Troubleshooting CarterWare tweaks and Safe Mode

Most problems with tweaks come down to three things: the jailbreak is off after a restart, two tweaks are fighting over the same thing, or a tweak crashed. This page covers all three, plus how to tell us so we can fix it.

Before you start

Try the two quick fixes first. They solve a surprising amount:

1. Respring. Turn the tweak's Enabled switch off and on, or respring from Sileo. A respring restarts the Home Screen and reloads every tweak.
2. Check you're still jailbroken. A normal restart turns the jailbreak off. If you restarted, open Dopamine and tap Jailbreak.

Then make sure the tweak is up to date: refresh the CarterWare source in Sileo and install any updates. See Install, update and remove tweaks.

Common tasks

Recover from a tweak that crashes the Home Screen

If the Home Screen keeps crashing or you can't get past it:

1. Restart your iPhone. Hold the side button and a volume button, then slide to power off and turn it back on. It starts up without the jailbreak, so no tweaks are running.
2. Open Dopamine and tap the settings (gear) button. Turn off Tweak Injection.
3. Tap Jailbreak. You're jailbroken again, but with every tweak turned off.
4. Open Sileo and remove the tweak you installed or updated last.
5. Go back to Dopamine settings, turn Tweak Injection back on and let it restart userspace.

Not sure which tweak did it? Install Mountaineer (free). Its Timeline lists each crash and, when the crashing code belongs to a tweak, names it as the likely suspect.

Get out of Safe Mode

If a tweak crashes the Home Screen, your jailbreak may bring it back in Safe Mode. Tweaks are off and you may see a message saying so. Use the moment to remove or turn off the tweak that caused it, then respring to leave Safe Mode. If it drops straight back into Safe Mode, the problem tweak is still active. Use the recovery steps above.

Find out which tweak caused a crash

1. Install Mountaineer from the CarterWare source (free).
2. After the next crash, open the Mountaineer app, go to its Timeline and pull down to refresh.
3. Tap the entry that matches the time of the crash. Read what kind of event it was first, then the suspect tweak if one is shown.

Treat the suspect as a strong lead, not proof. Turning that tweak off and seeing whether the crash stops confirms it.

Find a tweak that's missing from Settings

• Respring once. The Settings row appears after the first respring following an install.
• If you use Fold, look in its Tweaks Drawer. Fold moves tweak settings there.
• Make sure the tweak actually installed: Sileo → Packages → Installed.
• Still missing? Remove and reinstall the tweak. Your settings are kept.

Sort out two tweaks that conflict

Tweaks that change the same part of iOS can fight. The common ones:

• Home Screen layout: Mosaic and other layout tweaks (Atria, Boxy, Griddy, HomePlus and similar). Mosaic detects most of them and backs off. Use one layout tweak at a time. See the Mosaic guide.
• Audio: CarterEQ and other system-wide EQ or audio tweaks. Run one at a time.
• Ad blocking: CarterBlock and other blockers, or games with anti-cheat. Use CarterBlock's excluded apps. See the CarterBlock guide.

To find a conflict you don't know about, turn tweaks off one at a time (most have an Enabled switch) and respring after each until the problem stops.

Send a bug report that gets fixed fast

1. Open Settings → the tweak → Report a Bug. The form opens with your tweak version, iOS version and iPhone model filled in. You can also use the bug report form directly.
2. Say what you expected and what happened instead, in a sentence each.
3. List the steps that make it happen, if you know them.
4. If something crashed, open Mountaineer, tap the crash in Timeline and use Copy summary. Then open Add logs or a crash report on the form and paste it.
5. Add your email if you'd like a reply.

Every report goes straight to the developer.

Troubleshooting

My tweaks stopped working after a restart

That's the jailbreak being off, not a broken tweak. Open Dopamine and tap Jailbreak. Your tweaks and settings come back.

My battery drains faster since installing tweaks

Turn tweaks off one at a time for a day each to find the cause. Tweaks that do continuous work, like Rewind's screen capture or Game HUD's overlay, explain in their guides how to limit what they use.

A paid tweak won't install or says I need to buy it again

See Buying tweaks and Tweak Pass. Usually a refresh, or signing out of the source and back in with the same email, fixes it.

An app crashes only when a tweak is on

Turn that tweak off for now, then report it with the crash log from Mountaineer so it can be fixed. If an app instead refuses to open because it detects the jailbreak, Mountaineer's App Shield is built for that. See the Mountaineer guide.

Questions

Can a tweak permanently break my iPhone?

Very unlikely with a rootless jailbreak like Dopamine. Tweaks never change the system partition, and a normal restart always brings back stock iOS with no tweaks running. From there you can remove the tweak that caused trouble.

How do I turn off all tweaks at once?

Open Dopamine settings, turn off Tweak Injection and let it restart userspace. Turn it back on when you're done.

Where are crash logs kept?

iOS saves them in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements → Analytics Data. Mountaineer reads the same logs and shows them in plain language, with Copy summary on each crash and Copy Report for the whole diary.

Who do I contact if nothing here helps?

Send a report from the bug report form at tweaks.carterware.net/report.html, or email carter@carterware.net.