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What is a USB sync cable and how does it work?

iPhone won't sync after software update and janky cable

  • Trying to get my iPhone 4S to restore and sync from recent backup via iTunes and no love. I dumbly decided to update my iPhone OS to 7.0.6 when I was in a hurry and didn't have the factory USB cable, but some cheap thing I got off eBay, which is fine for charging, but apparently not for updating. I managed to update, but the sync got hung up on step 5 of 5 and never completed. I got the factory USB and tried to hard-reset and restore it, which appeared to work, but could not get the next step to work and no matter how many times I tried it, I couldn't load the backup from iTunes. The phone just behaved as if it hadn't been synced at the end. The phone is now set up as a new phone, which is problematic because I can't make calls and have no contacts, work email, etc. Complicating factor: I would just go camp out at the Apple store, but I'm in the hospital. Any ideas about how to get my data off iTunes and back on to my phone?

  • Answer:

    Those connection ports on the 4 are really bad. Yours has failed and you probably won't be able to sync anymore. It happened to me with my beloved 4 and several friends experienced it too. You pretty much need a new phone, sorry!

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Get some 98% rubbing alcohol from walgreens/bartels/etc, turn the phone off, and drip it into the socket. Now plug and unplug the cable like 500 times, then let it dry for 20 minutes or so. Turn the phone back on and try again. This works way more often than you'd think. Not just dirt, but corosion(!) actually builds up on the little contacts inside the jack. I've had this happen on my iphone 4 and 5 with the new connector... If the phone was still under warranty i wouldn't be arsed and would go straight to the apple store and get a new(well, refurbed) phone. But if it isn't, that will likely work.

emptythought

This is stupid and a longshot, but when I had this weird always-hanging while trying to do backup/restore, the problem wasn't my cable but the fact that I had buried the Newsstand application inside a folder. So, just on the off chance that this is the issue: take Newsstand out of a folder and try again. See if it makes a difference.

jessamyn

I had this problem occasionally. I fixed it by deleting a bunch of music off my device, syncing, then adding it again.

salmacis

Can you use the Wi-Fi sync in iTunes?

spitbull

Ugh, well, nothing worked and I had to reboot it at the Apple store but for some reason, the backup I did on Sunday didn't show, only the one I did on Wednesday when everything got deleted. So I lost a lot of contacts, all my photos, and all my texts. I have a sad. They think it's a problem with my computer, but of course, that is a separate appointment. Thanks for trying.

*s

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