iOS4 settings crash

Nice work, I did it with PhoneView.

And iOS 4.0.1 doesn't fix it either. Thanks a lot Apple.

iOS 4.0.1 didn't fix it for me either. How frustrating. No password on my phone for weeks.

Hello . . . apple . . . . any word on this? Is there anybody out there?

I had this problem as well on the iphone 4 where Mail would crash when opening it.

Today the issue started at lunch, I could not get into mail for more than 2 seconds, this drove me nuts. I rebooted, rebooted, and finally decided to load 4.0.1 since I had not gotten around to it. That did not fix the issue. Then I called apple who told me to reformat the phone. I did so and restored a backup, that didn't work. Then I reformatted the phone and did not load my backup, that didn't work.

I use 2 exchange accounts on my phone so I loaded them up 1 by 1 and I found that the problem was only 1 of the accounts. I think what is happening here is that the active sync profile that they are using is crashing when it encounters some specific type of data or corrupt data. I narrowed it down to my email by setting up the offending account and disabling email. Once I did this everything worked fine.

Since I knew when my phone stopped working I decided to remove the emails from that time period and enable mail again. Everything seems to be working now just fine. I think apple needs to investigate the root cause and develop some time of work around for it.

I never had any issues in "settings".

I had similar problems. Going to settings > general took a few seconds and then settings is exited. I also tried to find the PayloadManifest, but there were no problems. I found however settings for at least one LAN requiring specific security settings in 802.1X with certificates. For the specific LANs there were two files, with one of them using the extension .stub. There were two sets of two files, that I have both removed. The problem was gone after that. I suspect that these files are not compatible from OS3 to OS4. Apple could tell us about that.

I was able to fix this problem by downloading the iPhone Configuration Utility, and removing all provisioning profiles from my iPhone.

Specifics:

1) On my iPhone 3GS running iOS4, whenever attempting to access Settings -> General, the Settings app would crash and return me to the home screen.
2) Download the iPhone Configuration Utility: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL851
3) Run the utility, select your iPhone in the devices list in the left
4) From the Provisioning Profiles pane, click the "Remove" button next to each profile.

I've been following this thread ever since 4.0 came out, I upgraded, and faced this bug. Here are all the things I tried (only the last one worked) -

1) hard reset, reboot, try to get into general>settings
2) use iphone configuration utility (old version) -> it kept crashing
3) use iphone configuration utility (3.0, downloaded today) -> it didn't let me delete the bad profile
4) use MacroPlant 'iPhone Disk' to try and find the .plist file people mentioned -> couldn't find it
5) back up phone (including carefully saving my Need for Speed game level using 'iPhone Disk', do Restore, then choose "set up as new phone" and sync back most things. Note: once the phone was wiped, I didn't 'restore from backup' - that would have reintroduced the bug.

Net-net with the fresh install, I lost:
1) maybe 45-60 minutes
2) all TXT/SMS Messages
3) the order and arrangement of my icons (no biggie)
4) saved game level on Need for Speed (which I'll manually restore now)
5) the Enterprise Provisioning profile and my company-specific apps which I had before

Hope this helps others.

@Dave-W: I recommend starting a new thread, your issue is unrelated.

OK, I finally fixed this settings crash problem after a month and found the root cause. This applies to me, but maybe not others.

1. Root Cause = Skype App.
2. With the new release of Skype 2.1 today that supports multi-tasking, the problem went away after installation.
3. Try to either delete your old Skype installation or install the latest version.

Seems like it's Skype's fault, not to blame Apple, however it is Apple that allows Skype on iTunes without validating the quality of the app.

mab75's solution worked. Use Phoneview http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/ in advanced mode to show the folder structure. Then open the mentioned plist file in a text editor, remove the <array> tags and replace the edited plist file via Phoneview on your iPhone and voila!

most simple solution ever! thanks everyone.

Those of you editing the .plist file manually: you have jailbroken phones, right?

An easy fix that worked for me is to use the iPhone Config Tool ( http://support.apple.com/kb/DL851).

1. Launch the iPhone Config Tool
2. Select *Configuration Profiles* from the library list on the left. A list of available profiles will be displayed on the right.
If you DO NOT have a profile available, click the New icon at the +top left+ of the Config tool window. You do not need to name the profile of change any values.
3. Connect your iPhone
4. Selecting your iPhone from the Device list on the left.
5. Select the *Configuration Profiles* tab on the right
6. Click the Install button for any Profile (do not worry, you will not actually install it)
7. On your phone, you will see a message asking if you want to install the profile. Select Cancel
8. Quit iPhone Config Utility and disconnect iPhone.

The general menu should work.

Jacob - I posted a non-jailbreak method in this thread that worked for me.

Thanks -- unfortunately, it's not working for me. If I try to install my existing profile, it fails (and logs an iPhone crash). If I create a new profile and try to install that, it hangs the iPhone Configuration Utility.

Unfortunately, the Iphone Configuration Utility won't start on my system. It complains about an ordinal not being found in libeay32.dll - so I can't run the utility.

I have tried the suggestion to restore as a new iPhone. and iTunes won't allow it - it flicks back to "restore from backup" no matter what I select. I am at my wits end with this. Any help appreciated.

Note: I have not jailbroken my iPhone.

Message was edited by: RobertotheToad