Safe Mode

How to fix boot loop on a jailbroken iPhone or iPad with ‘No Substrate Mode’

What happens when a jailbreak tweak bugs out on your device and ends up in a boot loop? Do you try to reboot the device to no avail? Do you take to the internet to ask how to fix it?

How about this: try booting into a form of booting up that Saurik calls ‘No Substrate Mode,’ then uninstall the faulty tweak.

In this piece, we’ll talk about how you can use No Substrate Mode, an under-used feature of jailbroken iPhone or iPad that can truly save you from losing your precious jailbreak when you’re unable to turn on your device.

All the ways you can start up your Mac

We’ve talked quite a lot about Recovery OS, an underestimated feature of OS X that makes it easier to troubleshoot your Mac even if it refuses to start up properly.

But as you’ll see for yourself in this post, Recovery OS is but one of the more than dozen different ways to start up your computer, aside from OS X’s regular startup mode. In this tutorial, we’ll list all the ways you can start up your Mac and detail each one.

19 useful Mac startup key combinations you should familiarize yourself with

Most of the time, your Mac just works—until it refuses to start up properly due to an unforeseen system error, a misbehaving app, a broken system component and what not. Beyond system errors, different people have different needs when it comes to starting up their computer.

For example, you could be a pro user who dual boots between OS X and Windows on a daily basis. Others might be wondering about booting a Mac from a disk other than their designated startup disk. Or perhaps you’re looking to isolate the cause of a software issue in OS X’s Safe Mode or boot straight into Recovery OS as the last option?

For those of you who have wondered about the many ways you can start up your Mac, here’s a quick list of the keyboard shortcuts you can invoke to access handy OS X features which are only available at boot time.

How, why and when to boot your Mac in Safe Mode

Most of the time, your Mac “just works.”

But there will be times when a rogue app, a misbehaving service, outdated caches and other issue will cause your Mac to slow, stop starting up or exhibit other unwanted symptoms. Thankfully, Apple has provided a way to boot OS X in Safe Mode.

In Safe Mode, your Mac prevents some software, such as startup items, from loading. What does get loaded are the bare minimum level of drivers and essential software. This is by design, to help you troubleshoot your Mac and isolate the cause of a software conflict. As a bonus, booting in Safe Mode also forces a check of your startup disk.

Here’s what you need to know about Safe Mode on OS X, when you should use it and how to startup up any Mac in Safe Mode and get back to normal.

Substrate Safe Mode updated to fix CPU usage issues

Substrate Safe Mode, the package that allows jailbreakers to safely boot into Safe Mode and remove uncooperative packages, has been updated to version 0.9.5000. The update, which was pushed by Saurik just recently, fixes a fairly significant issue related to CPU usage.

Safe Mode works similar to the Safe Mode on desktop machines, as it allows you to boot without loading certain extensions, allowing you to troubleshoot problem extensions. Have a look inside for more details.

Substrate Safe Mode updated with iOS 7, ARM64 support

Good news this morning for jailbreakers. Following the release of the new Mobile Substrate for iOS 7, Saurik has updated Substrate Safe Mode to be more friendly with the newer firmware and newer A7 devices like the iPhone 5s and iPad Air.

For those unfamiliar with it, Safe Mode is what prevents your device from entering a permanent crash cycle by giving you a chance to uninstall problematic packages. And until now, it wasn’t behaving nicely with the Mobile Substrate update…

InstaSafe can quickly boot your iPhone into safe mode

If you need to quickly boot your iDevice into safe mode, there are quite a few options available on Cydia in order to do so. One of the latest tweaks available via Cydia is InstaSafe, which places a dedicated safe mode button conveniently on the SpringBoard.

Take a look inside as we show you how InstaSafe works in this video demonstration…