Q: My phone has gone into recovery mode, but I want to save my pictures before I restore it. What do I do?

same exact problem here too. iphone5 spontaneously went into recovery mode this morning while i was on it, no update or prior issues... now it will not open and i am trying everything i can to get my photos off of it before i do a restore... my Windows PC also does not recognize the device.. HELP!! I did a back-up in june but have way too many pictures since then to lose.  ..also, if i were able to somehow get it to do a back up now, does it erase the backup i have from june, or add it on. how does this happen, seems to be a known problem as so many others have had the exact same issue!!!  .. any suggestions???

Same here. My PC does not recognize the device. tried the hard reset where the apple logo appears and nothing. how else can you pull the photos off? TIA!

I know this post is too late to help the OP, but hopefully it will be of some help to others.  This very thing happened to my wife's iPhone while attempting to update to iOS 7.  If you have a recent backup on your computer, the process is easy and straightforward.  However, you probably wouldn't be reading this if you did.  With any luck, you had the auto backup feature of iCloud turned on.  Whether you did or didn't, you will need to perform a restore or your phone will simply live out it's life as a paperweight. 

If you can not get restore to work, you may need to put your phone into DFU mode first. This was the case with my wife's phone.  The process is simple and quick. There are tons of how-tos all over the web, so a Google search is all that is needed.  Once your phone is in DFU mode, the restore process should complete. Once it does, you will either need to select to treat the phone as new or restore from a backup. If you don't have a recent backup, any backup will do.  If no backup is available at all, no worries.

When the restoration process is complete, go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all.  Once you erase all data and settings from the iPhone, using the phone itself, complete the activation process. Part of that process will be choosing an iCloud backup to restore from.  If you have a recent iCloud backup, you're good to go. If not, you'll have to use whichever backup (computer or iCloud) is most recent.  Unfortunately, that does mean you will lose the data from that point to the present.

My wife's most recent iCloud backup was only two days old, so she barely lost anything. Which was good, because she had a lot of pictures of our newborn son. Needless to say, we are now backing up our data in three different locations. Live and learn. I hope this helps!

P.S. using Google+ to auto backup your photos is a great option.

Message was edited by: btmead

Hello,

I am in the same boat of those who can only regret to have not properly backed up their iphone (beside telling (and setting up) every one around them to do so)... The worst part is that I can see all my pictures with Image capture but I cannot download any before the loop strikes back. Very frustrating.

So I now have a great iPhone 5 brick stuck in boot loop. Tried everything I could find but of course nothing is available yet as the A5 chip is not accessible as far as I can understand.

I will sit on my iBrick as long as it takes as I have so many pics and vids that I don't want to loose. I will just wait as long as it takes... I am just waiting for some good news but I am not really sure where to look for it.

I have seen that http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/02/new-exploit-makes-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-jail breakable-life.html but it seems to be only for 4S (possibly good for wpimlico ?) but it looks like I'm still on the same boat as MICHAELMCCARTH...

If anyone has a good input or a direction to look, it would be most welcomed. I promess next time I'll back up properly and leave that thread alone...

IF you don't know your stuff, KiltedTim, please don't reply argumentatively.  If the phone is in recovery mode, it has corrupted files, just like any other hard drive.  It hasn't been wiped until you fully restore.  That's a pretty well known state of affairs.

I suggest you go and check your facts before accusing others of not know what they are talking about because it quite obvious by your statement you certainly don't know what you are talking about.

Oh yeah, Allan?  See what those ten or so people above have to say about that, when he was clearly wrong. 

So I just did this on my iPhone 4 and it worked like a charm it unlocked it immediately. My phone was put into recovery mode and I know that not all data is deleted it just puts the phone into a sort of hibernation in order for the files to stay uncorrupted. I went to  http://www.recovery-ipad.com/iphone-stuck-in-recovery-mode.html  downloaded the software it unlocked my phone in a matter of minutes. Calls, messages, photos, apps, and voicemail was all there as if it never happened  If you leave it unregistered you don't have to pay for it works for either windows or mac. Hope this helps!

my computer isnt asking me to import photos

The software linked to here, Mac Fonelab, worked beautifully for me. My iPhone went into recovery mode during a failed update, and by allowing the phone to simply restart with this software, the phone was fully restored (no data loss). Fortunately, I knew better than to initiate a recovery in iTunes prior to attempting the software restart.

YMMV, but this worked perfectly for me.

I had the same problem and the windows solution did not work for me. Note: I did not restore the ipad when the problem initially occured. I used RecBoot (free software for the mac - but I think it works with windows too http://www.hackintoshosx.com/files/download/2596-recboot-2-2-mac/). It detects the device when you connect it to the mac, then gives you the option to remove the device from recovery mode. Once I did this, it opened as usual in iTunes and iPhoto and all data was fine. I guess it must depend on the severity of the issue that has resulted in being put into recovery mode. Mine happened when an error occured during an update to IOS 8. Hope this helps.

I'm trying to do this but when I click on the 'computer' bar, the only things that pop up are "Acer."  When I click on it, there is nothing that has anything to do with my iPod.  Any suggestions?

you can save your computer or upload on mediafire

For what it is worth I tried this on a windows 7 machine with an iPhone 5s that is in recovery mode and the phone was not seen by the windows.  So opening the computer in the windows explorer did not show the phone device.  (Problem happened when updating ios 7 to ios 8.)  Looks like it works for some devices, just now all...

Indeed jbond110 is correct. Recovery mode is just a state where your iDevice believes that a major problem has occurred in the system and will refuse to start up correctly. Purposes for going into recovery mode can be for escaping the ever so terrible boot loop that causes your device to constantly restart until drained (or destroyed (physically)). Your data is still on there but currently is unaccessible. In about 1 year I have already gotten my iPod Touch 3g into 4 boot loops because I tweak around with it a lot. And currently I am stuck in 1. If anyone knows any possible way to restore my iPod without losing my important file data, please inform me. Even if you have the slightest bit of knowledge that would be of use too. Thank You...