If you ever use any third party applications you may encounter a problem down the road that may just cause you to be "locked out of your iPhone" or "stuck in a loop of rebooting". If you were like me, and you used the AppTapp installer to install stuff from the iPhone itself then it may have been a while since your last sync and backup from iTunes. Here is what to do to restore your iPhone to working order and restore all of your information.
1. Open iTunes; go to Edit>Preferences>iPhone (Edit>Preferences>Syncing for iTunes 7.5)
Choose "Reset Sync History", and then click OK.
2. Plug in your iPhone and in the Summary tab click"Restore". After clicking you may be prompted to create a backup. Even if you already have a backup let iTunes create the backup to make sure it is up to date.
3. Continue with the restore, you may have to wait for iTunes to download the firmware it is going to install. This firmware will be the latest firmware available. Once this is done iTunes will take care of the rest.
4. Afterwards, your iPhone will once again appear in iTunes, when prompted to either or Restore to Backup, choose the Restore to Backup. Once again, the restore process will begin, but this time when it is done, sync your iPhone to get all your synced media back on to your iPhone. Once this is done you are ready to go!
FAQ:
How long does this take?
This generally takes about 15-25 minutes for the restore process itself but can take longer depending on how long it takes for iTunes to download the firmware for your iPhone if it is not already, and is completely safe and very easy.
My iPhone keeps resetting or disconnecting itself.
Most likely it means you will or already have gotten an error while attempting to restore. Just wait until iTunes displays your iPhone again and then start the process over, this time it will start immediately as the firmware is already downloaded. You won't have to worry about the iPhone restarting once the restore process has began as it puts the iPhone into what is know as "Safe Disk Mode". During this mode, no firmware is loaded, and your iPhone is basically a slave to iTunes.
What does "Reset Sync History" do?
All this does is makes it as if iTunes has not yet synced with your iPhone. Use this when you have changed computers and have not yet synced personal information such as that as described above. Otherwise your iPhone may loose some information that is missing from your computer but on your iPhone such as contacts created on your iPhone. In other words this tells your computer not to erase anything from your iPhone because its not in the computer yet. Whenever possible always choose Merge so you can choose what information you want rather than replacing the wrong thing or getting duplicates of everything.
What does a backup contain?
A backup only backs up your personal information such as Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Preferences, Mail, Safari Bookmarks, History, and Cookies, and suprissingly, Pictures you took on your iPhone. Just to be safe always copy your pictures to your computer beforehand. If you have any third party applications they will be lost, but can be reinstalled later.
What is not backed up?
Songs, Music, Video, Podcast, Audiobooks...this will all be restored to you iPhone when you Sync.
What happens when I am done doing this?
Once your have completed all 4 steps, you can start using your iPhone and everything will be right where you left off. The only difference is that you will be missing the third party applications.
1. Open iTunes; go to Edit>Preferences>iPhone (Edit>Preferences>Syncing for iTunes 7.5)
Choose "Reset Sync History", and then click OK.
2. Plug in your iPhone and in the Summary tab click"Restore". After clicking you may be prompted to create a backup. Even if you already have a backup let iTunes create the backup to make sure it is up to date.
3. Continue with the restore, you may have to wait for iTunes to download the firmware it is going to install. This firmware will be the latest firmware available. Once this is done iTunes will take care of the rest.
4. Afterwards, your iPhone will once again appear in iTunes, when prompted to either or Restore to Backup, choose the Restore to Backup. Once again, the restore process will begin, but this time when it is done, sync your iPhone to get all your synced media back on to your iPhone. Once this is done you are ready to go!
FAQ:
How long does this take?
This generally takes about 15-25 minutes for the restore process itself but can take longer depending on how long it takes for iTunes to download the firmware for your iPhone if it is not already, and is completely safe and very easy.
My iPhone keeps resetting or disconnecting itself.
Most likely it means you will or already have gotten an error while attempting to restore. Just wait until iTunes displays your iPhone again and then start the process over, this time it will start immediately as the firmware is already downloaded. You won't have to worry about the iPhone restarting once the restore process has began as it puts the iPhone into what is know as "Safe Disk Mode". During this mode, no firmware is loaded, and your iPhone is basically a slave to iTunes.
What does "Reset Sync History" do?
All this does is makes it as if iTunes has not yet synced with your iPhone. Use this when you have changed computers and have not yet synced personal information such as that as described above. Otherwise your iPhone may loose some information that is missing from your computer but on your iPhone such as contacts created on your iPhone. In other words this tells your computer not to erase anything from your iPhone because its not in the computer yet. Whenever possible always choose Merge so you can choose what information you want rather than replacing the wrong thing or getting duplicates of everything.
What does a backup contain?
A backup only backs up your personal information such as Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Preferences, Mail, Safari Bookmarks, History, and Cookies, and suprissingly, Pictures you took on your iPhone. Just to be safe always copy your pictures to your computer beforehand. If you have any third party applications they will be lost, but can be reinstalled later.
What is not backed up?
Songs, Music, Video, Podcast, Audiobooks...this will all be restored to you iPhone when you Sync.
What happens when I am done doing this?
Once your have completed all 4 steps, you can start using your iPhone and everything will be right where you left off. The only difference is that you will be missing the third party applications.
