Q: ANY ONE KNOW WHAT IS ERROR 3 IN ITUNES WHEN I TRY TO RESTORE IPHONE 5 TO IOS 7 IT STUCKS IN THE END AND AFTER 30 MIN THIS COME OUT "UNKNOWN ERROR 3" CAN SOME ONE HELP ME PLZ

Hi jhawk929

Since you're back to error (3) try the freezer again, quickly pull it out and start recovery, then quickly put it back in the freezer. The Flash chips warm quickly which decreases the likelihood of this technique working so keeping the device in the freezer during recovery may be enough to get you through the Erase step successfully.

Okay as soon as i get the chance i will try the freezer step again. I am doing this on a desktop so the option of keeping it in the freezer isnt viable any other possible ideas for keeping it cold enough. Possibly would a freezer wrap that is cloth work to help keep it cold? Or maybe freezing it longer than 30 minutes?

Hi jhawk929

You might try turning down your freezer setting to as cold as it will go and give it an hour to get there then freeze for 1 hour. The issue is there is only 3 pounds of mass so more time will only do so much.

Okay I tried getting it to my desktop after an hour in the freezer and put a cold press on it through the plastic bag I had it freezing in but still the error 3 comes back. I would gladly post the logs you were talking about but I am not sure which logs in particular you are looking for that would help me the most

also on an another note i had previously tried restoring the ipad on another computer I did not get the (3) error but i did get the (-1) error I still am not sure which would be easier to bypass or currently how to get around either of them. But it is so stressful because I don't want to be stuck with a oversized paper weight.. lol

The -1 error is a hardware error. That one is easy, but it requires a trip to the Genius Bar. Hardware failure.

Log files:

Settings

General

About

Diagnostics & Usage

Diagnostics & Usage

There may or may not be multiple files listed.

I forget the name of the default install log name but I'm sure someone else in out group can remind us if there is more than one. It should be the top file in any list of files

Tap once to open the *.plist log file

Press and hold with one finger and you should get an option to "Select All" then repeat and select the option to "Copy"

Come back to this forum repeat press and hold with one finger and select the option "Paste"

Complete by posting. We can all look at it and share our thoughts.

I'll have to research Error (1) and get back to you

Thank you Mr Young!

I have never posted in these forums before, but was amazed the freezer Worked --Wow!

Quick Story--iphone 5 off warranty. Started to say 'searching' mult time a day.

I tried power off, shut down with both buttons, reset network connections. But nothing helped.

I tried to restore from iTunes, and got 'error 3'

My phone was then useless, spent 2 days retrying everything to get it out of recovery mode.

I read your freezer idea, but thought it was crazy. But, as a last resort I tried it.

Put phone in the freezer in a zip lock bag and a paper towel for ~40 minutes.

And it worked on the first try!!!

The phone was restored and updated from a cloud backup.

I was amazed! Thank you!

Mr Young,

I will post the logs that i believe are the ones you are looking for i hope that these can help because I have gotten to the (3) error on my girlfriends laptop by updating itunes and using the freshest itunes update for my ipad mini. Since, I've gotten to that point I had access to the freezer however it did not work. I tried first just plugging it in and running it in recovery mode, however that did not work. Then i tried running the recovery in dfu mode. I still ended up with the (3) error but here are the logs that i could find however i can not get the diagnostics from the ipad because it is stuck in the recovery mode so finding these i ran the diagnostics from itunes and these were my findings.

Microsoft Windows 8 x64 Home Premium Edition (Build 9200)

Acer Aspire V3-771

iTunes 11.1.3.8

QuickTime not available

FairPlay 2.5.16

Apple Application Support 2.3.6

iPod Updater Library 11.1f5

CD Driver 2.2.3.0

CD Driver DLL 2.1.3.1

Apple Mobile Device 7.0.0.117

Apple Mobile Device Driver 1.64.0.0

Bonjour 3.0.0.10 (333.10)

Gracenote SDK 1.9.6.502

Gracenote MusicID 1.9.6.115

Gracenote Submit 1.9.6.143

Gracenote DSP 1.9.6.45

iTunes Serial Number 004BBBF80CC13400

Current user is not an administrator.

The current local date and time is 2013-12-27 13:59:45.

iTunes is not running in safe mode.

WebKit accelerated compositing is enabled.

HDCP is supported.

Core Media is supported.

**** External Plug-ins Information ****

No external plug-ins installed.

**** Device Connectivity Tests ****

iPodService 11.1.3.8 (x64) is currently running.

iTunesHelper 11.1.3.8 is currently running.

Apple Mobile Device service 3.3.0.0 is currently running.

No Universal Serial Bus Controller found.

No FireWire (IEEE 1394) Host Controller found.

Most Recent Devices Not Currently Connected:

iPhone 4 (CDMA) running firmware version 6.1

Serial Number:          C25HL0MVDDP8

iPad mini (Wi-Fi + Cellular) running firmware version 6.1.2

Serial Number:          F4KJN418F19P

**** Device Sync Tests ****

No iPod, iPhone, or iPad found.

Hi Pshoe,

You're welcome! Glad one of this threads many different solutions worked for you!

Hi jhawk929,

My apologies. Knowing your ios device was looping, i should have told you where to look on your Mac or PC. This link gives a detailed example of where to find the ios crash logs on your Mac or PC:

http://www.iliumsoft.com/support/article/AA-01915/0/How-to-find-iOS-crash-logs

The crash log you want should contain information similar to what I show in the next example. Its possible that for some reason the crash log did not get created or you can't find it. If you can't find it, try to restore your device again, then go look for any new created file and you should find it.

Example:

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Waiting...bbupdater: OK

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: END: Sending 5 Images

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Finalize...bbupdater: OK

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Disconnecting...bbupdater: OK

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: BEGIN: Preparing Initial stage

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Requested boot mode:  kBBUBootModeNone

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Adding 60.000000 seconds in timeout for EFS erase

[19:01:20.0462]

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 1...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 0...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem not responding

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem must boot - attempts left 1

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Adding 60.000000 seconds in timeout for EFS erase

[19:01:20.0462]

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 1...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 0...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem not responding

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem must boot - attempts left 0

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: END(kBBUReturnTimedOut): Preparing Initial stage

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: END(kBBUReturnTimedOut): Perform stage at second

[19:01:20.0462] send_bbupdate_status: sending baseband update status to host

[19:01:20.0462] update_baseband: bbupdater error: The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (BBUpdater error 3 - Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.)

[19:01:20.0462] 0: RamrodErrorDomain/3ec: update_baseband: failed to perform next stage

[19:01:20.0462] 1: BBUpdater/3: Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.

OMG ! freezer works. I'v got error 3 and... 40 min inside freezer and my iPad lives. Thanks Kenn

i tried freezer tricks, wrapped my ipad3 with a small towel and put it in ziplock, into the freezer about 40mins, remove asap and connect to my laptop, turned out ipad3 low battery (battery symbol popped up on ipad screen) and spend few mins already charging (and ipad getting warmer each secs), so after that plug into laptop again, try restoring...and failed...

i guess my mistakes was not charging my ipad (but how to know since i cannot switch on ipad at all), and did not turn off my windows firewall and antivirus..

again i have to do it all over again later and will update...this is so frustrating..

never ever will i update ios again

I finally got over to the apple store.  After 2 DFU attempts, an attempt on a different computer  and a long conversation about error 3 with the genius bar and store manager they replaced my OW ipad.  They had not heard of error 3 yet so I showed them this website.   They were intrigued.   I got a new referb and they didnt charge me the replacement fee.  It was also still on  iOS 6.    However when I went to backup the game I have played for the last two years I could only back it up from an iOS 7 backup.  So I had to update the new refurb to iOS7.  I sure hope it doesnt happen again. Anyway so happy I got a new ipad without paying the replacement fee.   For those of you that the freezer trick did not work it is worth a shot going to the genius bar.   The referb also came with 90 day warranty! 

Lol more problems I went into the appdata and found the crash reports but none from trying to recover my ipad i think because itunes actually isnt even recognizing it as my ipad it just calls it "Ipad" the most recent crash report i have is from 12-24-13 and its an instagram crash log so somewhere my itunes is not recognizing my ipad at all. I'm sorry for all the trouble and I am extremely greatful for the help you have given so far, Im just trying to avoid a 3 hour drive to an apple store to try and have them fix it or get a new one.