So today I had a bit of a scare. I went to sync my iPhone 3G with my Macbook and noticed when I’d plug in the phone it would say it is syncing while iTunes simply showed nothing — no kind of response whatsoever. Yes, everything is up to date on my Macbook so that was not the problem. After a few reboots of the Macbook and iPhone the same behavior still continued like clockwork.

Next step was to do some research online and send off an email to Rene for some more ideas. To our surprise this seems to be a bigger than we thought with many people seeing the same issue. I decided it could not hurt to give Apple a call about this and as I was on hold I figured I’d try one more time and shockingly it worked. I had to do a double take at my screens but it worked. To make sure it was not a fluke I unplugged everything and rebooted both Macbook and iPhone, still worked!

This issue seems to be completely random and Apple claims to be looking into it. So, if this happens to you, keep trying to sync, chances are you may get lucky. I’d say avoid doing a complete restore to your phone because if it does lock up during the restore you will be left with a empty iPhone. That’s not good.

Hope Apple updates iTunes fast to prevent this from happening to any of our readers. In the meantime, have any of you had this misfortune?

Let us know!

[Thanks to @Rene for the backup!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes Crashing After iPhone 2.2.1 Update?

Welcome to iPhone 101, our helpful new how-to series for new iPhone users (or experienced users who want a handy link to send to their new-user friends and family!). Previously, we’ve shown you how to Force Quit applications to free up memory if things seem a little stuck or stalled. But what happens when your iPhone is completely non-responsive, even when connected to iTunes via the USB cable? Don’t worry, it’s not a time to panic, just time to put your iPhone into Recovery Mode. We’ll show you how… after the break!

1. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes (8.0.2)

2. Plug your USB cable into your computer.

3. Turn your iPhone off by holding the power button down until you see “slide to power off”. Do as instructed.

4. Now press and hold the Home button while reconnecting the USB cable to your iPhone. After iPhone is connected it should power on the device.

5. Continue holding the Home button, you will see the Apple logo appear and then finally a “Connect to iTunes” will be displayed, now is the time to release the Home button. You will then see the following image:

You have successfully put iPhone into Recovery Mode. Now you will have to restore from a backup file or setup as a new iPhone.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 101: How to Put the iPhone Into Recovery Mode

So you are having issues with your iPhone? Maybe you jailbroke it and things did not go as well as you planned? Perhaps you have to take your iPhone back to an Apple Store because of a hardware related issue and you are jailbroken? Well I will tell you how to restore you iPhone back to it’s factory settings in a few simple steps.

Word of warning before you begin:

Restoring your device will erase all data from your iPhone or iPod Touch, including songs, videos, contacts, photos, calendar information, and any other data. All iPhone or iPod Touch settings are restored to their factory condition.

More after the jump!

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Step 4.

Step 5.

Step 6.

*If you are jailbroken, it is my personal opinion never to use a backup when restoring. Some may disagree, but in the end it is up to you.

Step 7.

Step 8.

Step 9.

Step 10.

*Jailbreakers – If you want to play it safe this is where you would like to set you iPhone up as new.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

How to: Restore/Re-Virginize Your Jailbroken iPhone

Confession: I had to restore my iPhone 3G yesterday. No, I didn’t want to jump on the trend-wagon just to get a build number ending in 7. No, the buggy, sluggy transitions didn’t finally get to me. What happened? A huge chunk — fully 1/4 — of my 16GB storage was eaten up by what iTunes helpfully classified as “Other” files.

I didn’t restore immediately, of course. Since “Other” data doesn’t include music, video, or photos (which are each classified separately in iTunes), and most “other” data, like contacts, OS, settings, etc. is far too small to explain 4.3GB, I considered 3rd party apps (which Apple should really break out in their own color in iTunes as well). Maybe they weren’t being properly uninstalled and removed from the device?

First I removed all 3rd party apps via iTunes 7.7. That got me down to 4.3GB. Then I tried removing them via the home screen’s wiggly jiggly delete, just in case. Same result. Round about that time Apple released iTunes 7.7.1, and just in case this was a known — and hopefully patched — bug, I installed, rinsed, and repeated. And got not a step further.

That’s when I decided the only way to catch this data-hostage taker was to nuke the city. That’s right: full, clean re-install.

I was on the original, out-of-the-box firmware build (5A345) and iTunes restored to an incrementally later version (5A347), but it worked. Storage reclaimed. (And, as some other reports have indicated, this build in general when combined with a clean (not from backup) setup has made the more annoying sluggishness issues disappear).

Anyone else experience any mysterious “other” files taking up all their precious space? Any other/different solutions to my scorched earth approach? (Hey, I was a Windows user in a previous life, and re-install is etched into the final line of my trouble-shooting check list!)

Please let me know!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Restored: How 4.5GB of “Other” Files Ate My Storage!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Downgrade Your iPhone Firmware

• On a mac, hold down the “option” key while clicking on the “restore” button. Then you can select the firmware file you want, just look for the file named iPhone1,11.0.21C28_Restore.ipsw, it should be in your home folder under Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Update.
• On a Windows PC, hold down the “shift” key while clicking on the “restore” button. Then select the firmware version you want — you should be able to find it if you’ve restored 1.0.2 before by searching for all files and folders and looking for *restore.ipsw

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Restoring 1.0.2 Instead of 1.1.1