Starting Afresh!

Well, my lovely iPhone had served me for nearly a year and a half, without complaint, doing magical things I never imagined a "phone" could ever do. I had taken immense care of it physically - it has hardly a scratch on it and still looks absolutely pristine - yet I had, I'm afraid, not given it the attention it wanted with regards to syncing and updates and so on!

This was partly because my life has been so chaotic over the last year or so, that the only jobs that have been done are the "urgent/emergency/things-will-really-go-totally-pear-shaped-if-I-don't-do-this-now" types of jobs, and partly because I didn't really understand what I was supposed to do. I just figured that if it wasn't broke, I didn't need to fix it, and left it at that.

But recently things have started to happen. The screen on the phone has frozen. The camera hasn't quite been working right. Some of my apps have ceased to function after I've updated them (I did get THAT far). Some of the apps in the store have told me that they are "incompatible", and eventually, the phone got into a real tizzle, showing only a blank screen, an "Apple", or a little graphic begging to be plugged into iTunes!

So, I did just that. I plugged the phone into the main computer and tried to sync it. No luck - wouldn't stay connected long enough. I tried to update it - same problem. I tried unplugging all other USB connections. No. Closing down, starting again. Still No. Upgrading iTunes. Still No. Googling various combinations of words and trying some of the stuff suggested. Nothing. Doing all of the above while standing on my head whistling "God Save The Queen". Not a hope. Etc etc etc.

So, then I started to take more drastic action. I persuaded the phone to talk to the computer for long enough at each connection for me to copy all the photos on it - a few at a time, and waiting for some time between each connection. I took the precaution (wise) of photographing each screen so I knew what apps I had on the phone. I also photographed the imap and smtp screens of my more unconventional e-mail accounts so I knew what details to put back should I lose them, and did the same with the details of my phone network.

Then I gave up on the main computer. Fired up the netbook, and downloaded iTunes onto that. Plugged the phone in there (it seemed happier to stay connected). Then spent another hour downloading iPhone update software onto the netboook, then, eventually, did the "Restore" thing, and got the phone back to its virgin state - appless, phone numberless, photoless, and so on, but, seemingly, happy and working!

Furthermore, it seems to be a very happy iPhone now. Things that haven't worked properly for quite a while now seem to be whizzing along again beautifully now. I spent most of yesterday evening rootling through the app store, reinstalling my most important and loved apps (and was pleased to note that I wasn't re-charged for the few paid ones I've bought in the past). I was also pleased that the books reappeared in my Kindle app (albeit in the archive, but easily redownloadable) and am rather chuffed that I can put the apps into little "folder" buttons!

So, there is work to do. Once I've got the apps how I like them I'll do another sync with the netbook, make sure everything's backed up, and I'll also have some work to do re-installing telephone numbers and so on. Furthermore, I'm making a playlist, which I'll transfer to the netbook and load from there, so there'll be some nice music for the phone to listen to!

So, a whole day devoted to getting my phone sorted out, plus many more hours of getting it just how I like it to come!. The wondrous "time-saving" of technology at work? ;-)

Sorry I took so long to attend to your software needs iPhone. Promise I'll keep you better up to date in future! Maybe this picture will remind me?

I did say to the Wonderspouse in the late evening, that if someone gave me a retinal scan, they could probably print a perfect representation of the iTunes screen from the results!

Phew!