My iPhone crashed yesterday. Just before lunch, I woke it up, but the unlock slider was acting all funky. When it finally unlocked, my phone was frozen. Dead. Solid.
There have been a couple of times before where it has acted weird — the most major one being Safari spontaneously shutting down and returning the phone to the home screen. In those cases, and in this case, I’ve done what we’ve done to computers since time immemorial: I reset it.
And that’s when I got The Yellow Triangle Of Death.
The Yellow Triangle of Death is essentially, well, a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the middle of it, below which is the following message:
“Please connect to iTunes.”
But here’s the thing: I was at work. I didn’t have the special iPod/iPhone USB cable with me, so I had to borrow one from somebody else.
Luckily, I had already downloaded iTunes to my work computer, so I didn’t have to wait for the download and installation process (did I mention that this was just before lunch and I was fracking hungry?), and I plugged it into my computer’s USB port and when iTunes came up, it gave me a message that I was already well acquainted with from when iTunes 7 first came out and it wasn’t playing well with my Nano:
“iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.”
Essentially, I had to restore it to the factory settings: meaning that every single but of personalization I had done was going to be gone. All of my data . . . poof.
So the best possible outcome with this crash was that I was essentially going to have to start all over again, as if the last month had never even happened. And, on the balance, it had been a pretty good month!
Sure, I had backups of my contacts, photos, music and bookmarks, but there were a bunch of other things that I was going to have to do over again:
- My saved Google Maps Locations.
- Stocks I had been following.
- Pairing with my Bluetooth devices — the earpiece and the car kit.
- Re-entering Hex key for my wireless at home (and others I had previously joined).
- Contacts favorites.
- Previous voicemails.
- Weather settings.
- And any photos that I had taken with it and hadn’t emailed to myself were gone for good. Unless, weirdly enough, I had associated them with a contact. Then, they survived. But any photo I had not taken with the iPhone but associated with a contact weren’t associated with that contact anymore — even though those photos had been restored with my backup.
So, on the balance, not a terrible thing, but just a big old pain in the ass.
Look, I understand that there is a price to be paid for being an early adopter: you get incredibly expensive 1.0 products that eventually everybody thinks are incredibly primitive. We still marvel at how we ever got along with the limited functionality of our Panasonic Showstopper Replay DVR that we purchased way back in 2000. On the other hand, it still works.
And that’s always one of the two main worries in the back of your mind when something like the iPhone does something like this: the first one is, “did I do something wrong?” But I’ve not modded it or hacked it or anything like that, so I think that the answer is “no.” I’m probably going to get some comments saying that I should be doing this or should be doing that, but the point is that this is a mass-marketed consumer device, and I’m going to use it like a mass market consumer would.
The second worry is that maybe the iPhone is not as good as advertised. I’ve obviously invested a lot of time and money assuming that it is as good as advertised, and the start of something even better. So I can only hope that this crash is an anomaly that will soon be forgotten, as opposed to a harbinger of things to come.
A crash that hard probably mean a HW problem. I would return it and get a replacement.
I’m so glad you’re beta testing this for us Jim.
In the meantime I spent my iPhone money on a new Macbook Pro.
Really? How many iPhones were you going to buy?
The iPhone and the two year contract is not much less than my new laptop.
mine does this, but only when the same telemarketer tries to call me… it’s the infamous ‘rooms to go’ calling to sell me some crap, but i can’t even answer – when their number comes up, the phone locks up and requires a reset. in some cases, i have to restore.
sucks.
First, I’d like to tell you that most of that data is saved by iTunes.
Yes, map data, WiFi passwords, yadda yadda. Get over it. You should have just gone from the backup from the last time you synced. You still can I suppose.
Hold the off and home buttons continuously until it resets and shows the triangle again. then plug it into itunes (the iTunes you synced to before it crashed), and the data will be restored, transparently and magically.
I was glad to find Apple had implemented a more extensive backup of the phone than just contacts and calendars… and music. Keep this in mind next time. It’s a computer, and I have to say… the software is still better than what’s on the Razr. anyone ever actually use AIM or Y! on that thing? a crash and full reboot ever 30 minutes. without fail. and that’s software that’s gone through 5 years of revisions!!
Sigh. See, it was user error after all!
“Get over it.” Is that Apple’s official slogan for people who have iPhone crashes and lose data that took them weeks to build up?
“Keep in this mind next time.” Gee, thanks. I’m really looking forward to next time.
Did you actually read what I wrote? Or did you totally get defensive because I dared write anything bad about the iPhone at all?
By the by, “better than what’s on the Razr” is hardly a ringing endorsement. It’s like saying a TV show is “better than ‘According to Jim.'”
Mine crashed today after only using it 2 weeks. Got the Apple core screen of death. Had to restore firmware and backup from I tunes. Good thing apple is prepared for this. (They saw this comming) It is a real computer so that means it will crash. Mine crashed while watching family guy the movie right at the part when they were ragging on Jesus. The movie must of had a virus in it. Stratagically placed by a bible thumping hacker. My advice is not to play any downloaded movies that were not purchased through Itunes or encoded by yourself on the Iphone. Use a separate player for that. One that has os on a rom rather than a flash memory. Was unable to use the phone all day until I could plug it into itunes. Now I will check and see how much info I will have to re input to the phone.
Iphone crash or dead. i remember trying to download a utube fix update, when done it prompt to restart phone for updates to take effect. and so i did! now my phone just wouldnt start. i see the apple logo, but it stays there forever, reset again … same thing, until battery finally flat. connect to itunes, it is not getting a respond. itune cant even detect the phone being connected. think it is as good as dead. any help or assistance?
IPHONE FIRMWARE TOTALLY CRASHED
I used jail break to unlock my iphone and i did a factory restore (big mistake) thinking i had messed it up totally i was gutted then tryed jail break again it worked but after a couple of weeks it totally crashed couldnt do anything with it it wouldnt even charge, so i put it in the charging stand connected it to my pc then pressed the power button and the button on the front held them until it rebooted, then i reinstalled jailbreak (IT WORKED) after that you need to use itunes to restore which it will ask you to do . it does work but you may need to repeat thi s process quite a few times , it took me several attempts i was about to give in when it suddenly it worked so dont give in till it does .
i hope for those people who couldnt find this answer anywhere else that this helps you as i looked everywhere and couldnt find the answer.
Good luck Guys
Wolf666999
Bought an iphone3g off Ebay turned it on. on the 2nd day i switched it on and now it will not get past the pineapple logo screen tried everything. all i can do is turn it on or off. never gets to the icon screen. i think that Quickpwn is to blame. how can i restore i tunes isnt picking the phone up. the phone turns off every 5mins and reeboots itself only to do the same again 5 mins later. im on 2.1fw with quickpwn installed. please help me.
Are you kidding me…..yet again my iphone has crashed….this is number 3. I lost everything! Im so glad I paid 420.00 for something that works like a piece of Sh*t.
I got the solution. Just press and hold down both the menu button and switch for 10 seconds and it will reboot.
hello everyone,
please i need some help. My original (not 3G) fell down and since then there’s been an error message that says: appleMRVL868: etehrnet address 00:1e:52:26:3e:55
appleMRVL868: command line options and current values used by driver
appleMRVL868: marvel-debug=0xc8
appleMRVL868: marvel-feature flags
appleMRVL868: marvel-inactivity-ti
appleMRVL868: marvel-powersave-time=0
appleMRVL868: marvel-retry-limit=15
appleMRVL868: marvel-powersave-listinint=1
appleMRVL868: marvel-ps-confirm-delay=15-
–
–
–
-appleMRVL868: wte=0x0
appleMRVL868:loading main program
appleMRVL868:firmware loaded
appleMRVL868: haredware details
firmaware version: 8.108.3.p63(0x3f086c03
I/O version 0x0002
hardware version:0x0011
mac address: 00:1e:52:26:3e:55
then after all these messages it stays for about 20mins and then runs through alot of error messages fast and then shows then ”plug in battery for recharge” sign and then restarts when the battery has charged a bit. and goes through the same cycle again.
can I get some help?..i have resetted it more than a billion times with the same error.
my iphone crashed out of nowhere friday and i reset it and all i says is to connect to itunes. i tried to connect to itunes then it says the sim card is not detected. i took the sim card out and replace it and itunes is not recognizing the phone. i took it to the genius bar and he looked at it for 2 minutes and said i have to buy another phone. any help??????
Have had iphone less than two weeks. It crashed. All I get is a very tiny line of text across the top of the screen. A very tiny battery that looks empty, but I just recharged it last night and only used it one time before the crash. Did I get a lemon or is there a simple fix?
helloo please help every time i plug my I phone into my PC to sync it resets the iphone, if i leave it plugged in itunes starts then tries to sync but then it disconnects from the Iphone and the Iphone resets itself again this just repeats itself. tried restarting computer but same issue, i logged onto my itunes from a friends pc and it worked fine any ideas?
my pc seems to want to connect to it using software other than Itunes is there any way of stopping that? and is that causing the original problem? Im used to my old mac and not sure about windowsXP!!!
can sumone please help, 4 sum reason my itunes doesnt find my iphone and i dont know y does anyone know how 2 sort this out ??
thanks ?
I just got an iPhone 3GS
I have it now 3 days
It has crashed, I’d say, 20 times.
It just locks up in the middle of any app – contacts lookup, email…
I have to use the dual button approach to bring it back to life. I don’t lose data – just patience.
I have had an Ipod Touch for 18 months and it never crashed, not once.
This is a business phone, and we use MS Exchange for email, calendars, anc contacts so I am syncing with that.
After my first installs (there have been many) with Itunes and syncing all my music, video and photos (that already work fine on the Ipod) I have removed all of that and trying to use it simply as ‘a phone’ (which kinda defeats the purpose of moving up to an Iphone).
I had a HTC running Windows mobile before this; I thought it was rubbish as it crashed about once a week. The Iphone so far is crashing roughly 40 times as often.
Might be duff hardware. I’ll give it another few days…
just hold home button for 10 seconds then keep hold on this button and hold the lock button as well until the phone turns on…
worked with me and both my uncles, so its worth a try aye??
Hey Guys I really hope that some hackers are reading that since I need urgent help. Yesterday I decided to update from 3.0.1 to 3.1.2 with my jailbroken 3gs. I pushed the restore button since I didnt know that you better not. Now it is dead, really dead. The only thing how I can turn it back on for a few seconds is to “restore” it since Itunes still detect it as an iphone in recovery. However, afterwards it goes directly into sleep again. I could do that over and over again but I just dont get any chance to adjust anything on that. Does anybody has a hint what could help me or where I can find help???
I would more than appreciate an early answer..I am really desperate
My iphone also crash… i think its becouse i jailbroke it. bur it work´d fine just when i install´d a app from cydia and i would restart springboard. but then it was deat. i could not prexx anything…. 🙁 sad face