Renew! Renew! …my iPhone!
So, you know what’s fun? When your smartphone, for no apparent reason, decides to have a complete system collapse. In our current culture, this is probably right under inexplicable1 internet outage on the list of “Reasons to Freak Out”. Still, after a few deep breaths and some attempts at maintenance, there was just one thing to do: RENEW!
Heh, suckers.
It all started two days ago when I was trying to update my iPhone’s operating system to the latest version and kept getting this message. I also experienced the same trouble trying to do it through iTunes. I wasn’t really that concerned because sometimes their servers are weird or my phone is weird, or everything’s weird! Whatever…
But then apps wouldn’t update and new apps wouldn’t install, and the phone started getting sluggish — which isn’t a word I’ve ever used about my iPhone. Finally yesterday, at work, it restarted itself and wouldn’t boot up past the Apple logo. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything I could do except stare at it. Not that work has iTunes anyway, but even so it’s not my iTunes install. And also? I hate using iTunes to manage my iPhone. It’s a hugely bloated application designed to do many things and not very good at doing any of them anymore.
Why is there no standalone #iPhone management app from @AppleSupport? Using @iTunes to manage it is such a pain, it's so bloated.
— Brian Gray (aka ürb) (@urbanbohemian) August 17, 2016
That tweet got me a “very concerned” reply from Apple’s support team with no result.
I suspected I was going to have to refresh the iPhone. When I buy a new phone, I’m usually concerned about losing apps or data, but this time I was in a decent place about it. So many apps are synced so you won’t lose progress. And if I’m forced to admit it, I’m a social media addict so I could just sign right back into Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Plus I had over 8 screens of apps, including groups. I’d been meaning to pare it down for a while, but 8 screens of apps, most of which I almost never use?! That’s ridiculous.
So after some tense watching of a “Waiting to restore iPhone software” message that seemed to linger forever, I now have a fresh (feeling) iPhone. No Carrousel, no renew, no blinking life clock. At least until the next iPhone announcement…
This faux-new snappy iPhone that responds quickly and appears to have all the out-of-the-box bells and whistles again isn’t enough to make me schedule a regular appointment to blank out my phone and start over… But it’s nice to know that aside from losing some progress on some games,2 this is now a much more viable option than crying and praying over iTunes or trying to hit up the Apple Store.
Who knew…? RENEW! 
1 Because it’s always inexplicable, isn’t it? It stops working, no reported outages, then suddenly it works again. Ask a customer service/support rep what happened and they will have no idea.
2 That’s really the worst casualty. My photos were backed up by multiple apps and my contacts are tied to my Apple account. About the worst thing is re-inputting my e-mail/username and password in every app.
