Random error message

[JennieR]

Has anyone else had this problem...for no apparent reason my iPhone 4 will display a message that says this "this accessory is not optimized for this iPhone. You may experience noise caused by cellular interference and a decrease in cellular signal strength". It won't be or has been connected to anything when this happens. It's happening now as I type and yesterday on break at work. It usually loses all sound such as the typing and all my music. Three different time EVERYTHING in my iPod has disappeared, all my music and video's. If I sync it it comes back. Again isn't connected to ANYTHING!! I called Apple and they wanted the $69.00 thing and told them I wasn't interested. They said for me to get on he Internet and go to Apple/support and I might find something about this error message. I'll have my phone for 2 years in September. PLEASE someone tell me what's going on with my iPhone!!!!!

 

[Pocobear]

If you haven't already, Try a reset. Close all apps then - Hold down the HOME, bottom button, and the SLEEP, top button, for about 10 seconds until the Apple icon appears, then release buttons. Allow it to reboot, it may take a few minutes, don't panic like I did, wait for it to reboot. Cures many weird problems on iOS devices. Otherwise try a restore from backup. If that doesn't work try a restore as new, and then re-download all your apps again. Try to use it after you download 2 or 3 apps, if its OK, keep going, if it fails again, start deleting each of the last 2 or 3 apps that you downloaded, you may have a conflict between apps.

 

[JennieR]

Ok that sounds doable but I have a dumb question. How do I close all my apps? I did the part where I just turned it off with the top button and slide to lower off. But I didn't do the home button thing.

 

[Pocobear]

Press and hold the HOME button for about 2 sec and a task bar will popup at the bottom of the screen, the apps that are in the background will be shown, tap and hold on one of them and they will start wiggling with an (X) in the top left hand corner of the icon. tap the (X) to close that app. Tap each (X) to close each one individually. By using the top button and the slide, you are just putting the iDevice in a deep sleep mode. So called power off mode.

 

[JennieR]

Well I did it...I closed out all my 5 gazillion apps and then I reset it by holding the bottom home button and the top power button until the apple came on the screen. It really didn't take very long at all for it to come back up. Thank you SO much for all of your help. I'll be anxious to see if this fixes it. If I need to reset it I will come back to you post. Thank you again so much for all of your help. 

 

[Pocobear]

Another thing to try if that doesn't work, is to get one of those air squeeze rubber bulbs or a can of compressed air used for cleaning photo slides, and blow out the 30 pin connector on the iDevice and the cable. Some people have found that lint can get in there and keep the pins from making good contact, causing that message. As a last resort, get some pure 90% alcohol or better, NOT rubbing alcohol, too much water in rubbing alcohol, and a Q-Tip and gently clean the contacts and then blow them out.

Good Luck