Unknown Error 28

When restoring my iPhone, the message comes up that the iPhone could not be restored, unknown error (28).

What's the problem?

iPhone, iPhone OS 2.x

Posted on Jun 17, 2009 5:02 PM

Reply
68 replies

Sep 29, 2009 8:31 AM in response to edavis8

Hi guys, here it goes. Had exactly the same problems and tried and tried. I nearly gave up when I stumbled accross another post which discussed downgrading from 3.1 to 3.0. And I found the problem and solution.
This is an extract from this article which will help you all to fix the stupid error 28!

"+So, we begin: hold down the lock and menu buttons (some call these the power and home buttons) for 10 seconds, letting go of the lock button but continuing to hold menu until iTunes recognizes the device with the message: “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes.”.+

+Note that, at this point+, _your iPhone’s screen should be entirely black_. +Many people confuse “DFU” with “recovery” (and in fact, iTunes itself glosses over this), but they are quite different. If you see anything on your screen, such as the iTunes logo and a sync cable, or a cartoon of Steve Jobs swearing in Cyrillic, you are in recovery mode and need to try again. One can find videos online that may help+."

My phone's screen was never black when I did the restore and so it never worked. However, I did what he says a couple of times and managed to get this black screen and the restore worked first time!

I am not the most technical person and the phone is actually my boss's. I had to make a profile on here to help all you guys because I was just as frustrated. Let me know if it has worked for you and spread the word to fellow sufferers!
Kat xx

Message was edited by: katrininengland

Oct 7, 2009 2:31 AM in response to edavis8

Hi,

I have the same problem, my 2G iPhone was working perfectly, and sundly turned off and the iPhone gets stuck in the following image:.

http://grok.lsu.edu/Mobile/Image.aspx?imageId=16960

happens I turn to iTunes and it tells me "iTunes has detected an iPhone in the recovery mode. must restore this iPhone before it can use it with iTunes."
I then restore 'shift + FW 3.0', it starts to come into contact with the iPhone until you get to the apple symbol + the progress bar below (ie the iphone) and then the following message appears'Not was possible to restore the iPhone. An error occurred unknown (28)'.
And the iPhone back to iTunes logo!
I've tried in DFU but by the log of iTunes is always displayed.

I think I got a new toy, a brick!

Some assistance please!

ps-he was with the 3.0, and im from Portugal, and sorry about my English...

Nicolai

Message was edited by: nicolairachenco

Message was edited by: nicolairachenco

Oct 17, 2009 11:42 AM in response to nicolairachenco

Hi all,

Unfortunately I haven't been able to use my iPhone after I replaced the external glass as suggested in YouTube... once I made it, I immediately had the iTunes icon with the USB cable connecting image, requiring a software restoring but once I try to do it: a message box appears saying "The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (28)".

I have tried unsuccesfully several methods to make it work:

Install latest version of iTunes.
Restart my PC and try again.
Restore iPhone from another PC.
Create a new Admin account and restore from there.
DFU mode.
Downgrade to version 2.2.1.

Nothing has worked. Someone knows what could be happening ? 😟

Oct 21, 2009 10:19 AM in response to edavis8

Unable To Restore iPhone – What Can You Do If You Are Unable To Restore iPhone
70 rate or flag this page

By iphone-downloads

If you are unable to restore iPhone, there are a few things you can do which this article will show you in detail. There can many reasons why people are unable to restore iPhone. The solutions provided here should work for majority of users. But before that, let’s take a look at what restoring iPhone does.

In order to restore an iPhone, you "need to have a backup of it before hand".
No back up, no restore could be what the problem is for many of us.

A backup occurs every time you:

1. sync your iPhone with iTunes
2. Update your iTunes
3. Restore your iPhone ( iTunes will prompt for a backup before restore process begins.)

Jan 8, 2010 9:05 PM in response to geetarista

I was stuck on the apple boot logo and my computer would not recognized the Iphone 3g. I tryed everything imaginable to get it to sync and restore. after many failed attempts and three other pcs I was able to get it to recovery mode. when attempting to restore it would stop and give me error 28 this iphone cannot be restored. after at least 30 attempts to restore and error 28 every time. I thought it was a lost cause. this morning while holding the iphone in my hand and turning it over and over morning the loss of my toy, I observed a piece of lint in the charging port and thought I know that has nothing to do with this issue but I should clean it out, I took a dental pick with a flat edge and started to clean the port and I wasn't overly careful becuase the phone was junk and I was going to send it back to apple for out of warranty replacement. and all I can say is the dental pick must have grounded out something simular to test pointing a cellphone becuase while rubbing it around in there it caused the phone to reboot and now it works perfectly. I did not even have to restore the phone. I will tell you I messed with this phone for over six hours and read every post on the internet to try to fix this issue with no luck. and I fixed it on my own with a flat dental pick. with the screen facing down in the palm of your hand stick the metal tool of your choice in the larger gap closer to the chrome bezel and wiggle it around gently like you are cleaning lint out, and see if you can get it to reboot. mine did. yahoo.

Jan 21, 2010 3:53 AM in response to nicolairachenco

Hi, I am experiencing the same dilemma with you guys. I'm afraid if this is really a hardware issue. It was working well, then all of a sudden sluggish then crashed. I opted to restore a lot of times but every time I use an app it will crash then will try to DFU + restore again. Then as of tonight, I can't even restore. Error 28. Tried installing and downgrading even to 2.2. Still fail.

Tried 2 notebooks, upgrade / downgrade iTunes. no luck. The hardware is really pricey. Can't do anything about it..

Jan 27, 2010 10:24 PM in response to edavis8

i was having the same problem, but after trying everything i finally uninstalled itunes off my computer and then reinstalled it and now my phone seems to be running fine again. a couple factors could have had a lot to do with it though.. when i reinstalled itunes i had my sim card out when it was restoring. also, the amount of attempts to restore before i uninstalled itunes may have helped the outcome.

Feb 19, 2010 1:55 AM in response to edavis8

Had this problem last night & tried everything listed in the thread. As a last resort, put a different sim card (T-Mobile - normally o2) in it and tried again. It worked - phone restored!. Replaced the o2 sim card and everything back to normal.

No idea what caused the problem, although had phone unlocked by o2 earlier in week, but don't give up trying.to restore.

Mar 12, 2010 5:40 AM in response to edavis8

I have the same problem. My phone was under warrenty and I sent it in for repair...it was returned covered in sweat and case cracked and APPLE claimed it was not covered because of water damage. They had me check the liquid indicators before I sent it in and they were fine! I believe this is a scam and I am interested to know how many others this has happend to also to join in holding Apple accountable

Mar 26, 2010 7:46 PM in response to edavis8

Guys, I had my iPod touch 2G returned from the dead and I want to share my thoughts about error 28. I think it is related to the battery. I used a wrong cable with it and it overheated when I left it recharging. Two days after that, the problem started. I know that many of you (or all of you) did not make any kind of dumb mistake like this, but have you left your iPod in the car in a hot day? Or was it heated in any way (like left in the sun, for example?). That would explain the problem. Ok, I’m not writing this for therapy, so I will go direct to the point on how I’m managed to bring it back. I think I have a partial solution (or a workaround); well at least it is working for me.
First things first: don’t try to recover it during the day. Try it late night or in the morning. Every time I tried in the day I had the error 28 and I think it happens because you need an available slot with Apple to receive the files. Late night and morning worked for me (sometimes in the second or third time, but it worked). My time zone is Eastern (think Miami).
How to proceed:
1) Charge it, even if it appears to be dead. You will know that it is charging because it will be a little warm behind the menu button. I recommend not using iTunes. If you have a way to plug it in the outlet (using the appropriate adaptor) it would be better.
2) Does it show the initial page (the usb cabe with the disk and musical notes)? Put it in DFU mode if not (hold power and menu button at the same time for 10 seconds, release the power button after the apple logo and the menu button after the initial page.
3) Hold the power button till it boot (I didn’t put mine in DFU because the initial page was appearing for me).
4) Now you connect it with iTunes.
5) Try the recover (remember not to do it during the day). Be patient and give it more than one try if needed (I don’t have the warranty anymore, so I had to be patient).
This worked for me and I used the iPod for two days, but when the battery was low I plugged it in the iTunes and I lost it again. I had to repeat every thing and now it is working. So, give it a full charge in the outlet before connecting to iTunes.
What is happening with my iPod after my last recover (fourth because I did not figure it out that it needed to be charged before connected to iTunes): the “slide to unlock” button is not working after putting it to be charged. Only after being fully charged the button works again. I don’t j, so I just use as much as I want, I charge it in the outlet and then connect it to iTunes if needed. It is a little bit annoying, but not as annoying as losing the iPod.
I will post something if my iPod gives up again, ok? But, so far so good.
I really hope this can help someone.

Jun 1, 2010 9:44 AM in response to (!@v)*^

I had the same problem with my IpodTouch 2G... but i got it fixed !

' I found this on a demonstration-video on YouTube '

Simply run Redsnow 0.7.1/0.7.2 or 0.8 and follow the steps in it and wait for the white screen , As soon as you get the white screen unplug the cable from your Ipod touch 2nd gen in such a way that your ipod touch screen remains white. This is the key. Now quickly close redsnow and Open Itunes and quickly press shift + Restore and locate your 2.2.1(5h11a) file for your Ipod touch 2nd gen (Be quick to do this because white screen will go away in 20 seconds) and you will eventually see that you are all set.
If you need Ipod touch 2nd gen 2.2.1 firmware file you can get it here http://www.megaupload.com/?d=32GYNSYI

You can download Redsnow from here http://theiphoneproject.org/windows/r...
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=R4FXOE0Y

Jun 7, 2010 4:30 PM in response to KDBUSED

Ok, I had the same error that I was able to fix but it came back. I have a 3G without jailbreak and up to date to the latest firmware. One day, all of the sudden, it turned off and get stuck with the apple logo. I tried to recover it and then the story of Error 28 started. After investigating on the forums I did try everything suggested and nothing worked. Out of boredom, the third day I installed iTunes on my computer at work and try it again. Surprise!!! It worked. Came back home and back it up with no problems. That was like two weeks ago. Today, I run out of battery and connect it to the computer. And it all started again. But now with my computer at work it's not working, I'll try on a new iMac at home and let you know.
In my opinion this is not hardware related but more towards the battery. I read somewhere about charging only to a wall plug if you run out of power, and in my case it seems to be true.

Sep 28, 2010 10:08 AM in response to edavis8

i have same problem. when i drop my iphone and try to restore get error 28. some people says hardware problem. and i open my iphone 3gs and open the motherboard.
and i think some conection loss from my iphone. and i try press the NAND flash and apple proccesor and restore it via itunes and i,ts work. now my iphone works
you can try just becareful when you open the motherboard. and you try your at your owen risk, just becareful oke thanks. these the addres if you want see picture iphone 3g or 3gs http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq34/prod on28/L2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://i-thinkbig.blogspot.com/2009/11/iphone-3g-and-3gs-motherb oard-diagram.html&usg=__QAigKVrtXhv1zWvQ8eOcoGW6M6M=&h=576&w=1022&sz=145&hl=en&s tart=14&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Ch9Af0quPtc_GM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3 Fq%3Diphone%2B3gs%2Bmotherboard%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4ADFAenUS357US357%26tbs%3Disch:1

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Unknown Error 28

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