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HiFiGuy528

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 24, 2008
1,876
65
I have a five months new 3GS that is now lagging more than I like. I remember it being so much faster than my old 3G, but now it's starting to feel slow. Anyone here has the same issue?
 
I know I could go into the iPhone's Settings/General/Reset/Erase All for a complete wipe of storage and RAM, but I don't want to lose my hacked ATT file for tethering.

If I connect it to iTunes and do a backup then do the Complete erase when Restore via iTunes Backup, will it restore all the junk too?
 
If you think you are having problems it is better to do a clean restore and "Set up as a new iPhone"

;)
 
from what you said "hacked AT&T tethering", so this must mean ur jailbroken. you can go on the itunes store and get system activity monitor for 2 bucks i think, or u can go on cydia and get sbsettings, or memtool. these all free ur ram which speeds up your phone, and it doesnt erase anything. also on sbsettings when its installed, you swipe ur finger on the very top of the iphone screen, and then u go to processes, then click free memory. hope this helps!
 
from what you said "hacked AT&T tethering", so this must mean ur jailbroken.

You can have tethering enabled without jalibreaking. If you remember back in June, when iPhone OS 3.0 was released, there was a modified IPCC file that, when you updated your carrier settings with, gave you tethering. This was an iffy process that only worked on some iPhones but the OP could be one. If you can find the IPCC file on your hard drive or on the internet again then you will be able to do a Restore to clear up your OS now and then apply that Carrier Settings update (IPCC file) again.

DPA

P.S. - Since you may have already done the tethering/carrier settings hack before you probably know or have already done this but just for others to view, you will have to run some commands in Terminal or Command Prompt (whichever is applicable to your OS) to reenable IPCC updates in iTunes if you have iTunes 8.2 or later. This should help you.
 
I do have the carrier file on my HD but I don't remember how it got everything to work flawlessly i.e. Visual Voicemail & MMS. I prefer not to reinstall the OS. The 2.99 app Activity monitor app does NOT reclaim RAM right?
 
from what you said "hacked AT&T tethering", so this must mean ur jailbroken. you can go on the itunes store and get system activity monitor for 2 bucks i think, or u can go on cydia and get sbsettings, or memtool. these all free ur ram which speeds up your phone, and it doesnt erase anything. also on sbsettings when its installed, you swipe ur finger on the very top of the iphone screen, and then u go to processes, then click free memory. hope this helps!

Wrong. I have the hacked carrier file for tethering and I'm not jailbroken. He only would have to be JB, if he updated his baseband.


I know I could go into the iPhone's Settings/General/Reset/Erase All for a complete wipe of storage and RAM, but I don't want to lose my hacked ATT file for tethering.

If I connect it to iTunes and do a backup then do the Complete erase when Restore via iTunes Backup, will it restore all the junk too?

Please, don't EVER do an ERASE all content and settings. You should only do that when returning your iPhone to Apple. You may regret it, if you do. Just sayin'.

You could actually just do a reset all settings, and that should make it more snappy (according to a number or users). Or just restore as new.
 
Yes, I have heard that reseting all settings may help the device. If you restore from a backup you will retain those settings. Also, as Aggie said, NEVER erase all your settings unless you are selling your iPhone and/or have backed up everything already.

DPA
 
Using the hacked carrier file to enable tethering without jailbreaking only worked under OS 3.0.x. Apple patched up the hole that allowed for that to work in 3.1.

Furthermore, if you do a restore of the phone, you should be aware that with the 3GS, Apple can now control which versions of the OS you are or aren't allowed to install and use are. With the older models, you can downgrade to older versions of the OS without (much) difficulty, but as of the 3GS, that is no longer the case, and since the release of OS 3.1 back in September, 3GS owners are no longer allowed to restore to anything older. Which means that if you do a restore of your 3GS phone today, you will be forced by iTunes to go to 3.1.2. Even if you are currently using 3.0.x, iTunes won't allow you to restore to the same version you are already using. (Yes, it's dumb. And please don't shoot me: I'm just the messenger.)

There is no (easy/good/effective) way around this, because the way that Apple controls the restore process on the 3GS is through cryptography that has little chance of ever being cracked. There are a handful of lucky people (myself included :p) who have the ability to downgrade to 3.0 on their particular phone because they were able to capture the communication between Apple's servers and iTunes during a restore of 3.0 on their phone (or had someone like Saurik do it for them), and can "replay" that communication with iTunes, but the window of opportunity for that has long since passed.

So if you want to keep on tethering after a restore, at this point your only option is to go to 3.1.2 and jailbreak the phone.

If you think that Apple's removal of one's ability to downgrade their software is dumb and anti-consumer, I encourage you to give them feedback to that effect. I'm planning to do so myself. There are plenty of valid reasons why one may need to go back to older versions of the OS (and maintaining tethering isn't one of them, so using that example won't strengthen your argument...please keep that in mind!). One such good reason is the OS 3.1 debacle that took place just a few short months ago. It took Apple a month to release 3.1.2 after that dog of an update, and in the meantime any 3GS users who were affected by the issues with 3.1 were screwed.

-- Nathan
 
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