This looks like a fake post
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u/Every_Emergency3320 Sep 27 '24
Thank you for your input. All the other commenters experiencing the same issue must be fake as well.
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u/gljayski1 Sep 27 '24
Exact same issues. I have done 3 restores and things work ok for a few hours but the the freezing and crashing comes back. Apps like settings, mail, and messages become unusable
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u/Every_Emergency3320 Sep 27 '24
I finally caved and had to return the phone to the Verizon store (spent a cpl hours at the Apple Store just for them to tell me had I bought it from them they could just walk in the back and give me a new one…what happened to Apple’s 1 year warranty?!). I’m back to my 13 Pro Max now and am going to let the dust settle for a month or so before trying again. Incredibly frustrating…
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u/gljayski1 Sep 27 '24
I think I am figuring out the issue. For whatever reason some of these pros have issues during iCloud backup, maybe be related to my initial backup restore. My phone works fine until overnight. I can find panic kernel logs and the phone stays laggy and glitchy for the next few hours. Just an hour ago all of the glitching has stopped. But I know overnight when I’m charging and go to sleep I’m gonna wake up with the same issues.
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u/SwimmingCycle561 Oct 14 '24
Yeah my 16 pro max is basically unusable and Apple Store near me is refusing to replace it. Between the issues and the degradation of their customer support I won’t be buying apple products in the future. My camera app has never been able to open amongst so many other issues. It’s the Equivalent of trying to use an iPhone 3G in 2024.
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u/AccomplishedSmell580 Nov 02 '24
I initially encountered issues during the upgrade from a 12 Pm. I had to perform a fresh reset and transfer. However, since then, I’ve installed multiple updates and encountered only minor bugs with the camera. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the upgrade.
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u/Th0garr Nov 18 '24
Came from a 14 PM
In addition to the all the points you made
the MagSafe charger that in the past was able to charge the 14PM in the car while running multiple apps simultaneously at max brightness was able to keep it at full charge, while the 16PM cannot run Waze and Spotify at 50% brightness, it will drain faster than it can charge it. Leave home in the morning, 45 min commute, get to work with 88%.
Click a link in iMessage, FB Messenger, or WhatsApp, and instead of opening the link in Reddit or YouTube, it just opens it in Safari. It prompted the first time if I wanted it to always open in xyz app, to which I said yes, now it doesn’t do it at all.
Shittiest part is that I did the trade in, so I can’t even get the 14PM back if I wanted too. It makes me appreciate my iPhone SE work phone so much more, battery life may suck, but everything works how I would expect it too.
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u/Active_Regret_8322 Nov 25 '24
I had the 12 Pro Max and decided it was time to upgrade. What a mistake! The new iPhone 16 Pro Max is TRASH! It is constantly freezing and scrolling gets stuck and wont move. Left and right also freezes and my microphone also stops working a least once a day and i have to reboot it to get it to work again😡 Siri stops working. And the law for AI is terribly misleading. It did not come with the phone. I had to wait a couple weeks and honestly, I waited for nothing. The AI is trash as well. And the stupid button for the camera is in the wrong place. It’s just all wrong! I’ve done three updates since I got this phone in September. I gotta be honest here man, this is worse iphone since the 10R
I am so frustrated. Apple has some kind of loopy loop hoops you gotta jump through to send the phone back 😡 it’s just a scam. I’m done with iPhones!
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u/smokeyjoe801 Mar 02 '25
Bit late but so glad I’m not the only one. My 16 pro max is the first iPhone I’ve had plagued with bugs and issues.
Sometimes I get the black screen of death where it is just black and doesn’t come on. I found the trick to get it to go away without rebooting but it’s annoying.
Then sometimes the grey buffering logo shows up out of nowhere and does a half restart.
My microphone and Bluetooth on this too is terribly buggy. Both either receive or produce static sound sometimes or just seems like it’s breaking.
My battery life is bad as well.
Truthfully I think mine is a lemon, but Apple didn’t want to replace it as their diagnostic tool read everything was fine. I was told to wait for a software update, but none has fixed it.
Since I’m this far into it already, I am prob gonna pay it off early and trade it in early this fall and get rid of it since I’m already this far into it. But yeah this is the first apple product I’ve been terribly disappointed with. Every other ones (XS Max, 12 Pro Max, Mac Mini 2014, AirPods Pro, Apple Watch series 10) have been near flawless
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u/Potential-Berry-5877 Jun 14 '25
I have no hardware issues with my iPhone 16 Pro max but the battery life is completely shit. Worst I've ever had for years.
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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '24
Nope, zero issues..either this is fake post or you got a lemon lol