I updated my iPhone 7 due to some software I needed to install for work that required iOS 15. (I previously was on iOS 14.) This is a work phone that I've had for years with absolutely no issues. Immediately after the phone rebooted I began have the same severe issues that I have with many other new devices (both LCD and OLED when in comes to phones. I've not been able to use any OLED iPhone).
For me the symptoms are a hard to describe mix of extreme unease - a warmth through the head and face and body, something that feels like dizziness, a brain fog, nausea, strain, and sometimes muscle pain and weird chest feelings - all of which take quite a while to completely go away. These symptoms for me are pretty much immediate with a "bad" device.
I have two other devices (an iPhone SE 2020 and an iPad Pro (1st Gen) 9.7") that are on iOS 15.4. Those are completely fine so I wasn't worried about the update on the iPhone 7. The update last night took the iPhone 7 to iOS 15.8.1 which is the most recent iOS 15 version.
My anxiety is through the roof today because this was one of the last phones I have been able to use. My main phone is an iPhone SE 2022 that is on iOS 16.1.1. I'm haven't updated it because of the issues I've seen online with further versions of iOS.
It seems like later versions of both iOS 15 and iOS 16 render many previously usable Apple products unusable. I know there are people who have similar issues so I put together a summary of LCD iOS products that I have access to. I've included the iOS. Maybe other people could add to this and we could potentially track down with Apple exactly when/what changed.
For iOS 15 it looks like something changed in a version between 15.4 and 15.8.1
For iOS 16 it looks like something changed in a version between 16.1.1 and 16.3.1
The only silver lining I see here is at least for these Apple LCDs it's clearly not the actual physical device/screen causing the issues. For all of the "bad" devices below they were all perfectly usable at one point before something happened in an update. Previously it had seemed that I was fine with anything before Apple moved to "Liquid Retina". Now that isn't the case Being that this is a software change I feel like there has to be some way to turn off whatever is happening.
Has anyone been able to talk to Apple about potential causes for this? I sent a message to Apple Accessibility but haven't received much of an answer other than they would forward it to the appropriate people. Not sure if that is the best place to make contact with Apple.
Bad Devices - (Cause Immediate Symptoms)
| iOS Version |
iPad 6th Gen | 16.3.1 |
iPad Pro 1st Gen (9.7 inch) | 16.6.1 |
iPad 9th Gen | 17.0.1 |
iPhone 7 | 15.8.1 |
Good Devices - (No Symptoms and can use indefinitely)
| iOS Version |
iPhone SE 2022 | 16.1.1 |
iPhone SE 2020 | 15.4 |
iPhone SE 2020 | 13.7 |
iPad Pro 1st Gen (9.7 inch) | 15.4 |
iPhone 7 | 13.5.1 |
iPhone 6 | 11.0.3 |
I'm at a complete loss as to what to do at this point. I no longer have a usable work phone which is a big problem for me right now. I'm hoping narrowing down when the change happened might help in asking Apple for an accessibility solution. I've seen plenty of posts about "don't update to iOS 15, 16, 17 etc." but I think sometimes what is happened is people are jumping from a "good" version of the iOS generation to the next generation and assuming change happened with the generation change. Based on what I've found here is looks like the switch actually happened mid generation.