Update 2: Fixed in iOS 9.3.1
Update: Apple has confirmed the bug and is working on a fix for a 9.3.1 release.
My Safari on iOS 9.2.1 (update: and now 9.3) won’t open most links anymore, i.e. tapping on a link on a page does not do anything. Worse, other apps like Messages, Chrome are having issues when they try to open URL/Links.
The common issue is pauses when tapping links and even Mobile Safari tap and hold (to get the app open a link in a new tab), the device freezes and eventually crashes.
- Looking at the html source for the links causing issues, it seems all scheme absolute links are affected (e.g.
http://example.com/something
), while relative links work (e.g./some/page.html
). - This makes me think third party registration of URL handlers (or what they are called) is related to the bug
- All apps that can open links, such as Mail or Spark, are affected. Tapping a link freezes the device. Tap & hold and then selecting copy link, switch to Safari or Chrome and paste URL sometimes helps/works.
- It happens mostly on Google and DuckDuckGo result pages. On some other pages it works.
I tried things to rule out a simple setting error:
- disable all content blockers
- delete website data from Safari (in preferences app)
- kill all apps, restart iOS.
- Tried Chrome, and it doesn't work there on simple taps, but tap and hold works, and I can open them in a new tab at least.
My conclusion is that this bug relates to iOS 9.2 and third party app updates triggering bad behavior, I saw constant crashes of the swdc
process in my iPhone logs and I reported a bug with Apple. Suspect apps include:
- Wikipedia
- Booking.com
Is there a way to list these apps that change link handling so I can selectively uninstall them?
Best Answer
Update to iOS 9.3.1 or later to fix this specific issue.
Details of iOS 9 updates are posted at https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1842
If you want to try to fix this before Apple patches the bug, here are some steps to try:
The latter is a bit longer and more humorous and has some nice photos to look at while you do the prescribed dance. The former link is shorter and more to the point.
Both require the device to be put in AirPlane mode and connected to a computer to resolve the data corruption caused by some apps and iOS not handling the app configurations in a robust manner.
There's a lot of evidence that Safari is in fact having a lot of trouble for some people. I haven't seen a device with issues, but if I did I would do two things to help narrow down the possibilities:
Now - I would recommend anyone contact AppleCare if they can - sooner rather than later as Apple's paid support will a) know how to use these logs and get them to engineering b) know if/when a fix is out c) allocate resources to nail this down based on support costs and volume.
I believe someone has isolated one third party app that is causing Safari on iOS 9.3 to behave badly:
If you have that specific app, you might consider deleting it and then waiting a bit (10 to 15 minutes) to see if this resoles your issue. If this is in fact the case, my suspicion is that Apple can work with developers to fix this or release a patch.
If not - you might need to keep track of and troubleshoot the following items:
cfgutil syslog
and Apple Configurator 2's automation tools.