Safari won't open some links iOS 9.3 on iPhone 6

Sad Professor

Users on 9.2.1 reporting the same issue, so it seems it may not be 9.3 related. May be something on Apple's end.

9to5Mac claim installing the booking.com app may cause it. I dunno, I'm bit sceptical that an app is the root of this.

CaraMay

12Phase wrote: »

Update any apps recently ?

Pinterest yesterday but did upgrade after that

JeffKenna

Guys,

A short term fix for this is if you go into the safari app settings and switch JavaScript off. It works away for me now all be it in a slightly different format.

12Phase

I had tried that and it didn't work.

You could try deleting and checking each app one by one.

damo86

Ended up doing a fresh install instead and its all seems to be working, gonna start installing apps again slowly and checking at the same time. Don't have time for this crap lol.

I do think its related to an app update. My apps are not on auto-update and I upgraded to 9.3 Thursday night. Got home on Friday and did a mass update before I went to bed. It was Saturday morning that I noticed it had gone all tits.

12Phase

Sad Professor wrote: »

Users on 9.2.1 reporting the same issue, so it seems it may not be 9.3 related. May be something on Apple's end.

9to5Mac claim installing the booking.com app may cause it. I dunno, I'm bit sceptical that an app is the root of this.

I had Booking.com on mine ...

Still shouldn't be able to happen.

It's not installed on my new one.

Sad Professor

Whatever you do don't reinstall it. Seems deleting the app won't fix it once the damage is done.

How it happens I don't know. Obviously JavaScript related.

CaraMay

So what happens next then? Mine is working better but not perfectly

Simply Red

This problem started for me today, iphone 6 plus

12Phase

Could be an app erroneously marking itself as the agent for all URL requests of a particular type or something.

12Phase

http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/27/some-users-reporting-iphone-crashes-on-ios-9-3-when-tapping-links-in-safari-and-other-apps/

Seems they've got the Booking.com thing mentioned there.

2011

I downloaded the Booking.com app for the first time yesterday.
I now have exactly the same issue

12Phase

Can you report this to Apple asap

Zcott

I had the booking.com app installed and only just started having this issue on my iPad. Removing the app and restarting doesn't fix the issue.

Edit: happens in particular trying to click on google search results or in links from mail. Also happens with Bing.com.

podge018

6s here and same problem, links from mail app, whatsapp, Facebook, chrome, Safari. Links from Twitter work though, weirdly.

Having murder with apple support, they're really bad.

slickmcvic

Convinced iOS 9.3 is put out to sabotage the iPhone 6.
Since updating I've encountered numerous instances of screen-freeze,app crashes(Never had screen replaced)& now photos won't save after taking them, over 7GB free storage as well.
Anyone else encounter these issues?!

podge018

I was having this problem so updated to 9.3 thinking it might fix it but it hasn't.

7upfree

6S+ here. All good.

CaraMay

Talked to apple and they said it's a world wide issue. The said to turn off Th java script which I had done and to reboot the phone. It hasn't improved matters so they said to wait for the fix which is coming in a few days

2011

12Phase wrote: »

Can you report this to Apple asap

I am sure that hey are well aware of it.

It is all over the internet:

We have been able to take an unaffected iPhone 6 and iPad Pro, install the Booking.com app, and then observe Safari consistently hanging when long pressing a link.

Sad Professor

So it isn't a 9.3 issue but rather an issue with iOS's shared links functionality which was introduced in 9.0. Shared links allows links from certain websites (e.g Twitter, Facebook) to open in that website's app instead of in Safari.

However it seems booking.com have a comically large association file over 2.3 MB containing a link to every page on their website instead of just the url of their domain. This corrupts iOS's Shared Web Credentials daemon causing the freezing issues people have been experiencing.

On one hand this is an example of idiotic third party app development, but obviously one which shouldn't be allowed cripple the OS. I can see how this might have been overlooked though.

Anyway it seems the only full and permanent solution is a clean "set up as new phone" install. Or wait for Apple's fix which I'd imagine will be out by tomorrow or the next day.

wolfyboy555

any news on this? Was hoping to see an update today but nothing so far. Extremely annoying bug.

Sad Professor

Did you try the workaround?

https://bencollier.net/2016/03/how-to-fix-ios-9-3s-broken-safari-links/

Creamy Goodness

Wikipedia was also an offender, I'd imagine they and booking.com aren't the only ones. Silly they didn't use regexes in their app association files, but something app review should have caught imo.

JeffKenna

New update message appeared on my phone...does anyone want to go first lol

northdubgal

JeffKenna wrote: »

New update message appeared on my phone...does anyone want to go first lol

No update available here

Sad Professor

JeffKenna wrote: »

New update message appeared on my phone...does anyone want to go first lol

The fix for the links issue isn't out yet. What you are seeing is probably the updated build of 9.3 for older devices affected by the activation bug. If you weren't affected there's really no need to install it, just wait for the next update.

And in any case, this freezing links issue actually predates iOS 9.3 and seems to have existed since iOS 9.0. It was just coincidence that everyone got hit by it after updating to 9.3

JeffKenna

Sad Professor wrote: »

The fix for the links issue isn't out yet. What you are seeing is probably the updated build of 9.3 for older devices affected by the activation bug. If you weren't affected there's really no need to install it, just wait for the next update.

And in any case, this freezing links issue actually predates iOS 9.3 and seems to have existed since iOS 9.0. It was just coincidence that everyone got hit by it after updating to 9.3

Yep when I look at it now it's ios 9.3 download and I'm on an I phone 5 so that makes sense. I was effected so I presume I'm better off to download it?

Zcott

JeffKenna wrote: »

Yep when I look at it now it's ios 9.3 download and I'm on an I phone 5 so that makes sense. I was effected so I presume I'm better off to download it?

Yes, but that could be related to the activation issue for older devices. Update anyway.

12Phase

JeffKenna wrote: »

Yep when I look at it now it's ios 9.3 download and I'm on an I phone 5 so that makes sense. I was effected so I presume I'm better off to download it?

If I were you I would wait until they issue another update. There must be one due very soon as that issue has been huge.

The problem is rumoured to be an issue with a specific app though. So they could approach it by withdrawing the app. Apple (and Google on Android) have an ability to activate a "kill switch" for apps sold through their stores.