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Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
#30107 05/21/14 02:13 PM
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My friend is having many problems with her iPhone5, the keyboard won't come up when you try to add a new contact, phone doesn't ring but gets voicemail, she's had the phone a while and now this is happening. My best idea is to completely reset it, probably what Apple would do but she does not have time to go. I found a program called Touchcopy but only works with OS 10.7, I do not want to upgrade my iTunes, and her iCloud is full.

It is connected to my wifi and the usb port, doesn't seem to want to connect to bluetooth.


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Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
slolerner #30109 05/21/14 02:48 PM
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Sometimes powering down the iPhone waiting several seconds and then powering it up again will clear the problems. Basically a reboot, but that does not close any open apps. From your description, I would bet every app on her iPhone is open in the background and shutting down the ones she is not immediately using may help. (Double clicking on the app button will bring up a list of the open apps. Swipe each of them up toward the top the screen to quit the app.)

If that does not work then, as you suggest, a full reset would be in order and assuming she has iOS 7 she does not have to be connected to iTunes to do that. All she needs is a connection to a charger and a broadband internet connection. Has she been backing up to iCloud? If so then at least part of the "stuff" on her iCloud account would be the backup and she can "Reset and Erase all data" and after going through the initial setup routine she could reload the backup from iCloud. (If she isn't backing up to iCloud, she should be.) If she has not been backing up to iCloud and since her iCloud is full, she can purchase an additional 20GB for $40 a year or 50 GB for $100 and it sounds likely she could use the additional space.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
joemikeb #30110 05/21/14 03:20 PM
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Well, I really wanted to do a full reset and her whole family is backing up to the iCloud and she doesn't want to buy any more storage because they will fill that up, too!

She has system 7.1.1, 57 GB capacity and 19GB free. There do not seem to be any apps running in the background.


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
slolerner #30111 05/21/14 06:57 PM
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Turned the phone off, waited five minutes and turned it back on. Works fine now, thanks!


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
joemikeb #30112 05/21/14 08:04 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Sometimes powering down the iPhone waiting several seconds and then powering it up again will clear the problems. Basically a reboot, but that does not close any open apps. From your description, I would bet every app on her iPhone is open in the background and shutting down the ones she is not immediately using may help. (Double clicking on the app button will bring up a list of the open apps. Swipe each of them up toward the top the screen to quit the app.)

Rebooting the iPhone will very definitely close any running apps.

There is some confusion about the list you see when you double-tap the home button. It's frequently, and erroneously, described as giving you a list of apps that are still running in the background. What it actually shows you is a list of recent apps, whether they're still running or not.

Very few apps continue running once you shift focus away from them, whether by switching to another app or by having the screen go to sleep. When either of those events occur, the app is sent a message saying, in effect, "you've just lost the screen. Now would be a good time to save whatever you need to save so that, when you get the screen back, you can make the user believe you were running the whole time."

Usually, the app responds by saving to SSD whatever it needs to, and then waits for more news. Its code and data remain in RAM, but it's not running. It's just waiting. It may get one of the following messages next:
  • You got the screen back. You may resume running.
  • Some other app wants your memory. Give back what you can easily spare. (If you get a chance to run again, you'll have to rebuild/reload whatever data or code you released.)
  • No message at all. The OS may just kill the app and yank all of its RAM, with no further warning. This does not remove the app from the Recent Apps list.
Pre-iOS 7, apps could continue doing limited work in the background, but they had to beg the OS for permission, and there were very few things a program could do. It could:
  • Continue playing audio. (The Music and Podcasts apps, for example.)
  • Continue doing telephony. (The Phone or Skype apps, for example.)
  • Continue monitoring GPS. (An app that records your hiking or biking stats, for example.)
  • Beg for up to 5 seconds of internet time, to finish an upload/download, but the transfer would be summarily broken off and the app terminated if the transfer wasn't complete by then.

iOS 7 relaxed the restrictions on background processing somewhat, but the fact remains: most apps do absolutely no processing and consume zero CPU or battery when they aren't frontmost. Background apps may still be using RAM, but the front app gets first dibs. If it needs more RAM, it gets it, even if the OS has to kill every other app to get it.

One thing that has always been true is that the Recent Apps list (the one you get by double-tapping home) has NEVER told you what apps are running. If you remove an app from the Recent Apps list, it immediately loses whatever RAM it was still holding, and IF it was still running, it stops, but the converse is not true. Seeing an app in the Recent Apps list does not mean it's using any RAM or any battery.

That was occasionally useful. A program recording GPS data in the background, for example, could sample location data so frequently that the radios never had a chance to turn off. Or it could do so much processing of the location data that it consumes excessive CPU. IF you have such an app running in the background, removing it from Recent Apps could be beneficial.

That's a big IF, and overlooking it led many users to believe that every Recent App was still "running" and consuming battery and CPU. That was never true.

Another factor that led people to over-estimate how much background processing was going on was push notifications. You may see a notice on your screen that something has just happened (for example, your farm's crops are ready to harvest), and they assume that means the relevant app must be still running. Actually, what happens is that an app can register for the notification to come up on the screen when the event happens, but the app is not running in the meantime, and is not even running when you see the notification. It doesn't launch until (and if) you tap on the notification. The "event" could be based on elapsed time (when your crops are ready), or in response to a push from the app's online server. Push notifications get sent to Apple, which forwards them to the OS on the iOS device, which puts up the notification to notify the user, but does not at that time notify the app. Just because an app seems to be putting notifications on your screen does not mean the app is running or even using RAM.

Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
ganbustein #30117 05/21/14 09:58 PM
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Originally Posted By: gangbustein
That was occasionally useful. A program recording GPS data in the background, for example, could sample location data so frequently that the radios never had a chance to turn off. Or it could do so much processing of the location data that it consumes excessive CPU. IF you have such an app running in the background, removing it from Recent Apps could be beneficial.

There may be GPS apps that do not eat battery life when in background, but I have never been fortunate enough to find one. Even when you have arrived at your destination they keep tracking where you are now. tongue


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
joemikeb #30119 05/21/14 11:49 PM
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Very complex little piece of programming. I just don't like that it has to operate in such a closed loop, iCloud and iTunes. That's what I call a "Push" from Apple. It was very aggravating that I could see the phone on the router map, attach it to USB, and still not be able to access it in any way...

I can USB or bluetooth my LG cell phone to the Mac and get most things. Just wondering, was the bluetooth error because Apple mobile devices have proprietary bluetooth?

Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
slolerner #30121 05/22/14 01:38 PM
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Originally Posted By: slolerner
I can USB or bluetooth my LG cell phone to the Mac and get most things. Just wondering, was the bluetooth error because Apple mobile devices have proprietary bluetooth?

I can USB or bluetooth to the "entertainment" units in my VW Jetta, my wife's VW GTI, and our MB camper from either my iPhone or iPad, and any number of devices, keyboards, speakers, etc. There is nothing proprietary about Apple's bluetooth implementation.

There are several bluetooth pairing options and sometimes the initial pairing can be tricky. Especially if the device has already been paired with another computer/device. But that is a "feature" of bluetooth and the bluetooth standards. Some devices simply will not pair with another device if they have already been paired. But I have not encountered that with either the iPhone or iPad.

Last edited by joemikeb; 05/22/14 01:43 PM. Reason: Add comment on pairing

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
joemikeb #30122 05/22/14 01:55 PM
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So, I'm curious what the problem was. The pairing numbers came up on both devices, set them to link, and got an error code I don't remember? Is there an older version I may be runnning on my MBP? My phone is also old. So am I, well, sort of.


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Back Up and Reset iPhone 5 w/o iTunes or iCloud
slolerner #30136 05/22/14 11:12 PM
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iTunes is not *necessarily* linked to iCloud. I have iTunes set to sync and back up my phone with my computer, but not with iCloud.

There are apps that allow you to attach an iPhone or iPad and poke around on the device's file system directly, if that's what you want to do. The one I use is called DiskAid.


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