Problem:
In mid-September, Apple released the new version iOS 17 of their operating system for iPhones. Personally, I always wait a few weeks before installing it so I can be sure there are no more major problems anymore.
This week, iOS 17.0.3 was released and I downloaded and installed it through the “Settings” screen of my 2020 iPhone SE. This all went fine. While installing, my iPhone rebooted and I saw the black screen with the progress bar.
But after waiting for 1 hour, the bar was still at 98%. The install can take a while, but after another hour waiting, the result was the same. It looked like the iPhone had crashed. It also stopped responding to any of the physical buttons.
Solution:
I soon began to think that the only solution would be to reinstall my iPhone. But actually I didn’t feel like doing that because then you also have to reinstall all apps. Over the years there have been quite a few.
So I contacted Apple Support. Through the chat I was helped by a friendly man. I told him what I had tried.
Together we came to the conclusion that it had crashed and that rebooting would be the only option. I did that by performing the step-by-step plan below.
Note: my iPhone was already at 98%, if your iPhone is already crashing before this you may do more damage than desired with the steps below. When in doubt, always contact the Apple help desk.
Step-by-step plan:
- Plug iPhone into an electrical outlet so it can charge
- Briefly press and release the volume up button
- Briefly press and release the volume down button
- Press and hold the iPhone power button until you see the Apple logo
I was then getting a white screen, with black Apple logo and a black progress bar. This filled up in a few minutes. After this, I was able to use my Apple iPhone SE 2020 as usual with iOS 17.0.3.
Tested on:
iPhone SE 2020 upgrade from iOS 16 to iOS 17.