iOS 9.3 Link Glitch Is Ruining Some iPhones

There are a few good reasons to update to the newest version of iOS. (A great sleep-boosting feature is one of them.) But there’s a more compelling reason to hold off for now.

Some users who update to iOS 9.3 are finding that they can’t interact with links in many apps anymore, which is a major inconvenience. 

While we’ve updated to iOS 9.3 on an iPhone 6S without issue, we did experience the problem on a regular iPhone 6. Links in Apple’s Messages app, the Safari browser and the basic Mail app do nothing when tapped following the update. Restarting the phone doesn’t fix the problem, and apps appear to be freezing and crashing more than normal.

Many users are experiencing problems like this following the iOS 9.3 update, The Next Web noted Sunday. It’s not clear why the issue affects some devices and not others. 

Apple did not respond to requests for comment from The Huffington Post. But a HuffPost employee experiencing the glitch on a personal device talked to Apple tech support and was told that a fix should be coming in the next few days. Until that happens, you’d probably be wise to avoid updating your iPhone or iPad.

That’s kind of a shame — it’s usually best to update your smartphone’s software when you can, because those updates bring new features and security fixes. Holding off on updating your iPhone can lead to problems, as apps will eventually require the latest version of iOS to function. If you’re too far behind the update cycle when that happens, updating can be a miserable, lengthy affair.

Of course, that’s not to say it’s a great system. Updates are partially to blame for your phone slowing down after a couple of years, which helps steer you toward buying an entirely new device. And, as we’re seeing now, these updates sometimes contain flaws that need to be patched up later.

The best practice? Update your phone, but not right away: Give everyone else a week or two to test the new version out so you can avoid glitches like this one.