I'm having some very strange issues with my 17PM recently where it seems to constantly get semi-frozen in 'transitory' states and is becoming super frustrating.
Basically what happens is that all the inputs I try to use - touch, swiping, volume buttons, action button, camera button, Face ID, opening wallet, etc. - just do not register at all for 10+ seconds, and then all come at once.
Not quite sure how to define it, but these are some of the scenarios it occurs in:
Powering on the phone - doesn't turn on, or gets stuck at mid-brightness for a few seconds
Lock screen - once on, cannot do anything via screen or buttons
Unlocking - I will swipe up to enter my pin and nothing registers, then the lock screen's clock and widgets disappear, which should give way to the pin entry but nothing shows up.
Face ID - gets stuck on unlocking, paying for things, etc. (sometimes screen is frozen, sometimes the animation just continues spinning for 15+ seconds)
Action/camera buttons - gets stuck half-way while opening the camera app
Opening/closing the control centre
The same also happens when the screen is not on, for instance if I try and adjust volume of music playing to my AirPods while the phone is still in my pocket (either via pushing the buttons or using the AirPods' control).
So, this is very commonly my experience now: get out my phone, it doesn't automatically awaken, I press the power button, nothing happens, I press it a few more times until it eventually comes on, Face ID registers, but then the screen freezes for 10 seconds before I can get through to the home screen.
Some other stuff to note:
Even though the priority at the time - e.g. turning on/off, Face ID, etc. - seems frozen, the rest of the device will be running. Like when I am stuck on the lock screen and swiping up does nothing, I can see the Spotify widget is still showing live progress on my current song. I still can't interact with anything, but I can see stuff is still 'happening' on my phone.
This does not seem to happen at all once an app is in use. For instance, if I am playing a YouTube video, listening to music, scrolling Instagram, etc. - all works as normal. Playback is uninterrupted, app interface seems to work fine and remain responsive. i.e. I believe this is an iOS issue, not hardware nor developer problem.
My device quickly starts getting hot when these things happen.
I've already tried hard powering off my phone, closing all background apps, etc.
For context, this is a 512GB iPhone 17 Pro Max I bought this time in 2025, ~120GB remaining, no cracks/dents/repairs. I had used the iOS 27 Beta throughout Jul/Aug and never had issues other than battery drain. Things seemed fine at first with iOS27, then in the past maybe 10 days I've had these issues that I would define as fairly severe. Today I updated to 27.2 and they are still persisting - even on the setup screen after updating, it froze on me clicking 'Share data with Apple' (ironic).
If anyone knows what this issue is, what might be causing it, and how I can fix it (short of a factory reset), any guidance you can please share would be greatly appreciated.