iPhone Erasing all content and settings on jailbroken iPhone 4S (iOS 8.1.2)

[Koenfucius]

Hello

My wife is using my old (jailbroken) iPhone 4S, and a few weeks ago a weird problem occurred. She was trying to send an SMS/iMessage and something apparently went wrong.

Apparently the problem is related to Messaging (probably iMessage) and FaceTime: neither application works at all, and accessing it or its settings either makes the phone very unresponsive, or makes it reboot. Also, a message "iMessage - Your carrier may charge for...(etc)" pops up every few minutes. Tapping Cancel or OK makes no difference to anything (for more details of the symptoms, scroll down).

The phone is properly logged in to my wife's iCloud account, although accessing the iCloud settings can be equally problematic. Just tried it, and it's been 'Verifying' for two minutes already (though the phone is otherwise responsive).

To try and fix the problem I have attempted to Reset Network Settings, but that made no difference. After manually restoring the settings the phone misbehaves just like before.

The next suggestion would seem to be to Erase All Settings and Content, but if at all possible I would like to keep the jailbreak. The phone currently runs iOS 8.1.2.

What is the right procedure to do this please?

Many thanks in advance!

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These are the symptoms in more detail:

• unless the phone is in airplane mode (with WiFi enabled), a message "iMessage - Your carrier may charge for...(etc)" pops up every few minutes. Tapping Cancel or OK makes no difference to anything
• The stock Messages app has stopped working. Attempts to open it lead to a blank screen, as if it's stuck. Pressing the home button has no immediate effect, but after a while it takes you back to the home screen. There seems to be a CPU-intensive process taking place, as the phone becomes mostly non-responsive. The way out is to close the Messages app, which can be done by swiping up for maybe a minute until the phone briefly listens to user input. At that point it becomes responsive again.
• Facetime has stopped working. Tapping the icon produces a black screen and leads to similar lack of responsiveness as with the Messages app. Occasionally the phone then reboots, otherwise the same scenario as above.
• Attempting to access the Messages or Facetime Settings (from the Settings 'app') is problematic, certainly when not in Airplane mode. It can lead to the phone spontaneously rebooting, and if that is not the case, it takes a long time for the relevant settings page to appear, if at all (most of the time, after a while the phone simply returns to the home screen).
• The above suggests that whenever some demand is put on anything that requires iMessage/FaceTime resources, the phone gets stuck. This can also be seen from the Clock app's second hand.
• After a while (sometimes hours, sometimes days) the phone can get into a spontaneous reboot cycle, every 5-10 minutes or so. Restarting/hard-rebooting the phone (pressing power and home buttons together) stops this from happening, until the next time

 

[eyoungren]

You want to install and use Cydia Eraser. That will have the effect of an Erase All Contents and Settings but the jailbreak is removed so you will have to jailbreak again if you want that back.

Two things will happen when you use Erase All Contentes and Settings on a jailbroken iPhone running your current firmaware. Both of these things are bad and not what you want so it's good you're asking.

The first thing that will happen is that your device will be thrown in to a boot loop. Safe Mode at that point is broken so there will be no recovery from the boot loop. The second thing that will happen is that because of this you will be forced to restore and upgrade in order to make the device usable again.

What's happening is that when you jailbreak, the JB moves certain Apple apps to a different partition. When you Erase All Contents and Settings the device is expecting those apps to be in their original places. Since they aren't the device won't boot.

Cydia Eraser will let you do what you want. One warning. If you ever used iCleaner/Pro to delete languages and keyboards you don't use, Cydia Eraser could take a while to work. It's not unknown in those instances for it to take a few days.

 

[Koenfucius]

You want to install and use Cydia Eraser. That will have the effect of an Erase All Contents and Settings but the jailbreak is removed so you will have to jailbreak again if you want that back.

[...]

Cydia Eraser will let you do what you want. One warning. If you ever used iFile to delete languages and keyboards you don't use, Cydia Eraser could take a while to work. It's not unknown in those instances for it to take a few days.

Many thanks! I knew it was inadvisable to Erase Contents and Settings on a jailbroken phone, but I didn't know why until now.

I also had not heard of Cydia Eraser - which seems just the ticket. To the best of my recollection I have never manually manipulated the languages and keyboards, so I should be safe, but in case it takes a long time, I will know why. (It's a long time since I actually used that handset).

Thanks again!
[doublepost=1489073723][/doublepost]

You want to install and use Cydia Eraser. That will have the effect of an Erase All Contents and Settings but the jailbreak is removed so you will have to jailbreak again if you want that back.

Just another quick question: should I restore the data first and then rejailbreak, or rejailbreak first and then restore the data?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[eyoungren]

Just another quick question: should I restore the data first and then rejailbreak, or rejailbreak first and then restore the data?

Many thanks in advance!

The second. A standard iTunes/iCloud restore simply restores your data and tells the phone to redownload whatever apps you had installed. It does not affect a device that is already jailbroken.

On the other hand, trying to jailbreak a device that has had it's data restored first can be problematic.

So to be clear…jailbreak first, then restore from your backup.

 

[Koenfucius]

Thanks again!

In my searches for a solution I found a comment somewhere that a restore would also force an upgrade of the firmware to the latest iOS, and I suddenly got worried.

But you've put my mind at rest (and I can remember actually jailbreaking a brand new device *after* its stock firmware had been superseded, and then restoring my data from my earlier device).

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks again!

In my searches for a solution I found a comment somewhere that a restore would also force an upgrade of the firmware to the latest iOS, and I suddenly got worried.

But you've put my mind at rest (and I can remember actually jailbreaking a brand new device *after* its stock firmware had been superseded, and then restoring my data from my earlier device).

This is exactly why Cydia Eraser exists and why I suggested it. You can't Erase All Contents and Settings from the device and restoring from iTunes will prompt an update which you can't opt out of.

So, Eraser is your only option if you want to stay on the current firmware.

 

[Koenfucius]

This is one of the slight annoyances about iOS, I think: the ambiguity of the term 'restore'. Sometimes it's not clear whether it refers to the opposite of a backup (as in putting the data back you kept safe), or whether it means putting the device back in the factory-fresh state. But it's a small price to pay, especially when you can rely on excellent support like here to clear up any misunderstandings and to give correct advice.

 

[eyoungren]

This is one of the slight annoyances about iOS, I think: the ambiguity of the term 'restore'. Sometimes it's not clear whether it refers to the opposite of a backup (as in putting the data back you kept safe), or whether it means putting the device back in the factory-fresh state. But it's a small price to pay, especially when you can rely on excellent support like here to clear up any misunderstandings and to give correct advice.

Yeah, I agree.

To Apple's unearned credit however, they have never referred to a restore or Erase All Contents and Settings as a 'factory reset' or similar wording. People, for whatever reason, often attach that meaning to it - but Apple never has.