One of the most frustrating aspects of next gen tech world is the fact, that memory management on most of these is awry. We have had issues like memory leaks pretty regularly, be it smartphones or PCs or even tablets. Apple is definitely the lesser of the evils as they do optimize memory of their products better than most. Having owned an iPhone since the day that iPhone 2G came out, we have faced several situations where the device has simply stopped responding. You cannot go out of the app, you cannot launch a new one, the screen is stuck, this is commonly called iPhone freezing.
So what to do in case your iPhone freezes? Here is a list of possible solutions.
Restart your iPhone
This always works, simply hold down the power button and wait for the magical red bar to appear which asks you to slide to turn your iPhone off. Wait for the circle of death to disappear and promptly turn the device on. You are guaranteed to have a perfectly working device. This is pretty much like the famous dialogue of the IT Crowd series, ‘Did you try turning it off and on again?’ So if you are stuck, always turn the device off and on.
Plug the device to USB
Now this may be unconventional, but connecting your iPhone to your computer to a USB port does unfreeze a frozen device. If the device was really low on power, there is a chance that the screen may remain blank for a bit, but do not panic. Give the phone some time and avoid simply clicking buttons without knowing what you are doing.
Close the Apps from Multitasking
It could simply be a case of too many apps running. Double tapping the home button will open the multi-tasking window on the iPhone. All you have to do is long tap on the apps that you do not want and close them out. This will most definitely clear some RAM required for apps to run and as a result if an app is frozen out, it could be turned on again or simply start to respond.
Delete Files and Make Space
We know you love to store those songs and images on your iPhone, but if you are running very close to fulling your flash drive, it is best adviced to transfer some of the content to your computer. This will make sure the device is more responsive as there would be lesser files to read and you freezes can be avoided.
Update to the Latest Firmware
Unless you dearly love your Jailbroken device, there is no reason to sit on an older firmware. Most of the updates from Apple make sure that the user experience is enhanced., and as a result you are best advised to be running the latest release of iOS. Updates are now OTA so you do not even need the hassels of cables, there is simply no reason to be running on any iOS firmware below iOS 6. This definitely goes a long way in fixing freezing issues, as most of the apps today are optimized for the latest iOS release.
Delete Some of those Tweaks
There is always a chance that there is a malfunctioning tweak that you might have installed on your iPhone. The best way out is to install and use only the tweaks that have good reviews. Also, try and use as few tweaks as possible as they always end up making changes to the system files that could cause things to malfunction.
Reset and Restore
If nothing works, simply connect your iPhone to iTunes, take a backup and hit the big restore button. Do remember that you will lose all your Cydia tweaks and data on your device such as Texts, Call Logs etc. The device will be restored to the latest firmware by Apple, so unless that it jailbroken already, you will be stuck on everything Apple. Though yes, you can restore the data on your iPhone from the backup, that would not bring the jailbreak back though.
We hope, these few tips can help you turn your frozen iPhone to as good as brand new, and if nothing works, you can always count on the Apple Geniuses to help you with things by visiting them at the authorized service center.