Purple Screen of Death

The Purple Screen of Death: iPhone 13 Dies

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Matt surprised me with a new iPhone 13 Pro Max about 3 years ago.  It has been working beautifully.  As with most people, my phone has become an extension of my body. I use it for reminders, photos, communication, entertainment and so much more.

Around late May 2025, the screen on my iPhone 13 Pro Max turned lavender.  I freaked out, did a forced restart and it came back to life. I did not google anything or look into it because it was “fixed.”

Then around 10 June, it happened again.

My phone was a light lavender and if you tried really hard you could still see pieces of the home screen (the keyboard, the battery power and wifi).  At some points it turned a light grey but mostly it was lavender.

Things to Know

HOT:  My iPhone 13 Pro Max often got hot.  At first I thought it was because we were in the tropics and it is freakin hot here!  I would often shut it down and remove it from the case to let it cool down.

BACKUP:  I backup my phone every month.  Because I have lost my phone and dropped it in the water.  Each time needing to recover my data.  So, it is a monthly ritual for me to backup my phone.

I had backed up my phone on 3 June and it turned purple on 7 June.  Luckily the only data I will lose are my photos. My notes are backed up on my GMAIL account

What is the Purple Screen of Death? 

The Purple Screen of Death is caused by software or hardware issues.  In some cases it can be caused by water intake and or extreme heat.  The iPhone 13, in particular the iPhone 13 Pro Max is particularly susceptible to the purple screen of death!

Fast forward to today, June 7, I am idly playing my Words With Friends game and all of a sudden my iPhone 13 Pro Max screen turns lavender.  Ooh no.

This time I tried the soft reset and forced restart and got nothing but a relatively pretty pinkish purplish screen.

Crap!  What do I do now?  I checked in with Google and Sheldon, my Chat GPT friend.

Soft Reset

The first thing to do is try a soft reset.  Hold the side button and Volume Down until the Apple logo appears.

We did the soft reset and continued to get the purple screen of death.

Forced Restart

We tried a forced restart a number of times.  In case you ever need to do a forced restart, this is what you do:

  • Quickly press Volume Up
  • Quickly press Volume Down
  • Hold the side button until you see the Apple logo

The screen should go completely black and then the Apple logo should appear.

This is a hard reset but no data will be lost.  This warranted no results with my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Forced Shutdown

Next we tried holding the Volume Up button and the side button simultaneously to force a shutdown. 

This first gave us a black screen but as we continued to hold it down it came back as a lavender/purple screen. 

As we continued to hold the buttons it would “vibrate” and then it tired to initiate emergency services.  Eeek gads.  We closed out of that quickly and then removed our SIM card.

iTunes on the Computer

We connected the phone to my PC and pulled up iTunes.  Our hope was that it would show up as a device so we could either force another restart, update the software, and/or force a restore.

After loads of unplugging and plugging in and trying a multitude of connectors we finally saw the iPhone 13 on iTunes. 

However, it failed every time we tried to update the iOS and failed when we tried to restore.  The phone is still lavender. 

Forced Restore

The only way we could force a restore back to factory settings is to connect the iPhone 13 to our computer.  It took awhile to have the computer recognize the phone.  Many failed attempts, trying different cables and connectors, again.  But we finally connected the two and tried to force a restore.  Guess what?  It failed.

Note: All data will be lost during a force restore.  Be sure you have a back up of your phone’s data before you do this or you will lose everything.

DFU Restore

This is absolutely the last, last resort. The DFU restore is a deep-level restore process that reloads firmware and software on the device, essentially erasing everything and starting fresh.  This should only be used when all else has failed to restore your phone.

If the DFU restore does not work it may indicate a hardware issue.  

The DFU restore is not reversible once it has completed

What to Do?

We are in the very remote Bay of Islands which is part of the Lau group.  There are NO resources, no stores, no villages within miles of us. 

We cannot buy a new iPhone from the U.S. because Apple decided not to include a SIM slot in all U.S. phones.  This is not a big deal to most Americans because they can use e-sims.  However, they don’t use e-sims in the small, remote countries we visit. If we want to have internet access away from the boat and to have a local phone number – we have to buy a local sim card which requires a sim card slot.

A friend of mine is coming from NZ to Taveuni and offered to bring me a iPhone 16 Pro Max which would cost about $1600 USD.  Yikes.  I started researching the new iPhone 17 Pro Max and realized it would be in my best interest to wait the 4 months to buy it.  The new iPhone 17 Pro Max benefits over the iPhone 16 Pro Max

  • Longer battery life
  • Cooling system to keep the phone from over heating
  • Improved resolution on both front and rear cameras
  • Larger memory and storage capabilities
  • Faster chips
  • And a few other features

The question is….. “Can I live without my phone for 5 months?”  It is early June and the phone does not come out until mid-September.  I will have no way to get the phone to Fiji once it comes out. I will have to wait until we get to New Zealand in November.

Temporary Fix?

We had an old iPhone 5 on board.  We charged it and to our surprise it booted right up.  It is on old iOS 10 software so 95% of my apps don’t work. And I can’t use it to restore my old phone as there is not enough storage. 

We have an old Pixel6 which I can use to take photos along with the DJI camera. So, at least I can continue to take photos and update the blog, Facebook, and Instagram.  But of course, I cannot restore my iPhone to the Android phone.

I’ve been able to download a lot of apps on my computer: WhatsApp, Pic Collage, KeyPass, Chat GPT, Instagram, and WordPress. I can access a lot of other sites on a web browser: No Foreign Land, Instagram, Open CPN, and Navionics.

Is it ideal, no!  But, it will work.  At least I hope it does. I was struggling to adapt on day #2!  

As of now, it has been almost 2 months without my iPhone.  At times it has been incredibly frustrating like when we want to use a map app for onshore adventures or when I want to use Recipe Keeper and Matt is on his iPad.  But, we’ve both adapted…only 3 more months to go.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred in early June 2025.

Don’t miss our blog on the beautiful, breathtaking Bay of Islands.

 
The Mitchells: American & Fijian

Meeting the Locals of Qamea Island

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Oh no! The weather was being shifty making it hard to find a safe anchorage.  So, we, along with our friends on Wainani and Geniet Lewe, decided to find a more protected spot.  We  decided to move to Qamea Island with the hopes of meeting the Mitchell Family.

Meeting the Fijian Mitchell Family

You will find the legendary Mitchell Family nestled in the pristine bay of Namata on the island of Qamea. The Mitchell Family is famously welcoming to visitors and cruisers.  And we just had to meet our Fijian counterparts.

The Mitchell family was gifted land spread out across the entire island of Qamea.  The Mitchells reside on Namata Bay and several bays along the northern and eastern sides of the island.  

There are 4 brothers and 3 sisters.  They live with their families in a range of homes across the island.  We came to meet the brothers who maintain a rich visitors guestbook.

A young 10-year old boy met us on the beach and took us to Thomas’s home.  You walk up a beautiful garden and land to find the house nestled in the trees.

Namata Bay, Qamea Island

Namata Bay, Qamea Island

They welcome us to the island and bay.  We took several photos and agreed to create pieces of art in their guest book.

Naiviivi Bay

After a fun filled experience with the Mitchell Family we decided to move to Naiviivi Bay where it was more protected from increment weather.

This bay is super calm and very protected from every wind direction except north.  Lucky for us we were not expecting any northerlies. You sneak in between two markers indicating reefs on either side of the bay’s entrance.

Once inside it is calm conditions with soft breezes.

We went ashore to perform our sevusevu.  

We had to figure out which chief to see and which village to visit first.

There are 5 or 6 villages in this bay. 

We went ashore, asked around, and found out Chief Sepo was our guy.  With our escort, we walked through a few of the villages.

We came across many children and a group of local men enjoying an afternoon tea.

Sevusevu with Chief Sepo

Passing several different styles of homes we finally come to Chief Sepo’s house.

Chief Sepo is the chief of 3 villages containing between 600-700 residents.

Wendy and Shane on Geniet Lewe provided the village with reading glasses.  Of which, Chief Sepo promptly searched for a pair that would work for him.

He tried them out on the glove I was donating to the school.

The Catholic church was located across from Chief Sepo’s house.  

The only school on the island has 117 children registered. 

Most of these kids are boarding at the school as their homes are far away.

Continuing on to the outer edges of the village we find more homes.

Naiviivi Villiage

Naiviivi Village

Each village has a drum that they use to start school, church, and other important events. 

The grounds are blooming with a variety of flowers, some taro (potato type) and fruit trees.

After our adventure, we enjoyed a lovely dinner on Geniet Lewe. 

Shane and Wendy made lamb shank, potatoes, and grilled vegies. Wainani, Jaqui and Tony made a huge salad and I brought desert.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events.

We arrived in Qamea Island in the beginning of June 2025.

Find Qamea on No Foreign Land. 

We hike to the top of the ridge of a caldera in the Ringgold Isles in our last blog.

Cobia Caldera, Ringgold Isles, Fiji

The Bewitching Beauty of Cobia

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Nestled in Fiji’s Ringgold Isles is the uncorrupted beauty of Cobia (also known as Thombia) Island is nestled in Fiji’s Ringgold Isles.  It’s captivating crescent moon shape is the result of ancient volcanic eruptions, relentless winds, crashing waves, and vibrant coral growth.

Located on the NE corner of the Ringgold Isles.  It is truly one of the most stunning places we’ve ever seen!  

Cobia is a relatively small island with a land area covering 69.29 hectares.  The highest elevation is located on the western side of the island at 525′.  The stunning geological formations and beach forests of the island contribute to its natural significance.

Cobia Island is one of the main reasons we wanted to visit the Ringgold Isles.  It is a volcanic island with a pristine lagoon exposed on the northeast side.  The sunken volcanic crater has filled with sea water forming a beautiful blue lagoon.

Dinghies (and very small boats) are able to cross over the reef at high tide.  Otherwise the lagoon is inaccessible.

The Navionic image below is upside down to match the photo we took.  Normally, the opening faces north.

The Caldera’s Lagoon

We took our dinghy from Yavu Island to Cobia along with our friends on Wainani (Jaqui and Tony) and Geniet Lewe (Shane and Wendy).  It was a long, bumpy 3.5nm dinghy ride which took us about 35 minutes.

We decided to explore the lagoon first since it was close to high tide.  The water was so clear and beautiful.   Tony (sv Wainani) flew his drone over the lagoon and captured some great photos of us. 

The lagoon has rich coral reefs and abundant marine life. It is regarded as the clearest ocean waters in the world; the visibility often exceeds 120 feet (36 meters).

We explored the nooks and crannies in between the mangroves.  Finding little pools of untouched waters and lush vegetation.

The Caldera’s Ridge

During low tide, there are four beautiful white sand beaches. The path to the highest point is off one of these beaches.

We were all itching to hike to the top of the ridge on Cobia Island.  No Foreign Land states that trail was about 15-20 minutes to the top.  However, the starting point of that hike was off a  beach that was not accessible by dinghy.  So, we started from a different beach with the hopes of finding a new trail to the ridge top.

Like most adventures, the boys made their own path.  It was through thick bushes, trees, and up a steep slope.  But we eventually found the trail.  

We continued heading North along the ridge and found 3 lookout points.  The first lookout had a gorgeous view of the caldera and lagoon.  Matt almost slipped off the rock…..kidding he posed for the lower photo.

The Top of the Cobia Caldera

We made it after 50 minutes ascending to the top. 

The vegetation was so tall that you couldn’t see through it or over it. Thus, making the view not as good as the 1st and 3rd lookout.

However, Tony got the drone out again and captured some more amazing photos.

These photos just take my breath away. 

I can’t believe we got to see this in person and feel the enormity of this place.

On the way back, Matt wandered down a random route and found a third lookout.  

This was a once in a lifetime experience.  To experience it with our friends was a true blessing. This was a once in a lifetime experience.  

We headed over to Geniet Lewe for some cold beverages before making the 3.5 mile trek back in the dinghy.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events.  We visited Cobia at the end of May 2025.

Find Cobia on No Foreign Land: https://www.noforeignland.com/place/6755338971799499