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iPhone Troubleshooting

When your device misbehaves, you are bound to be in a hurry to put things right. Allow me to lend a hand by suggesting the following troubleshooting techniques. If your iPhone or iPod touch acts up in a general way-won't turn on, won't appear in iTunes, or quits and locks up-try these techniques.

No startup

Is your device just sitting there, with its cold black screen mocking you? Try charging it with an optional charger (perhaps you have one for an older iPod) rather than a USB 2.0 port. If you get no response after about 10 minutes, try another electrical outlet. Still nothing? Try a different sync cable. Still no go, even though you've had that device for a long time and use it constantly? The battery may be dead (but this shouldn't happen in your first year of ownership, regardless of how much you use the thing).

No show in iTunes

If your iPhone or iPod touch doesn't appear in iTunes when you connect it to your computer, try these steps:

  1. Make sure that your device is charged.
    If the battery is dead, it may need about 10 minutes of charging before it can be roused enough to make an iTunes appearance.
  2. Be sure that it's plugged into a USB 2.0 port.
    Your computer won't recognize the device when it's attached to a USB 1.0 port or a FireWire port.
  3. If you've configured it to sync wirelessly, be sure that you haven't ejected it from iTunes' Source list.
    After you've attached your device to iTunes to enable Wi-Fi syncing and then disconnected it, its icon still appears in iTunes' Source list. If you eject it by clicking the Eject button next to its icon in that Source list, iTunes no longer "sees" it. You must attach it to your computer again with a cable to make iTunes aware of its presence.
  4. Plug your device into a different USB 2.0 port.
  5. Unplug the iPhone or iPod touch, turn it off and then on, and plug it back in.
  6. Throw the device into DFU mode (described in the nearby sidebar "The Four Rs").
  7. Use a different syncing cable, if you have one.
  8. Restart your computer, and try again.
  9. Reinstall iTunes.

Four Troubleshooting Techniques

  • Resign: Force-quit the current app by holding down the Sleep/ Wake button until the red Slide to Power Off slider appears. Then hold the Home button until you're taken to the Home screen. These steps should get you out of a frozen app.
    You can also try double-clicking the Home button to produce the Dock that contains recent apps. Tap and hold the app that's giving you problems until a small X appears in the icon's top-left corner; then tap the X to quit the app.
  • Restart: Turn the device off and then on. Hold down the Sleep/ Wake button until the Slide to Power Off slider appears. Do as the slider says, and slide it to the right; the iPhone or iPod touch shuts off. Now press the Sleep/Wake button to turn on the device.
  • Reset: Press and hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons for about 10 seconds-until the Apple logo appears-and then let go. This step is akin to resetting your computer by holding down its power switch until it's forced to reboot.
  • Restore: Plug your device into your computer, launch iTunes, select the iPhone or iPod touch in iTunes' Source list, click the Summary tab, and click the Restore button. This step wipes out all the data on your device and installs a clean version of its operating system.

If iTunes can't see the iPhone or iPod touch, you need to throw the phone into DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode. To do that, plug the device into your computer with the USB cable, and press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons until you see the Apple logo. Then let go of the Sleep/Wake button and continue holding the Home button for 10 seconds. iTunes should tell you that the iPhone or iPod touch is in recovery mode, and you should be able to restore it.

Fortunately, iTunes makes a backup of your information data (contacts, calendar events, notes, apps, and so on) when it syncs the device. If you've chosen to back up your device to iCloud, you'll find your data there. If, after restoring from your backup, the device continues to misbehave, restore again-but this time when you're offered the chance to restore from a backup, choose to set it up as a new device.

Unresponsive (and uncooperative) apps

Just like the programs running on your computer, your apps-both those from Apple and third-party apps that you obtain from the App Store- can act up, freezing or quitting unexpectedly. You can try a few things to nudge your iPhone or iPod touch into action. If the first step doesn't work, march to the next.

  1. Resign from the app:
    If an app refuses to do anything, it's likely frozen. The only way to thaw it is to force it to quit. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Slide to Power Off slider appears; then click and hold the Home button until you're taken to the Home screen. Alternatively, quit the app via the recent-apps Dock.
  2. Restart your device:
    Some apps misbehave until you shut down the iPhone or iPod touch and then restart it.
  3. Clear Safari's cache:
    If you find that Safari quits suddenly, something in its cache may be corrupted, and clearing the cache may solve the problem. To do so, tap Settings → Safari, and in the Safari settings screen, tap Clear Cookies and Data.
  4. Reset the device by holding down the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons until you see the Apple logo.
  5. Delete and reinstall troublesome third-party apps:
    If a third-party app quits time and again, tap and hold its icon until it and the other icons start wiggling. Tap the X in the app icon's topleft corner to remove it from the device. Go to the App Store, locate the app, and download it again. Apple keeps a record of your app purchases, so you won't have to pay for it again.
  6. On the iPhone or iPod touch, go to the General setting; tap Reset; and then tap Reset All Settings:
    This step resets the device's preferences but doesn't delete any of your data or media.
  7. In that same Reset screen, tap Erase All Content and Settings and then confirm by tapping the resulting Erase button.

    Reset Screen, Erase All Content
    Tip:
    This step vaporizes not only the device's preferences, but its data and media content as well; you're essentially left with a device that behaves like it just came out of the box. Before doing this, try to sync your iPhone or iPod touch so that you can save any events, contacts, bookmarks, and photos you've created, as well as the third-party apps.
    Note:
    You want to try to back up third-party apps in particular because all the data for those apps is stored within the apps themselves.
  8. Restore the device:
    If the problem persists, something in the backup may be corrupted.
  9. Plug it into your computer and restore yet again, but choose not to restore from a backup; instead, start as though you're configuring a new device.
    iTunes will install everything afresh-including a fresh copy of iOS, which means that you'll have to resync your data.