iOS4 settings crash

OK - so I finally got this to work. As a last ditch attempt, I tried the restore as new iphone technique again (which had failed twice before). It worked this time, and then I was able to restore my data. I was fortunate in that all of the programs that had significant data in them (Calendar, contacts, iReconcile, iAccounts, SplashMoney) all had backup programs associated with them - so it came down to just a matter of spending a couple of hours to restore all of it. I still have no idea why this happened - but thank goodness it is fixed.

I say fixed in asterisks because OS 4.01 is slow as the second coming on my 3G. I wish I had never done this upgrade. C'mon Apple - you can do better than this.

This new Operating System *****!

As I was loading the new software it backed everything up. then ans it loaded the new OS I received a error message! Phone was reverted back to Default with the new OS. Now I can't restore anything, I have lost all of my contacts everything!

Apple fix this Crap!

WideOpen: Try restoring from an earlier backup. Usually there is a picklist of backups to select. If you are very fortunate, you should be able to find one that was done at the start of the upgrade process that has your data. Of course, if you are responding to this thread, you probably have the general->settings problem - so you stand a good chance of reintroducing that problem as well. You might be able to offload your data though - worth a try.

Hello,

I found a solution for the crashing settings problem...

1. Downgrade to the latest 3.x firmware (how to described in this forum)

2. Then go to: Settings -> General -> Profiles

3. Then remove all Profiles

4. Backup and install the latest 4.x firmware

Then everything is back to normal! No more crashes! 🙂

Message was edited by: Tom Burrie

Using the iPhone configuration utility did not solve my problem.

When is Apple going to solve this?

Worked perfectly for me as well. Thanks!

I confirm that the solution found by Echo works very well.
First I try to edit the backup file, but it didn't work. So I had to update the phone, import the backup, jailbreak it (by using redsn0w), and then edit the file.

Same problem!! iPhone 3G, Settings-> General then crash and return to main window, No jailbroken. So what happens!!! none in Apple can give an answer?? Hello is anybody there??

My solution was to reinstall from scratch as a new iPhone (look about 4 posts up for my story). Took me 3 tries but that finally worked.

Once I had done that, my iPhone 3G could access Settings->General but it ran slow as molasses in January. I got most of that speed back by disabling all components of Spotlight Search. Unfortunately, you won't be able to do this until you can get back into Settings->General because that is where you configure Spotlight Search.

It kind of ***** because Spotlight Search is actually useful - but if that is what it takes to get my processing speed back - so be it. Its gone.

Hallelujah! The iOS 4.1 update finally fixes this! I can now access General settings (and change my Mail accounts) without a crash.

It looks like it just removed the old configuration profile, and kept the accounts associated with it. I haven't tried installing a new one yet.

I just found a quick and easy way to fix this issue for a non Jailbroken phone.

I ran into this issue on my iPhone 4 after applying iPhone configuration made by the iPhone configuration utility. I would open settings/General and it would crash and take me back to the home screen. So, this fix is most likely only for those of you who have run into this issue after playing with iPhone configurations made by the iPhone configuration utility.

Never been jailbroken. No need to roll back to a previous iOS.

Here are the steps

1. Hook up your phone to iTunes and take a backup (yes, a backup of your currently broken phone)
2. Make a second copy of this backup just in case.
3. Download the iTunes backup Bot from here, http://www.icopybot.com/itunes-backup-manager.htm
4. Run this utility it and it will show the contents of your iPhone backup.
6. Look for the file in the path “Library/ConfigurationProfiles/PayloadManifest.plist”
5. Follow the directions given by Echo-64 earlier in this thread.
Open up the payloadManifest.plist file and look for a line like this
<array>

<string></string>
</array>
For me, I had an iPhone configuration made by "good" (a business iPhone management utility) between the two <string>s.
Deleting the entire line of <string></string> fixed my problem.
6. Save the file.
7. In iTunes, restore your phone from the backup you just created in step 1.

Good Luck!