HT1933 I am having a problem where EVERY app on my iPhone suddenly started crashing and NONE of them are now usable.

Question

No clue why.  Includes apple apps.  I have no idea *which* of the 500 apps I should select to report.  None were new at the time it started…, etc.  Just doing the same old things with the same old apps one day (and no recent updates) and the next day everything was crashing within 5-65 seconds of opening the app. It's been that way ever since. Usually crash time is closer to 5 seconds after touching the app.  Occasioinally I can get up to 30-40.
I have tried removing individual apps and avoiding using individual apps (particularly those that I always use; again, this is inexplicable.)
I have tried resetting the phone (2 button hold)
I have tried restarting.
I have tried using only apple apps.  The phone app is the only one that is mostly usuable; if they called me, and the phone app crashes, it puts the green message bar at the top and usually doesn't disconnect, but it's hard to test and I rarely use the phone.  Sometimes after a phone call the iPhone will remain stable for as much as 20 minutes.
I have tried using only one app.
I have tried restoring to a backup.
I have tried restoring and using it with *no* backup.  It seemed to work for nearly an hour, even after redownloading a few old apps to the phone via 3G; problem is I have a handful of apps with data in them that is very important to me and I do not know any other way to back them up and get their data back on the iPhone.  If I can isolate these apps' backup data and reset everything else, I'd be willing to try it.
I was convinced it was a hardware issue until I got the brief apparent success with restoring with no backup.  (above)
I need new ideas… I can always bite the bullet and get a new phone, but I really want to find out how to make sure this problem doesn't crop up again.

Answer 1

Have you tried clean up the apps in the multitask window?
On you iPhone, force close all the Apps in the multitask window.
Follow these steps to force an app to close:
From the Home screen, click the Home button twice.
Tap and hold on the app.
When it starts to jiggle, tap the to close it on eby one until all cleared
Now do a Soft reset of your iPad:
Hold both Home and Sleep button for around 10secs until you see the Apple logo then release. After it returns to Home screen, try your Apps again.