Phone Shuts Down Repeatedly & Restarts & Won't Charge Since IOS 8 Upgrade

Question

Jesus please take the wheel. After reading about all the IOS 8 problems in the past few weeks I thought everyone was nuts until two days ago. My iphone 5 has never been mistreated, dropped, slung across a room, or undergone anything approaching torture. It has NEVER EVER EVER given me ANY problems. All of my apps worked seamlessly, and I never had any issues with the functionality of the phone. And, like the gung-ho Apple product lover that I am, I swiftly upgraded to IOS 8 hoping that things would only get better. BUT in the past two days, without treating my phone any different, it has begun to malfunction. It shut down by itself TWICE in a span of ten minutes two days ago. And each time I turned it back on, it acted as though I asked it to restart. It did the same thing yesterday, EVEN AFTER RESTORING IT TO FACTORY SETTINGS. On top of that, it refused to charge, although it was showing up on my macbook and the little lighting bolt appeared in the upper right hand corner of the phone.
I am no conspiracy theorist by ANY measure, but I can't help but attribute these problems to the new OS. How do I get help for this? Has anyone else experienced this problem? Have you resolved it? HELP.  Apple certainly won't lose my business and I certainly can't tell other people what to do, but I must echo other people's caution about downlaoding IOS 8. If you have not done so yet, I strongly encourage you to hold off until Apple works out the kinks in this OS.

Answer 1

Hi sejrphd,
As someone who depends on my iPhone for communications and computation, I know how difficult it must be to have difficulties such as you describe with your iPhone. Let's see if we can get you back up and running.
If your iPhone powers off unexpectedly, I would suggest that you troubleshoot using the steps in this article - 
iPhone: Hardware troubleshooting
In particular this section -
Will not turn on, will not turn on unless connected to power, or unexpected power off
Verify that the Sleep/Wake button functions. If it does not function, inspect it for signs of damage. If the button is damaged or is not functioning when pressed, seek service.
Check if a Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) is activated or there are signs of corrosion. Learn about LCIsand corrosion.
Connect the iPhone to the iPhone's USB power adapter and let it charge for at least ten minutes.
After at least 30 minutes, if:
The home screen appears: The iPhone should be working. Update to the latest version of iOS if necessary. Continue charging it until it is completely charged and you see this battery icon in the upper-right corner of the screen . Then unplug the phone from power. If it immediately turns off, seek service.
The low-battery image appears, even after the phone has charged for at least 20 minutes: See "iPhone displays the low-battery image and is unresponsive" symptom in this article.
Something other than the Home screen or Low Battery image appears, continue with this article for further troubleshooting steps.
If the iPhone did not turn on, reset it while connected to the iPhone USB power adapter.
If the display turns on, go to step 4.
If the display remains black, go to next step.
Connect the iPhone to a computer and open iTunes. If iTunes recognizes the iPhone and indicates that it is in recovery mode, attempt to restore the iPhone. If the iPhone doesn't appear in iTunes or if you have difficulties in restoring the iPhone, see this article for further assistance.
If restoring the iPhone resolved the issue, go to step 4. If restoring the iPhone did not solve the issue, seek service.
This article may assist you with your battery charging issue -
iPhone and iPod touch: Charging the battery
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L