iPhone/iPod Touch Crashing in 2.0.2

NOTE: I have an update with additional information in a post you can read here: Update on iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0.2 Instability

Due to lack of publicity, I would like to address the topic of instability in the latest iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0.2 firmware. The issues with the firmware that have been well publicized are issues with the 3G wireless, and Apps freezing on loading due to the device's DRM authorization being lost during the upgrade.

However, one major instability in the firmware has not been widely publicized, and unfortunately, I have suffered from it with my 32GB iPod Touch. Apparently, the firmware becomes unstable if the total amount of space taken up my Apps and their data exceeds a certain amount (supposedly 500MB). Apparently I exceeded the limit by installing the American Heritage Dictionary App, which clocks in at a heft 300MB.

Once this space is exceeded, the device will reset at some point (with me it happened during iTunes synchronization). While resetting, it displays the little white Apple logo familiar to when the device is starting up. However, this screen never goes away.

The only way to get the device operational again is to put it into Restore Mode. This can be done while the device is plugged into a computer by holding down the Sleep and Home buttons until the screen goes blank and then continuing to hold down the Home button until the device appears in iTunes. You then must restore the firmware and start from scratch (Thus losing all the data previously stored on the device).

I attempted to restore from a backup but unless the backup is from before the space on the device was exceeded, the backup will fail. Additionally, iTunes has a bad habit of being too quick to delete backups before you get to use them and Time Machine does not backup the folder where the backups are stored (~/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup).

Until Apple produces a fix to this problem, I will not be using the Dictionary app and will be careful not to exceed the 500MB mark. Apple really needs to address this issue and additionally fix iTunes so it does a quicker job Backing up iPhones (A backup takes between 2 and 3 hours for me) and making sure iTunes isn't so quick to delete perfectly good backups. It would also be nice if Apple allowed Time Machine to back up the folder, since currently there isn't even a way to force Time Machine to back it up.

NOTE: Read my update to this post here: Update on iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0.2 Instability