Problems with your iPhone? Restore can fix it

Year after year iOS updates arrive and that means that for weeks (or months) users complain about problems with their devices. This is much more pronounced in older devices, but new ones are not without problems either. Battery that lasts much less, closing of applications, others that do not work as they should, slowness of the system, reboots ... all kinds of failures are reported by users, which occur randomly and are not fixed after official updates.

Year after year the comments of the articles are filled with your questions about how to solve possible faultsOn Twitter you ask us the solutions to your problems, or on our Telegram channel you go looking for a clue that allows your iPhone to work as it should. And year after year we repeat the same: the solution is to restore your iPhone. We explain why and how you can do it.

Update or restore? Differences

Apple introduced the updates via OTA a year agos, and that has meant that users practically forget what it is to connect our iPhone to iTunes to update. It is a very fast and comfortable process, as simple as entering the Settings of your iPhone or iPad and clicking Update. It has been a great advance, and it is the option that should be used and everything should work as it should, but the reality is that on many occasions it is not. Upgrading means installing the new system on top of an old system, and that means that we are left with the same garbage that we had already accumulated.

The convenience of updating your iPhone and that after the process everything is exactly the same as before but with the news of the new version is undeniable. And most of the time it should go well, so it is not a procedure that I do not recommend, not at all.. But if you have problems, if your iPhone does not work as it should, if the battery does not last half as long as it used to last, then it is time to look at other alternatives.

The restoration must be done from the computer, connecting your iPhone or iPad to iTunes using your Lightning cable and clicking on the Restore button. What is the difference with the update? Well what the phone is erased and the operating system is installed from scratch, so at the end of the process you will have a "new" iPhone, like fresh out of the box, but with the new version. With this method we have eliminated any traces that remained on the device of applications, system settings, etc. and with this we have also eliminated the garbage that has accumulated on your device during all this time and that may be the cause of your problems. And what about all my information?

Backup is not a good option

Many users use clean restore but then restore backup so everything is back to how it was before. That is not an advantage over an update, since the copy will also drag the problems that you may have. If you had errors updating, restoring and then using the backup, it is normal that you continue to have them. A backup is a backup in case there is an accident and you must recover the lost information, I would never use it to recover information after a restoration because the iPhone does not work well for me.

With «the cloud» retrieving information is easy

Years ago restoring the device was hell, since it meant having to download all the music, photos and other information that you had on your iPhone to your computer and put it back later. But today with iCloud the process is much simpler. Not only are your contacts, calendars, reminders stored in the cloud ... but you can also have all your photos and videos saved. Apple Music or Spotify also allow you to quickly recover your music after a restore. There is very little information left that you cannot retrieve from a cloud service, so before restoring the only year you have to do is make sure that you have everything properly configured (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive or whatever system you use).

Even games in most cases already have their own cloud storage system, either directly in iCloud or through their own services, most of the games that we have available today on iOS have some way of storing the achievements that you have achieved and that when you reinstall them you don't have to start from scratch. With the arrival of iOS 11 and watchOS 11, even the Health and physical activity data of your Apple Watch is already stored in iCloud, so there is no excuse. WhatsApp also has its own iCloud backup… You don't have to be afraid of losing anything if everything is properly configured, you just have to check it.

The only thing you have to do once the device is restored is to enter your account and wait for everything to download without problems. Give it your time connected to a WiFi network and wait patiently for the data to recover. Of course, the applications must be downloaded again. By not using the backup we will not have any application downloaded, but that is not a serious problem, on the contrary. How many applications do you have installed and how many do you actually use? Once the device is restored and the applications installed, you will notice that you have much more free space, because you have left behind those dozens of apps that you had installed and that you never used.

To download the applications you do not have to go one by one looking for them in the App Store. It is much easier to access your applications purchased within the iPhone and click on the ones you want to download. Obviously this must be done connected to a WiFi network, and if possible with the iPhone well charged or connected to load. The new iOS 11 system that allows you to move several icons at the same time also makes the task of organizing applications by folders and desktops much easier., so in a few minutes you will have all the apps you really need perfectly organized.

Another novelty of iOS 11 that is great for when we start from scratch is the iCloud Keychain and how now applications can make use of it. ICloud Keychain stores access data and synchronizes them on your devices, so that when you open an application that is compatible, the username and password can be filled in automatically.

Miracles don't exist, but it works

We are not going to fool ourselves, miracles do not exist. Older devices suffer with new versions and batteries after two years are not what they used to be, and no miracle method is going to prevent this. iOS is also polished in the successive updates, which are released for that, and the imminent arrival of iOS 11.1 may be the solution to the problems of many of you according to the latest tests that many of us have done. But if with the new updates your problems are not solved, before continuing to waste time I recommend that you restore your device from scratch, you do not lose anything and you may be pleasantly surprised.


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  1.   Iñaki said

    at last! for once someone who clearly explains why you shouldn't do ota after ota after ota. I always restore between major versions and every time the phone is drunk (2 times a year maximum, once in September when new ios is released, and another in March when several ota have already been applied) and with that 0 battery problems .

  2.   Raúl Aviles said

    Good article Luis !!
    The only thing I have missed (because it is not clear to me) is the difference between restore and restore by DFU. (Internally, what differences exist?)

    Thanks again for these articles !!

  3.   alvaro said

    Good morning, I have a question, you make it clear that it is not good to update or restore a copy of iTunes ... but, restore a copy of iCloud? that's bad? ... it is not clear to me with your tutorial if once the iphone is restored you configure it as a new iphone with your apple id, or if you restore an icloud backup ... what would be the difference? regards!

    1.    SAW said

      Hello Alvaro. The article says that the backup should not be loaded, because it carries all the errors. Make it like new iPhone.