iPhone: The Missing Manual, 5th Edition

Appendix C. Troubleshooting & Maintenance

The iPhone is a computer, and you know what that means: Things can go wrong. This particular computer, though, is not quite like a Mac or a PC. It runs a spin-off of the Mac OS X operating system, but that doesn’t mean you can apply the same troubleshooting techniques.

Therefore, let this appendix be your guide when things go wrong.

First Rule: Install the Updates

There’s an old saying: “Never buy version 1.0 of anything.” In the iPhone’s case, the saying could be: “Never buy version 5.0 of anything.”

The very first version (or major revision) of anything has bugs, glitches, and things the programmers didn’t have time to finish the way they would have liked. The iPhone is no exception.

The beauty of this phone, though, is that Apple can send it fixes, patches, and even new features through software updates. One day you’ll connect the phone to your computer for charging or syncing, and—bam!—there’ll be a note from iTunes that new iPhone software is available.

So the first rule of trouble-free iPhoning is to accept these updates when they’re offered. With each new software blob, Apple removes another few dozen tiny glitches.

Remember that within the first two months of the original iPhone’s life, software updates 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 came down the pike, offering louder volume, security fixes, bug fixes, and many other subtle improvements. The big-ticket updates, bringing more actual features, came tumbling after (1.1.1 through 1.1.4). The same thing happened ...