Restore Error 20. I want to know what it is and I want to know now.

Same problem here. Phone is stuck in restore mode and won't stay off if I turn it off.

iTunes 7.7 says:

"The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (20)."

10.5.4, fully updated as of an hour ago.

Same thing happened to me when I tried to reinstall 2.0 to see if I could get the "remote" app to work. My machine crashed right in the middle and the recovery option kept giving me the error 20 message. I clicked option before pressing the restore button and that allowed me to select the 2.0 downloaded file verses the I'm sure 1.1.4 it was trying to install. It's currently working on it. I will report once it's done.

Yeah I'm having the same problem. When to phone is powered on it tells you to plug into iTunes. iTunes says that its in the middle of recovery, and ask to continue. If you hit restore it'll get past extracting software then in the next step comes out with that unknown error 20. I'd like to know if someone figures out how to fix this.

I am getting the same error (20). I have a unhacked 1st gen iphone. I downloaded the new itunes and it restore and upgrade. and now my phone is in a bootloop and won't exit. Itunes gives me the same error over and over.

Any ideas? Looks like apple dropped the ball on the latest releases.....mobileme is crashing, people can't upgrade 2.0.....obviously some bugs are to be expected but it seemed like they would have tried to iron out all the kinks considering how much hype they were putting towards the 3g, 2.0 and mobileme....

I am having the same problem as well... Wow.... does anyone know what the solution could be?

How are we or how could we by pass the Extract or at least, the recovery doesn't work, same error message 20. NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Now my itunes opened up and it look like the whole thing has reset itself, and I think I have to go through the process of unlocking it again! And in my itunes, it doesn't even show the serial number of my phone being activated or at least it doesn't recognize it...

looks like the 2.0 just went official (via iTunes) and the file name is slightly different:

iPhone1,2 2.0_5A347Restore.ipsw - yesterday's "pre-release"
iPhone1, 1 2.0_5A347Restore.ipsw - just released this morning

updating now. hope this fixes the downgrade problem.....

Your phone should have the latest 2.0 now but if it was an unlock phone previous to the upgrade than you made the same mistake as I did too! My phone has the latest version of 2.0 but it was restore back to its original setting, now I need to find a program to unlock the 2.0 version! NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo

iPhone1,1 2.0_5A347Restore.ipsw is for the first generation iPhones.
iPhone1,2.0 5A347Restore.ipsw is for the new G3 iPhones.

I don't know why the released the G3 software before the G3 phone, but that's why your phones are stuck in emergency mode and you're getting the error 20. Error 20 usually means the hardware is not compatible with the software. (Disclaimer: I am not 100% sure about the error message; this is just what my server manual says, and it was published in 1992.)

First generation iPhones are G2. Download the software here:
http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-4956.2 0080710.V50OI/iPhone1,12.0_5A347Restore.ipsw

I downloaded it, and just clicked the little box that downloaded onto my desktop. It doesn't solve everything, it just gets rid of that error 20 message. iTunes is still down, so you'll be in the same boat as everyone else.

This seems to have worked. After a couple of toggles, I now have 2.0 installed on my phone. I had to re-sync it, and I have over 2,000 files to put on it, I'm doing it now, and everything seems to be working. It seems to be syncing fine, and in the summary it said the software was 2.0.

Screenshot:
http://www.crimsonsparkle.net/images/itunes.png

Christine Kendall wrote:
iPhone1,1 2.0_5A347Restore.ipsw is for the first generation iPhones.
iPhone1,2.0 5A347Restore.ipsw is for the new G3 iPhones.

I don't think this is correct. I downloaded iPhone1,2.0 5A347Restore.ipsw on Thursday and installed it on my 1st gen iPhone with absolutely no errors, messages or problems and it is working fine.

-dan

I have a solution that worked for me!!!
i had the error 20 and couldnt update the software from itunes. the phones was bricked from the actual Itunes upgrade. it failed and kept updateing the same file fix over 5 times (at 160+megs). i was able to hit shift+restore after i downloaded the file - which leads to the option of choosing the file to restore manually. - i chose the file that was released unofficially yesterday and already downloaded from someone else. After about 10 minutes - the phone was back in business and life is good.

I'm getting the same error message. And my phone is currently toggling on and off on it's own. Any help would be grateful.

macbookruss,

What type of restore were you attempting to perform?

Thank you,

Nathan C.