New iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max owners are reporting their phones randomly restarting, with analytics logs pointing to a watchdog reset. The complaints are collected in a thread on Apple’s support forums, which has drawn 36 “me too” votes and 13 replies since September 19.
The original poster says a new iPhone 18 Pro Max running iOS 27.0 restarted on its own twice on September 19. Both times the screen went black, the Apple logo appeared, and the phone booted normally. Two ResetCounter logs each showed “rst wdog” with a reset count of 1 and zero boot failures, and no panic-full logs. The poster asked whether it looks like an iOS 27 software issue or a hardware fault.
Other owners describe the same behaviour. One reports four random reboots in 36 hours, mostly while the phone sat idle. Another says a 512GB model rebooted once on the evening of purchase and five more times the next day. A few users instead report panic-full logs, including SEP panics, so the symptoms may not all share one cause.
There are early signs Apple is looking into it. One user says an Apple support advisor told them the company is aware of the issue on new iPhone 18 Pro Max units and that the findings “may come in the form of an OS update,” advising regular backups in the meantime. Apple’s standard advice in the thread is to run diagnostics, in store or remotely, and the top-ranked reply notes the 14-day return window for buyers who would rather exchange the phone.
Anyone seeing restarts can check for evidence in Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements > Analytics Data, looking for ResetCounter or panic-full logs. Back up the phone, then contact Apple Support or book a Genius Bar appointment for diagnostics. In Canada, Apple Support can be reached at 1-800-263-3394.
Launch-window reboot bugs are close to an annual iPhone tradition. iPhone 16 Pro owners reported random restarts after the 2024 launch, and Apple fixed the issue in iOS 18.1 about five weeks later. If the current reports are software related, a point software update is the likely fix.
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