A wierd situation with "erase all content and settings"

Hi

I have tried this several times, in JB mode and in NONE JB mode, and it gives me the same damn result every single time - and i have no clue on why it does it!

The problem is that when ever i try to "erase all content and settings", it just goes about it and i left it like HALF a day and it just shows those stupid circulating lines. obviously i get impatient, and try to reboot the damn thing, and then it just restarts like completely normal (as if nothing has happened), and when i slide to open, all basic apps are there Oo .......

isn't it supposed to just erase everything and when its done, reboot and show the "connect to iTunes" logo for a restore?

its a iPhone 4, 32GB model.

I hope someone can clarify on what on earth is going on!? and why its not erasing as it should be ....

Thanks :)

Regards, FEcph.

In most cases, erase all content and settings actually bootloops a jailbroken phone. A non-JB'd phone *should* end up at the connect to iTunes screen, but I'm not 100% certain as it's been two years since I had a non-JB'd phone. :).

You can do 9/10ths of an erase all content and settings by shift-restoring a factory .IPSW for an iOS revision you have an SHSH on file for (or the currently signed version from Apple), then by setting the phone up as a new phone. This will remove any of your specific content (media, music, movies, apps, save data, contacts, history, etc.) from the device. There will be a few holdover bits hanging around, but doing the above should get you to a point where Erase all Content and Settings actually does erase everything.

It's worth mentioning that this is *NEVER* recommended on a jailbroken device -- you remove the entire iOS and will though the current iOS at the time of this writing (4.3.2) is jailbreakable, soon enough 4.3.3 or 4.4 or 5 will be out and if you don't have your SHSH, you won't be able to return to a jailbreakable firmware. A *lot* of people do the erase all content and settings and end up in a non-jailbreakable state because of their lack of SHSH. Don't make the same mistake! If you're selling or getting rid of the phone, remember that the person buying it may want to jailbreak it as well...

In any case, let me know how that goes. Keep in mind restoring to a stock .IPSW will threaten your ability to either jailbreak or unlock depending on the revision of iOS you end up deploying to the device -- if in doubt, use PwnageTool to create a custom firmware that blocks the baseband upgrade.

It still does the same thing. After "Erase all content and settings" - it simply restarts and ends up at the lockscreen, slide to get pissed!

Does anyone know if i can use the terminal from my mac, to erase content on my iPhone and if so, what is the procedure and what do i need to do?

Appreciated!

//FEcph

Nevermind, i found a tutorial that shows how to wipe you iDevice from a terminal

http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=1347

Will give it a try.


//FEcph

OK - so i have been following the step-by-step instructions at Clarified and succesfully SSH'ed into my iPhone through WI-FI- However when i try to umount /private/var i get the following error:

- umount: /private/var: not a directory or special device

Does anyone know how to come about this issue?

Thanks.

//FEcph

Did you use the -f option with unmount?

I've not tried the procedure, but it looks right to me (and comes from a very trusted source)

I first started off with:

0. #ssh root@192.168.xxx.xxx
1. #chmod 755 /sbin/umount
2. #umount -f /private/var
3. #mount -o ro /private/var
4. #mount -o ro /

But i dont get pass 2. When i type in "#umount -f /private/var" .. it just displays "umount: /private/var: not a directory or special device"

And yet again I ran "erase all content and settings" for 4 hours and 45 min. and i chose to restart it. and yet again it just starts up normally and the three apps i had installed besides Cydia are still there. I simply just dont get it!

//FEcph

You should never "restart" half way through "erase all content and settings"

I might try and test this procedure on the weekend, it looks right though

hmmmmmm

If you had to give a qualified guess, an empty iphone with standard native apps, how much time can this erase all content and settings take?

i have already tried 4 hours and 45 min :-(

I have a iPhone 4, 32GB, Black.

Thanks

//FEcph

Yes, please try it and see if it works :)

We are talking about a freshly installed iOS 4.3.2 with Redsn0w JB.