iPhone and iPod touch: Unable to restore
- Last Modified: April 29, 2008
- Article: HT1808
Summary
If you have tried to
restore your iPhone or iPod touch using iTunes and are unable to do so, try the following steps to force the device into recovery mode.
Products Affected
iPhone, iPod touch
Symptoms that may have occurred with an unsuccessful restore may include a frozen screen—either at the Apple logo or some other application—or the device may repeatedly reset.
- Verify you have iTunes 7.5 or later. Apple recommends using the latest version of iTunes.
- Disconnect the USB cable from the iPhone or iPod touch.
- Power off the device (Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red slider appears, then slide the slider. Wait for the the iPhone or iPod touch to turn off.
- Press and hold the Home button while reconnecting USB cable. When you reconnect USB, the device should then power on.
Note: If you see the message "Charging... Please Wait" or you see the screen pictured below, let the device charge for at least 10 minutes to ensure the battery has some charge and then start with step 2 again.
- Continue holding the Home button while iPhone starts up. While starting up, you will see the Apple logo.
- When you see "Connect to iTunes" on the screen, you can release the Home button and iTunes will display the recovery mode message:
If you don't see the "Connect to iTunes" screen, then disconnect the USB cable from iPhone and repeat steps 3-6.
Because you must restore iPhone or iPod touch, iTunes will not recover data from the device, but if it was previously synced on the same computer and the same user account, it should restore a backup (if available). See document 305744, "
Updating and Restoring iPhone Software."
If you are still unable to restore the iPhone using this method, check Apple support for further troubleshooting and/or service options.
Note: If you sync both an iPhone and an iPod touch to the same computer, make sure you select the correct backup to restore your settings from (don't select an iPhone backup if you have an iPod touch and don't select an iPod touch backup if you have an iPhone).