iPhone Completely Uninstalling Cydia Tweaks

[anonjd]

I like to completely wipe my iPhone at least once a year; it's just an OCD thing.

I've noticed that if I just uninstall tweaks on Cydia the regular way a lot of plist and dylib files don't get deleted (there are many more files that stay back but plist and dylib files are the most common ones I've noticed).

I'm just curious, besides going through filesystem content and finding out where all the files are, is there another way I can basically just wipe my iPhone so that nothing from Cydia is left behind? And right now I'm manually going through the filesystem content for everything I've uninstalled via Cydia and I noticed that not all files that are installed are even listed there (this is very rare though).

Strangely enough, I've even noticed a few App Store files that have stayed behind as well.

Granted, these files take very little room on the phone itself.

I'd appreciate any help at all. Thanks in advance.

 

[bruinsrme]

I like to completely wipe my iPhone at least once a year; it's just an OCD thing.

I've noticed that if I just uninstall tweaks on Cydia the regular way a lot of plist and dylib files don't get deleted (there are many more files that stay back but plist and dylib files are the most common ones I've noticed).

I'm just curious, besides going through filesystem content and finding out where all the files are, is there another way I can basically just wipe my iPhone so that nothing from Cydia is left behind? And right now I'm manually going through the filesystem content for everything I've uninstalled via Cydia and I noticed that not all files that are installed are even listed there (this is very rare though).

Strangely enough, I've even noticed a few App Store files that have stayed behind as well.

Granted, these files take very little room on the phone itself.

I'd appreciate any help at all. Thanks in advance.

Restore as a new done.

 

[anonjd]

Restore as a new done.

I tried that earlier today and jailbroke my iPhone and still found about 10 files from Cydia tweaks laying around... Maybe something weird happened...

I'll try again.

Thanks for your help.

 

[MBHockey]

did you restore from a backup?

 

[anonjd]

did you restore from a backup?

I did a completely new restore and once it was restored I used a backup I had made, via iTunes.

***Edit***
I also noticed that setting that I had for most tweaks were the same instead of the default settings after initially installing the tweak.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Restoring from backup will bring back those files.

Try iCleaner from Cydia, and make sure to check the "remove unused Cydia dependencies" option.

 

[anonjd]

Restoring from backup will bring back those files.

Try iCleaner from Cydia, and make sure to check the "remove unused Cydia dependencies" option.

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Just so I'm clear... If I go into iTunes and select restore and I select the option that it doesn't restore from a back up and once the restore is done can I use a backup without having all these files appear again?

Because, I don't want to lose app data from games or my SMS.

Thanks again, and sorry for asking so many questions.

 

[MBHockey]

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Just so I'm clear... If I go into iTunes and select restore and I select the option that it doesn't restore from a back up and once the restore is done can I use a backup without having all these files appear again?

Because, I don't want to lose app data from games or my SMS.

Thanks again, and sorry for asking so many questions.

I think the problem is that your'e restoring from a backup. It sounds like iCleaner is your best bet if you want to keep the rest of your backup. Or you can use some other utility to ONLY transfer your SMS and game data after restoring as new.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

I use iCleaner. There's an option to remove "unused dependencies". I actually used this option this morning and I didn't have any adverse effects. The only issue I've read about when using this feature was one user who claimed it removed SiriPort (or whatever it was called). A second user replied to that post saying the same thing happened to him. He had to reinstall it in cydia. He said it was a minor annoyance but once he installed it again everything was fine.

Like I said, I enabled that feature this morning and I don't have any adverse effects from it. Just keep in mind, there's always a chance it could remove something you need. Good luck!

 

[anonjd]

Just wanted to thank everyone who responded and gave me advice.

After hours of back ups and restores I finally understood everything.

So apparently if you backup to your computer and are jailbroken it also backs up your Cydia preferences and any other files associated to the downloads. And that fills up that "other" section.

But, if you backup to iCloud, iCloud will not back any Cydia packages and preferences.

I just did a restore using iCloud and downloaded a few tweaks that I had on my iPhone before I restored and all of the tweaks came with the default settings and that "others" section went from over 5GB of data to just a little over 1GB.

I guess I'll just stick to both iTunes backups and iCloud back ups and just restore from an iCloud back up if I don't want to have any Cydia files on my phone.

Thanks again, really appreciate it.

 

[miss.manson]

I use an app called iCleaner from Cydia. It should remove the files that are getting left behind on your phone.

 

[miss.manson]

I use iCleaner. There's an option to remove "unused dependencies". I actually used this option this morning and I didn't have any adverse effects. The only issue I've read about when using this feature was one user who claimed it removed SiriPort (or whatever it was called). A second user replied to that post saying the same thing happened to him. He had to reinstall it in cydia. He said it was a minor annoyance but once he installed it again everything was fine.

Like I said, I enabled that feature this morning and I don't have any adverse effects from it. Just keep in mind, there's always a chance it could remove something you need. Good luck!

Beat me to it lol