iPhone OS 4 Upgrade failed - now got a bricked phone. Apples fault?

After spending an overnight trying to make rhyme and reason of this upgrade, I believe I've solved the riddle of the sphinx. At least for me, hopefully for you as well. Two key items to note: 1. I downloaded the firmware straight from Apple's servers (Google that) and 2. I used the USB cable that came with my iPhone 3Gs. Note: It's only when I swapped out the cable (I was using my iPod USB cable all this time) is when all of a sudden significant progress was made.

I hope this saves someone an awful amount of time today.

Worked this morning. No reason why. Nothing changed. Lost a whole day to this.

Also getting error 21. Am using the 3GS cable. Called apple, they had no idea, and offered to replace the phone. Which, normally, would be fine, except that I'M IN ENGLAND ON BUSINESS. So, um, the only phone an Apple store here can give me is a Euro version. Which is useless to me. Now I have no phone. No GPS navigation. No love for Apple.

look at my case :

i've updated 2 Iphone 3GS on the same PC

the first one everything was ok and at the moment it's wroking great

for the second one, less luck, i am getting two error : the 21 one and the 3104 or 3014 (can't remember )

so it looks like it's a "default" on some iphone 3GS,

anyway i will try on my macbook "in case of"

This is what happened to me. On Monday I upgraded my iphone 3g to ios4 and after it upgraded my iphone it went to a perpetual recovery mode. I couldnt turn the phone on and everytime i tried to restore it would give me a unknown error message.To make a long story short and to solve this problem, what i did was find the folder the iphone keeps the upgrade (/users/your name/AppData/Roaming/AppleComputer/itunes/Iphone software updates), in there you should see the 4.0 upgrade. Delete that and restart the computer and then start itunes and connect the phone again and hit restore again and also make sure your firewall is off. After i did that it upgraded the phone and then it backup all by itself. Hope this helps you.

Was having all the same problems...

I deleted the update and downloaded a new one several times...
then...
CHANGED TO A NEWER CABLE!!!!

The cable made the difference for some reason and it worked like a champ

For PC, activate all hidden files

C:\Documents and Settings\your_account\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates

or download using any download manager.
here...
http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone4/061-7381. 20100621.AzSP9/iPod3,14.0_8A293Restore.ipsw

close your itunes.

click the newly download file...follow the instructions...



enjoy : )

I wish so bad that I had found and read this thread before attempting to upgrade to iOS4!!!! It has been months since I was able to even sync my 3G with my 64 bit Windows 7 PC, and found out today that all I had to do was uninstall Bonjour (which installed itself without asking me the last time I upgraded iTunes) and I was finally able to sync my phone. I backed it up, resynched, then downloaded the new OS 4. It had an error, so I retried to download, and it downloaded fine. Then it spent an hour and a half installing...and BRICKED MY PHONE. I am stuck on the "connect to itunes or emergency call" screen, and when I connect to iTunes, iTunes doesn't do anything. I did a diagnostic, and it said it could see my phone connected but couldn't sync. I'd call Apple tech support...BUT MY PHONE HAS BEEN NUKED! Even if they replace my phone, how do I get all the data back on it?? Apple, get your ******* act together!

I'm faced with a connect to itunes screen.
And I tried restoring but I faced an error 1604 and restoring is cancelled.

Same problem here with OS4.0 update freezing and this is how I fixed it after several futile recovery attempts.

-I installed Itunes 9.2 on my wife's Win 7 64bit laptop... in otherwords use a different PC than you sync to
-Reset iphone to the plug into iTunes stage
-Itunes asked to do a recovery and then fetched OS4.0 and the install went thru fine
-When it reached the "name your iphone" setup screen, I ejected the phone and plugged it back into my PC with a fresh OS4.0 all gtg
-My Itunes then gave me the choice to either set it up as a new phone or restore Russell's iPhone from the last backup (which I chose)
-All my files, music, photos, apps etc were put back on and I /cheered

Fixed and happy 🙂

I think I finally got things working.

I had to completely remove everything Apple as instructed here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

Then reinstall 64 bit Windows 7 iTunes 9.2: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1047

Then iTunes recognized my iPhone (stuck on "connect to iTunes" screen) finally, and restored the sync/backup I had made prior to attempting to upgrade to iOS4.

Good luck!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1275
Anyone with problems of restoration.

Haven't tried it, so unsure if it helps.

same problem here.... i'll try the different cable and repeat downloads of os4 and restores....

Well. My 3G iphone screwed up last night during the OS4 update. Stuck in recovery mode. I spent hours and hours, working through the problem. DF mode, different PC, same PC etc. In the end I managed to sort the phone out by creating a second user account on my PC, running and updating itunes. Which took an age, then the phone updated and reset to factory settings, but works.

Now the kicker is, I've lost everything off the phone. Apps, music, contacts etc. I was going to upgrade to the iphone 4 tomorrow in the UK on release, but I am not so sure now.

Hi to Everyone,
I think iPhone is totally trash product. Since I got my iPhone 3GS with firmware 3.1.2 I used it for couple of days and came up new update to 3.1.3. then the phone stuck. Afer 6 weeks I received new one -- about a week ago. Now came up new update to 4.0 and here we go the same problem DFU mode and no possibible to recover it. I am enough of Apple's products. Apple should not produce the phones at all because I dont know how about you but as I see the phone has very low signal. In the place where Nokias, some fake phones made in China have signal - at least some, iPhone shows NO SERVICE. Recently I am out of my country on business trip and I need to make some photos type some emails etc. Apple just has PARALIZED ME!! So no matter what I am going to buy some Android phone again. iPhone is going to be given as a gift to my enemy I would like to know what to do with it??? As somebody said here --wont buy iPhone again. Enough for the rest of my life!! Apple should learn from it and try to be reliable.