iPhone 4 catastrophe story

[Silly John Fatty]

My aunt offered my grandmother a used iPhone 4 a week ago. Today, my grandmother visited me, and I've shown her how to do various things on the phone. Until then, she found out how to use the alarm, how to take photos and how to call and text - everything went fine.

I wanted to show her how to make FaceTime calls, so I connected the phone to my wifi. This is where it all began. The apple logo appeared, the phone shut itself down and since then we haven't been able to use the phone anymore. I tried resetting it by holding the power and the home button, the Apple logo appeared, disappeared, reappeared, disappeared again... but we never arrived to the home screen. Once there was even some kind of log text/debug text next to the Apple logo (the whole screen was full of it), sometimes the Apple logo would appear twice. I watched a video on YouTube, a guy managed to get out of this situation by holding the + button. It seemed to work in his video. I tried this but a weird vertical bar appeared and nothing happened. So it didn't work for us. Now the screen is turned on (there is "light") but there is nothing on it, it's just "black" basically (but turned on) and I can't shut the phone down or anything.

It's a catastrophe. It appears to have been a jailbroken phone. My grandparents mock the iPhone and already call it pure trash.

What can I do to make it work again? I don't have access to any computer. Is there a way to fix the phone without using a computer? Can I "remove" the jailbreak too in case I get to the home screen someday? I would like the phone to be reset to factory settings.

Ok wow, as I type, the screen turned itself off. The battery is dead. I am recharging the phone now, perhaps something will change.


Thanks very very much!


EDIT: The dead battery saved me! I am back in the home menu after hours and hours. But the vertical bar is still there. How do I get rid of it? There's so many thing wrong with this phone. I want to get rid of the jailbreak too (in case there's really one...)

EDIT 2: If I put the phone in horizontal view, the bar will move with the screen. So I suppose it's a software and not a hardware problem.

 

[Eileen89]

Search for a App called Cydia Impactor within Cydia. Launch the App and follow the steps listed in this link: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/07/...-ipad-or-ipod-touch-using-cydia-impactor.html

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Actually it might not be jailbroken. I've searched for Cydia and it isn't there, there are no missing or renamed apps either.

 

[aPple nErd]

Just restore it in itunes

 

[willmtaylor]

Just restore it in itunes

Did you not read the OP?

 

[Eileen89]

Actually it might not be jailbroken. I've searched for Cydia and it isn't there, there are no missing or renamed apps either.

If you are not seeing Cydia on that iPhone it more than likely isn't jail broken? What led you to believe that it was?

 

[Eileen89]

I don't have access to any computer.

Just restore it in itunes

I think you missed this part of the original post.

 

[lordofthereef]

That verticals bar looks like a hardware issue to me considering it is on all screens. Is that the boy issue you are continuing to have? Like any OS, iOS can crash and burn and sometimes leave it at an I bootable state. Sounds like a full battery drain solved the inbootable problem.

I realize you don't have a computer but I would recommend a full restore and setup as new at this point. You might even be able or allowed to do this at an apple store if you have one nearby. If that is out of the question, just restore to factory settings.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Hello!

Thanks for your help guys.
The reason I believed it was jailbroken was because there was a log screen that had appeared. I don't know if it's safe to post it here? Could it include personal information?

My grandmother has kept using the iPhone since then, and so far everything works fine. There was no more issues.
It seems like the problem was to turn on the phone. So I don't know if this problem is still present, because she hasn't turned it off since then. We don't want to risk it either. When I had this problem a few weeks ago, the phone shut itself down from itself. That can happen sometimes. So perhaps the phone still has issues when trying to turn it on.