Since I imagine that there are probably tons of new jailbreakers since the iOS 8.3 jailbreak touched down, now is a great time to review some of my favorite Cydia tips. But even if you’re a seasoned Cydia veteran, you may find a tip or two in this list that you’ll find handy. How many of these tips do you use on a regular basis? Watch our video and find out.

Why you should refresh Cydia

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve covered a tweak only to have someone comment about how they couldn’t find the tweak. Chances are, they just needed to refresh Cydia. It might not seem like a big deal, but refreshing allows you to see the latest and greatest Cydia tweak additions.

How to troubleshoot a slow repo

Sometimes it takes forever to refresh Cydia. In those instances, it’s probably a slow or bad repo that’s causing the problem. Tap the Sources tab and see which repo still has a loading indicator. This will help you narrow in on what’s causing the slowdown.

How to use search more effectively

Although Cydia offers search suggestions, the suggestion don’t display everything that’s available on Cydia under those search terms. Tap the search button to reveal all of the available search results.

How to enable or disable sections

If you never want to see ringtones, themes, or any other Cydia section, you can disable those sections by going to Sources → All Sources → Edit, and using the switches to disable specific sections.

How to add or remove a repo

To add a repo go to Sources → Edit → Add. To remove a repo, simply swipe left on the name of the repo you wish to delete.

How to see your recently installed tweaks

Tap the Installed tab and tap the Recent section at the top of the page to see a list of your tweaks in chronological install order.

Cydia’s User mode versus Expert Mode

Next to the aforementioned Recent section on the Installed tab, you’ll find two sections for User and Expert. The User tab lists all of your Cydia installations, but doesn’t include low-level things like libraries and other developer-oriented packages and tools. If you want to see all of the low-level stuff, then tap the Expert section.

How to see prior Cydia purchases

Tap the Cydia tab in the bottom-left hand corner, and tap Manage Account. Once you login, tap Installable Purchases to see your full Cydia purchase history associated with your Cydia account. How many purchases do you have?

How to use queuing in Cydia

Queuing is one of the best features in all of Cydia. It allows you to queue up packages for processing instead of performing tasks one by one. Queuing makes it much easier to install or uninstall multiple packages at once. To use queuing tap Continue Queuing instead of Confirm after you attempt to install or uninstall a package. Once you’ve queued up all of your packages, tap the Installed tab, tap Queue, and tap Confirm.

How to disable Cydia Substrate

Have you ever installed a package that caused a major problem on your iPhone or iPad. Maybe it sent you into an endless bootloop? Instead of rushing to restore your iPhone to factory defaults, it’s often much wiser simply to disable Cydia Substrate—thus unloading all of the tweaks that rely on it—and removing the offending tweak. You can usually find the offending tweak by using the Recents section under the Installed tab. To enable Cydia Substrate again, simply reboot without holding any buttons.

Conclusion

Even if you’re a jailbreak master, it’s easy to forget some of the things on this list. By mastering all of these areas of Cydia, you’ll find jailbreaking to be a much more enjoyable experience. Which tip do you like the most? Is there any tip that you would suggest including on this list? Sound off down below with your thoughts and opinions!

See Also: