iphone not picking up mobile joomla

Hmm, it should be impossible to break desktop layout by disabling Mobile-Forever. Mobile Joomla is developed in such a way that it shouldn't affect desktop version at all. And what exactly do you mean by "break the desktop layout"?

With Mobile-Forever, the mobile version does not load when I test via Google Mobile test.

Right now, Mobile-Forever is disabled. When you do a check on your end, is the mobile version loading?

With Mobile-Forever disabled, desktop version CSS does not load (the site has SSL enabled) - I have to turn Mobile-Forever back on in order for everything to work.