If you get stuck in the restore loop

Question

Level 1

135 points

If you get stuck in the restore loop

If after you installed the new firmware and you are stuck in a restore loop (meaning once it finishes and loads back up in iTunes) choose to set up a new phone once the sync starts cancel it. The phone will then show up as normal in iTunes . You will have to uninstall all your apps and resync any ringtones and songs onto your phone. Be sure to unconnect the phone after this first sync that removes all your apps. if there are any apps still on the phoen delete them fromt he phone by holding an icon until they jiggle tap the little x to delete. After all remaining apps are deleted do a hard reset. Be sure that the phone is not busy when you do the hard reset. That circle thing that shows up when you send an email will show up if the phone is busy. Once you reset turn it back on and connect to computer and begin reinstalling your apps. I do four or five at a time. Remember to do a hard reset between syncs. You phone should be working great and backingup pretty fast.

Hope this helps anyone

3G 16gb White and 1st gen 4gb, Windows Vista

Posted on Aug 6, 2008 2:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

VFIVE

Level 1

10 points

Aug 30, 2008 1:59 AM in response to geauxracerx

*better option*

All you need to do is when your on the restore screen of death select the backup NOT setup as new phone hit continue and then unplug the phone straight away as soon as the screen changes.

Plug it back in and it works fine iTunes will start recognising it as a phone that has already been restored a million #$#$#$ times. You won't need to reinstall anything apart from the music so long as the previous time around you actually let your restore complete. (IE: don't do this unless your phone is actually restored and it's just iTunes that does not recognise it as restored)

Reply

Answer 2

Niclet

Level 1

9 points

Sep 9, 2008 11:56 PM in response to geauxracerx

Well, I faced the same problem this evening and I got the idea to take a look in the Activity Monitor and found a child of iTunes task, something like "SyncAfterRestore". It was showing no activity anymore and I just had to press the Quit button. Then, iTunes showed an alert with "+iPhone Restore was successfully completed, the device will now restart, blablabla.+" but in background the same restore option window in iTunes and the restore screen on the iPhone were still there like if they haven't resume. I simply eject and unplug my iPhone and made and hard reset. I also quit and restart iTunes. The iPhone took about 5 min. on the starting screen but then - miracle! - it started. I took a look and almost all my data were there. Although not all of my apps were there, a couple were missing. After I plug it in, iTunes automatically sync (not backup) the iPhone and added everything missing.

I'm still in that process, I'll update my comment if something else happens but I can tell you don't need to start to zero by choosing to set up a new phone... there's hope 😉

Reply