Just Another iPhone Blog

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Alright - look what I’m about to say is going to come with a bit of controversy.. and before I go any further please understand that I really want to post a lot of fixes for the recent issues, but I think we will all get a lot more benefit from what follows than me giving you a list of little tips and tricks. The first thing I wanted to say is aimed at the blog-o-sphere as a whole and hopefully may save you from some trouble, so here goes:

My fellow bloggers — PLEASE stop telling people to restore their iPhone and then set it up as a new device. A couple months ago this would have been perfectly fine and the best way to resolve an issue because it was a simple matter of just re-syncing on their contacts, calendar and media (all of which were on their desktop system anyway) - but that time has come and gone.

We can’t keep telling people to do this - because now when people restore and setup as a new phone they actually LOSE personal data and possibly business data as well. For example in my case, I started getting an error where the crash reporter tool would crash every time I plugged my iPhone into iTunes. Unfortunately in my searches of the interwebs I ended up following some bad advice (I knew better) and lost all my Moleskinery notes, FuelGauge MPG data, regular notes, level 40 something on Enigmo and who knows what else.

So unless we’re going to provide people with a way to get all of their fricking data back … please STOP giving what amounts to nothing but sh!tty advice. We’re really screwing people on this stuff - and what’s worse is were actually keeping the problems from getting fixed.

If (people) have problems, I personally love that the blog-o-sphere is trying to help since google is usually my best friend - but some steps that are being offered solve the initial problem, then create even bigger problems for the people we’re trying to help. The only way this debacle is going to get fixed is when Apple has so many phones ringing off the hook that they can’t afford to keep hiring more support staff. Ultimately, we need a way to backup Non-Apple data for 3rd party apps and we need a way to restore that data separate from the OS restore process.

So, again my fellow folks in the blog of sphere - stop telling people to setup their devices as a new phone/iPod. Yes, it typically solves the issue, but since the advent of the Appstore it now creates more problems at the same time. If all the other steps (like re-installing iTunes) don’t end up working - advise them to call Apple. If Apple says to restore and setup as a new iPhone/iPod then its up to Apple to provide a way for that end user to restore their personal data.

And - since you possibly ended up here trying to find some actual assistance for your crashing issues — click on through to the link below. They’ve got some other good steps (just skip the step I was griping about). By the way … This rant was not directed at any one blog - we’ve made the same recommendation in the past - but no longer.

(Via iPhone Atlas)

Or contact Apple Support directly.

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