Gazimoff's geekBlog

I’ve recently handled a number of queries from friends and family about problems with their iPhones. These issues can be as simple as the battery indicator not updating. They can also be as serious as the phone not waking out of standby to alert you of an incoming call, or refusing to charge or sync when docked. While some problems can be ignored, others can make the phone unusable.

The good news is that in all the cases I’ve seen, the iPhone has been easy to fix without any professional help or even opening the device.

Symptoms that I’ve seen include:

• Refusing to charge, either when docked for syncing or plugged directly into the mains
• Refusing to sync when docked
• Not updating battery/signal strength
• Apps not loading, or attempting to load then crashing
• Not receiving incoming calls
• Not receiving text messages, or the receipt being delayed

The reason for all these problems is usually straightforward. Almost all phones have two halves – a radio side which manages the network connection and a user interface side which controls how you interact with the phone. As smartphones become increasingly powerful, the software they run grows in complexity. They behave more like mini-computers than simple mobile phones, running a range of apps developed by third parties. They can accept incoming connections and push notifications. All of these require a slice of the phone’s limited resources to use

If a phone runs out of resources it might not be able to handle a request. This request might be an incoming call or message, a push notification, a charging signal or launching an app. You can try to free up resources by pausing the music player or closing some web pages. This isn’t always effective – you might be using an app that has a memory leak, meaning that resources are never freed up when the app is closed.

One advantage the iPhone 3GS has over the 3G and original iPhone is the internal memory available. The 3GS has 256MB of internal memory, compared to 128MB in the 3G and classic iPhone. As a result resource conflicts should in theory occur less often on the newer 3GS.

The solution is probably what you’d expect if you were dealing with a regular computer – in most cases simply switching it off and on again will do the trick. There are two ways you can do this:

• Hold down the power/lock button for about 5 seconds. A “slide to power off” button should appear. Switch the phone off, then switch it back on once it has finished shutting down
• If the “slide to power off” button does not appear, hold down the power/lock button and the home button (the one with the square on it) together for about 10 seconds. The phone should shut down instantly. You can then use the power button to restart the phone normally.

There are also some steps that you can take in order to keep your phone running smoothly and should be part of your regular maintenance cycle.

• Restart the phone to clear out any memory leaks. You should look to do this at least once a month.
• Be ruthless about push notifications and deactivate the ones you don’t really need.
• Regularly clean out the emails you have stored on your phone, archiving them offline if you need to.
• Remove apps that you’re not using, or tried once but never re-used. You can keep them in iTunes in case you want to use them again.
• Track your app usage – if you continue having problems, it might be down to an app you commonly use. Try to narrow it down from your usage patterns and feedback the app has received on iTunes and elsewhere
• Try not to have too many web pages open – close down the ones you’re not using.

It’s worth pointing out that these aren’t faults with the iPhone. The issues it faces are the same as with any other complex computing device that runs third-party apps. Recognising it as such, instead of the more simplistic mobile phones we’ve grown up with, helps to shape how we keep the device running smoothly. Just like with a computer, persistent problems may be an indication of needing to restore the phone from a backup or even reformat it completely to factory defaults. You may have a hardware fault, in which case it’s well worth going back to either the store you bought it from or your local Apple store. Hopefully though, these tips above will help you in being able to eliminate most of the common problems.

Tags: Apple, iPhone

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Web2.0 Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.