Network Link Conditioner Developer Tool softlocked the iPhone

TL;DR

iOS: 15.5 ; Device: iPhone 12 Pro Max

Today I was using the developer tool called Network Link Conditioner and I got my phone in a state where it fails to make every HTTP request and I don't see any way of fixing it. The SMS and Calls are working fine.

How did I try to fix this?

  1. Reboot (a lot of times)
  2. Reset Network Settings (a few times)
  3. Reset All Settings (2 times)
  4. Update iOS to the latest version (15.5)
  5. Contact the Apple Support via Chat
  6. Contact the "Senior" (🤷‍♂️) Apple support via phone call
  7. Disabling the phone for a few hours
  8. Enabling and disabling every Network Conditioner Profile "just in case"
  9. Enabling and disabling WiFi, Cellular and the airplane mode.

What happened?

I was using the Network Link Conditioner tool to test the app's behavior under poor network condition. I don't remember the exact sequence of action but basically I just enabled the tool and then was switching between different profiles: 3G, Edge, DSL ans so on.

At some point I finished the testing, turned the tool off and got back to just using the iPhone. That was the moment when I noticed that I can't send a message using Apple's Messages app. Then I noticed that I can't load any web page.

My first thought was that my WiFi stopped working all of a sudden, so I switched to cellular, but it had the same problems. As a side note: my MacBook was working fine on the same WiFi.

I moved to the office where I tried to use another WiFi network, but it also didn't help. I could not load anything, my phone was actin like there is no connection, while also showing me WiFi icon, and 5G on cellular. I can still receive SMS and phone calls though.

Factory Reset or Backup

I would try to do a Factory Reset or Restoring from the Backup, but it's not possible since my iPhone has FindMy enabled and to turn it off I need an internet access.

I turned it off from my MacBook using the icloud.com, but the phone still needs to fetch this data and it can't do that because it can't perform any request.

Also any other resetting option from MacBook don't help since iPhone still has the FindMy enabled and I can't logout from it without the internet.

Why do I think there is an internet connection

I have this messenger app called Telegram installed, and it uses sockets instead of the HTTP requests and this app works just fine as long as I'm connected to the WiFi or a Cellular.

My guess on the cause

I don't know how this developer tool is implemented of course, but I think it might be some requests interception on the Foundation level, something with the URLSession. where the data is fetched by the delays and the data loss are simulated or something like this.

And probably there is a bug in this tool that hardcoded this option enabled and now the whole system fails to make any HTTP request and the only app that is build entirely on sockets is working fine.

What did the Support say?

Support didn't gave much help and basically suggested to write a post on this website and ask other people because the problem is most likely rare.

Conclusion

I still hope that it's some stupid mistake of mine that can be easily resolved but I ran out of the option so I hope you can suggest something I haven't tried yet.

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Thank you for the detailed summary of the issue. When you use the Network Link Conditioner and then are finished, turn the profile back to Wi-Fi and then disable the feature. If you still experience issues, then try rebooting and check the Network Link Conditioner again. If you still experience issues, open a bug report with a sysdiagnose.

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meaton
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I had the same problem and the only solution which I found is to put your phone in recovery mode. Depending on the model there are different ways. Next, I plug the phone into my Mac with a USB cable, and I open the finder. Inside the finder, I selected my iPhone and I made a restore. It takes some time because It needs to download the system and install it again on your iPhone and of course later you need to configure your phone from the beginning. I only don't know if it's necessary to remove your phone from findMy but I did it through the iCloud.com page. I hope that I helped. :).

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Ralfger
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I had the same problem and I can't recover my iphoneSE2. Who can help me?

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billy_chen
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