5 Common Issues That Require Resetting an iPhone

Resetting your iPhone to factory settings is always the last option you should try when your phone is acting up. However, some iPhone issues won’t resolve any other way, and attempting repairs that won’t work is a waste of time. If your iPhone is displaying one of these behaviors, you might have to reset it.

Your Phone Has Corrupted Processes

Many small programs, called processes, always run when your phone is turned on, even when you’re not using it. Over the life of a phone, especially if you frequently shut it down to restart it, processes stop working or become corrupted. These processes then can’t do the jobs they should, like keeping the phone cool while the battery is charging, or helping apps run quickly. The way to fix corrupted processes is to do a factory restore on your iPhone. You can’t get into the software to fix the corrupted processes, and software updates aren’t going to cover every process that isn’t working. So back up your data, and get that factory restore going. Sometimes the reason your phone lags is because of your carrier, not processing issues within the phone itself. After you see how to reset a T-Mobile iPhone, take a look at your carrier’s data speeds and limits. T-Mobile is an affordable and fast 4G LTE carrier; making the switch after you reset your iPhone may be the perfect combo to solving your slow phone issues.

An App Is Malfunctioning

Image via Flickr by ashleeappendicitus Sometimes apps don’t respond correctly. They crash your phone, won’t open, or freeze when you try to use them. A delete and reinstall doesn’t always fix the problem. If the issue has to do with your phone’s OS, or if the app file itself has become corrupted, you need to do a factory restore.

You Have No Storage Space

The longer you have an iPhone, the more data ends up in a storage category called “other” that’s difficult to reach. This “other” data is mostly storage files that you can’t directly get rid of. Sometimes doing an app purge, deleting email caches, clearing browser history, and getting rid of long text threads will help. Sometimes it won’t. One surefire way to get rid of “other” data is to factory restore your phone. Once you boot your phone up as a new device, that extra data will be gone. You can then load your iTunes backup to the phone, getting the data you want back where it belongs on your phone.

You’re Having Privacy Issues

The iPhone has security issues that many users are unaware of. Most people believe resetting passwords every so often is a good way to keep a device private, but that’s not always the case. Something as simple as connecting to a public Wi-Fi network can cause privacy issues for iPhone users. Hacking problems that cause privacy issues can even come via iMessage. If you even suspect you’ve been the victim of one of these text scams, you should factory reset your phone. It’ll wipe out any malicious programs that steal your passwords or cause other privacy issues.

You Have Malware

Because of the Android OS and the multiple Android app stores, Android devices can be more susceptible to malware and viruses. Apple users rarely worry about malware, because hearing about an iPhone virus is quite uncommon, especially with an iPhone that hasn’t been jailbroken. Unfortunately, iPhone malware exists, and it could someday infect your phone. Isolated incidents of Apple malware have popped up in 2016, including a big one in China. The malware often comes from a malicious app and can exploit the connection the iPhone has to a Windows device. When malware such as this infects an iPhone, your only option is to perform a factory reset. You’ll wipe out the malicious data and start from scratch. Doing a factory reset seems frightening, because you completely wipe your phone before restoring your personal data. Take a deep breath, back up your data, and remember that IT professionals from both Apple and T-Mobile recommend this step when your phone faces certain issues.