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I decided to erase all the content and settings of my iphone, it's been 12 hours....

M

majorboner82

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2009
3
0
It's been 12 hours since I erased all the contents and settings of my unlocked and jailbroken iPhone 2g 8gb. All I'm seeing is the Spinning Wheel of Death! Does it really take that long?! It's been 12 hours. Please help! I really don't know what to do now. Please help!:confused:
 
majorboner82 said:
It's been 12 hours since I erased all the contents and settings of my unlocked and jailbroken iPhone 2g 8gb. All I'm seeing is the Spinning Wheel of Death! Does it really take that long?! It's been 12 hours. Please help! I really don't know what to do now. Please help!:confused:
Click to expand...

What did you expect to happen. :eek:

You deleted all the files your phone needs to function.

Plug it into iTunes and restore it.

Why did you:

1) Do this to begin with ?
2) Wait 12 hours to fix it ?
 
It is a really long process, but more like 1 to 2 hours. Unless you are planning on selling your phone as a true virgin, I can't imagine going through this instead of a "restore as new".

Time to restore. You should be fine.
 
I don't know where the "erased all files your phone needs to function" idea cane from, assuming the OP used the "Erase all content and settings" option in the settings.

Try holding the home and power buttons to force a restart.
 
dhlizard said:
What did you expect to happen. :eek:

You deleted all the files your phone needs to function.

Plug it into iTunes and restore it.

Why did you:

1) Do this to begin with ?
2) Wait 12 hours to fix it ?
Click to expand...

Well the answer to #1 is pretty simple - why would Apple include the feature to begin with if it's bad as you seem to imply? I've done a reset like this on both my iPod touch and iPhone many times without encountering a problem. Yes, 12 hours is very excessive (should be 1 hour for 8GB, 2 hours for 16GB, 4 hours for 32GB), but it doesn't wipe the OS or anything, it just sets the iPhone back up 'as new'; once it's completed successfully the phone will display the 'connect to iTunes' screen, and once it's connected it prompts you to either set it up as a new phone or restore from a backup, as if it's just been restored via iTunes. Basically it's just another means of restoring, without having to redownload the software or use iTunes to initiate it. What's happened to the OP is merely bad luck.
 
Ivan P said:
Well the answer to #1 is pretty simple - why would Apple include the feature to begin with if it's bad as you seem to imply? I've done a reset like this on both my iPod touch and iPhone many times without encountering a problem. Yes, 12 hours is very excessive (should be 1 hour for 8GB, 2 hours for 16GB, 4 hours for 32GB), but it doesn't wipe the OS or anything, it just sets the iPhone back up 'as new'; once it's completed successfully the phone will display the 'connect to iTunes' screen, and once it's connected it prompts you to either set it up as a new phone or restore from a backup, as if it's just been restored via iTunes. Basically it's just another means of restoring, without having to redownload the software or use iTunes to initiate it. What's happened to the OP is merely bad luck.
Click to expand...

Another great thing is how it zeros out the data, so it's completely secure.
 
Ivan P said:
but it doesn't wipe the OS or anything, it just sets the iPhone back up 'as new'; once it's completed successfully the phone will display the 'connect to iTunes' screen, and once it's connected it prompts you to either set it up as a new phone or restore from a backup, as if it's just been restored via iTunes.
Click to expand...

This is not true. The "Erase all content and settings" does just what it says: it erases everything on your iPhone, including the OS. On the 2G and 3G it zeroes out the entire memory (not just data -- the system partition, too). On the 3GS it erases the encryption key so, since everything on your phone (including the OS files) is 256-bit encrypted, it is indistinguishable from noise. When you are done you cannot boot because there is no OS on your phone. This is why you can do nothing until you've restored in iTunes; you have to reinstall the firmware.
 
thelatinist said:
This is not true. The "Erase all content and settings" does just what it says: it erases everything on your iPhone, including the OS. On the 2G and 3G it zeroes out the entire memory (not just data -- the system partition, too). On the 3GS it erases the encryption key so, since everything on your phone (including the OS files) is 256-bit encrypted, it is indistinguishable from noise. When you are done you cannot boot because there is no OS on your phone. This is why you can do nothing until you've restored in iTunes; you have to reinstall the firmware.
Click to expand...

Thanks for stepping in. I was just about to "blast" his reply, but you did it much more elegantly than I would of.
icon14.gif
 
Still should blast his reply, since he sounds so authoritative and all. I mean, let's go tell the masses "if you want to restore as new, just erase all content!!! Oops, so sorry, you really didn't need to go through a two hour process." :rolleyes:

OP, don't double post, okay? You have two threads on this.
 
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