iPhone 8 randomly freezing or rebooting? You could be owed a free repair

Apple has admitted that a “small percentage” of iPhone 8 handsets contain defective hardware that could prevent the phone from turning on, or cause it to randomly freeze or restart. If that sounds like you, then the company will repair your phone for free. 

The Inquirer reports that the fault originates in the phone’s logic board, which is the central PCB that acts as the phone’s technological backbone.

Apple’s page describes the replacement program which will address the problem. Apparently, defective iPhone 8 (not Plus) devices were sold between September 2017 and March 2018 across mainly Asian Pacific countries and the US. Apple does not list the UK as one of the countries affected.

You can use the page to enter your phone’s serial number to see if it’s one of the device’s affected, and if it is then you should book a repair with an Apple Store or authorized service provider.

Of course, depending on where you bought your handset, it should still be under its standard one year warranty. However, hopefully this repair program will still be available in the future as the iPhone 8 moves into its second year on store shelves.

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What to do if you’re not one of the ones affected

If you’re experiencing issues with your iPhone but you’re not one of the lucky ones that are due a free repair, then there are a couple of troubleshooting steps you can take to try and resolve the issue before you commit to spending money having it repaired.

Your first port of call should be making sure that it’s running the latest version of iOS. To check, head into your Settings menu, select General, and then tap Software Update.

If you’re already up to date and your phone is still behaving strangely, then try forcing your phone to reboot by holding down the Home and Power buttons. Ignore the sliding button that you usually use to turn off your device, and continue to hold those two physical buttons until your phone powers down that way.

As a last resort, you could try backing up all your data to iTunes on a computer or iCloud, and then perform a factory reset of your device. Make absolutely sure that you’ve got everything backed up before you go through this process however, as factory resets will delete absolutely everything off your phone.

Have you been experiencing any random crashes or restarts on your device? Let us know @TrustedReviews.