iOS17 update: unknown error occurred (7) 06AA.FFFF

I encountered this recently while attempting to update my mother-in-law’s iPhone 13. She was on iOS 16.7.2. We tried updating to iOS 17.1.1 OTA a dozen times. Each time it goes through the motion of downloading the software, looks like it was being installed, only to find after a restart, her phone remained on iOS 16.7.2. This was peculiar behavior. For this, I forced/hard reboot several times to no avail. This was probably the first bad sign. 

My research on the internet led me to attempt the update via iTunes. When I tried this, iTunes attempts to backup the phone but errors out. I should have taken this as the second bad sign. After further research, you can force iTunes to skip the backup. I didn’t need to backup the phone as this was supposed to be a straightforward iOS update. As I proceeded with the update, iTunes was progressing quite nicely. Firmware was being updated. iPhone software was being updated. Software was being verified and completes. Then, a longer than usual pause. That’s when the infamous message up:

”The iPhone “iPhone” could not be updated. An unknown error occurred (7). 06AA.FFFF”

At this point, there’s nothing you can do other than hit “ok” and unplug your phone. When it restarts, you get a white screen that says “Swipe up to upgrade”. Never seen this before. Then when you swipe up, you are asked to enter a passcode. And no, it is not the pass code that you had to unlock the phone. It won’t work. And that’s it… a bricked iPhone.

After researching hours, I discovered DFU (Device Firmware Update) or Recover mode. This is where you plug your iPhone into your computer via USB, leave it plugged, and then do the up volume, down volume, and hold power button. You hold the power button past the apple logo until you see a computer icon and a lightning cable icon show up. At this point, iTunes/Finder will detect this and ask if you want to “update” or “restore”. Update will attempt to install the latest iOS and KEEP your data. Restore will do a factory reset and install the latest iOS, losing all your data. I attempted update several times and it always ends with the dreaded “error 7” code. The internet has very little information on this error code. More research led me to hope that maybe it’s a computer or cable issue. After 4 computers (2 PC and 2 Macbooks) and 7 cables later (USB-A and USB-C types) all attempts resulted in “error code 7”.

I tried Apple Support chat and they had no clue what error code 7 was. This eventually led to a Genius Bar appointment. FYI, the only way I was even able to get to chat support was that I was able to get the iPhone’s serial number off the iTunes screen when it attempted to update the iPhone. 

I wanted one last ditch effort to talk to an expert at the Apple Store. Well all they did was what I already did above with Recovery Mode to Update. They saw error code 7 which even they had no idea what it was. It came down to Recovery Mode to Restore, which meant complete data loss. If this didn’t work, then it would point to hardware issue. Otherwise, error code 7 just implied software glitch. Recovery Mode to Restore worked and the iPhone was back to normal operation but with no data. At this point, it’s like a new phone setup. Any iCloud backup or data will download. So luckily not everything was lost. Surprisingly all the cellular info and activation info were not affected. This meant you can still call folks and not have to go through carrier activation.

In any case, I’m leaving my account here for anyone who comes across the same issue. My biggest problem is that there are several incidences of error 7 during my internet search but none of the original people ever came back to tell what happened or how it was resolved, and what they tried. Hopefully, future readers can find some benefit here. Ultimately if you go through the process above, you can save yourself a trip to the Genius Bar and do the restore at home. But you will lose data if iTunes Recovery to Update does not work. Once you get to the “white screen of death - swipe up to upgrade”, there’s very little you can do.

Looking back some learnings come to mind:

• if OTA updates are not working - backup your data and proceed to Apple support
• if backup errors out don’t force an upgrade

For the last bullet, I came up with a thought that you could use a spare iPhone to backup or duplicate your iPhone and then transfer the data back over should you have to do a factory reset. The other option was to pay for iCloud storage to backup for a month and restore from there.

Good luck to anyone who has encountered this.

I got the same error today (iTunes unknown error 7, swipe up to upgrade, enter passcode does not working...) and I solved it.

Result: Successfully recovered and upgraded to iOS 17.5.0 β, can use the phone normally, photos and all app data are kept (presumable no data loss), 100% local recovery without using any iCloud/external backups (since I don't have any backup).

This is what I did and what happened to me. I post it here to potentially help someone who are in the same trouble. But, my success may due to I'm lucky, so if you cannot reproduce what I say below, please don't blame me. Also, because I'm a computer science student, I have some knowledge and experiences on dealing with operation systems, and this may be another reason why I can find my way to success by myself. This only worked for me, doesn't mean it will work for everyone. As a result, if you decided to follow what I said below, you need to fully responsible on any data loss and/or any bad results happens to your own device. I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING HAPPENED TO YOUR PHONE IF YOU DECIDED TO FOLLOW WHAT I'M SAYING BELOW! (Also, my final solution involved a β version of iOS which may not be stable and contains vulnerabilities, please try at your own risk)

(iPhone 11, Windows iTunes, didn't make any backup before upgrading)

I tried to update to iOS 17.4.1 from iOS 15.x at the beginning. Because my device didn't have enough space to download and update, I connected my device to iTunes on my PC and started upgrading to iOS 17.4.1 . At the beginning iTunes told me I need about 1.2 GB on my phone to upgrade, and I deleted some apps on my phone to make 1.4 GB available. The first attempt failed with "unknown error 7" after the verification process after upgrading fireware and software. Then my phone stuck in the "swipe to upgrade" and "enter passcode" (with full keyboard) screen. All my passwords, from my phone's 6-digit password to my Apple ID's password, are NOT working at all.

Then, I manually switched my phone to DFU mode (recovery mode) and clicked "upgrade" on my PC's iTunes again. This time, no error presented, as iTunes told me my phone was successfully upgraded. But the trouble didn't end here. When my phone entered the main screen, I found that all my personal apps are missing, and even some system apps (for example, Call, Messages, Safari and even App Store) are missing. Most of the rest apps which didn't missing cannot use (quit instantly when I touch the icon) except Settings, Tips and Calculator. And my wallpaper becomes pure black. I tried to reset all settings (while keeping personal data) in Settings, but after reboot everything still like that (black wallpaper, missing apps, apps cannot use). I tried go back to DFU manually, upgrade again iOS 17.4.1 with iTunes, and nothing changed. And even worse is that when I connect my phone to PC iTunes, my phone ask me whether to trust the computer, I clicked "trust" but iTunes on PC still tell me does not trust. Seems the connection between iOS and PC are also broken. Now my phone is a half-brick. Can boot, can see the main screen, but no App Store, no Safari, no Phone Call and Messages, apps like Camera can not open, even no connection to iTunes under normal mode (DFU mode can connect)... Another interesting thing is that, when I open the storage settings, I found my phone automatically cleaned up more than 20GB of available space (remember that when I started the upgrade at the very beginning, I only have 1.4GB available on my phone.)

Then, I found that a third party apple device management software on PC offers an official IPSW download of iOS 17.5 β version (which does not directly downloadable in iTunes which seems only offers the latest stable version, not β versions, to users). I downloaded the IPSW for iOS 17.5 β then enter DFU and use iTunes to install this β version of iOS (press Shift while clicking "upgrade" in iTunes will pop up a window to let you manually selete the IPSW file to install). After a normal upgrading progress, my phone showed up a GUI that is similar to what you see when you just by a new iPhone. From "Hello" screen, Wi-Fi settings, set password, set face ID, and some settings related to privacy, then, everything came back!!!! I see my lovely wallpaper covered with the icons of my personal apps again! And it seems that no data lost since all my chat history in my chat app are still there. And my system is now iOS 17.5 β. Presumably a successful recovery without any data loss and didn't rely on any backups!

I think the initial problem is caused by low available space in phone when starting upgrading, and I upgraded: iOS 15.x --> Unknown Error 7 --> Swipe to upgrade --> iOS 17.4.1 (But still broken) --> iOS 17.5 β to solve all the problem. It may due to my luck, so my experience may can not be reproduced easily. But still, hope this is helpful to you who are also in the same trouble (unknown error 7, and swipe to upgrade with passcode). Good luck!

Anche a me è capitata la stessa cosa adesso aggiornando iPhone 11. Facendo il reset forzato si riavvia e spunta una schermata grigia mia vista dove chiede di inserire un codice ma non si capisce quale perché sembra un codice di testo. Allego la foto. Potete aiutarmi?

I too hit this problem upgrading an iPhone 12 to iOS 17, including the white screen and passcode prompt that doesn't accept the code for the phone.

I did the forced reset (press+release up volume, press+release down volume, press and hold power button for ~10 seconds until you see the Apple logo), but the phone came back to the same white screen and passcode after the reboot.

The solution was to do a forced reset but continue holding the power button even after the Apple logo appears and ALSO press the volume up button which puts the phone into "restore" mode (I had it plugged into a Mac). Once in restore mode, I was able to use the Mac to do a factory reset and then a full restore (which took ~45 minutes for 70GB).

So far the phone seems to be working. Just in case anyone else runs into this.

Its my first time commenting on such forum even tho I’m apple user since +10y (and a lot happened during this time with different iOS/apple devices) - the reason I comment only now is because what you describe happened to me this night and it was A NIGHTMARISH experience. First - thank You for sharing your experience, because with this specific error there are almost no testimonies online - without this thread it would be EVEN worst situation.

I will share what helped me, because it was a bit different.

I was updating my 2nd gen iPhone SE - via M2 end of 2022 MacBook Air which is running newest iOS.

I should have get more suspicious when first time something was weird - when an iPhone was already connected and update was downloaded via Mac and process of updating iOS of iPhone via Mac was happening - at some point process was rejected (but it caused nothing CRITICAL, so I thought ‘ nothing happened ‘ - I just had to restart the process from the start, unplug, reconnect my phone, redownload iOS update etc)

well, then - indeed the process went through but at the end I got this error and it was instantly obvious that something went terribly wrong.

timing couldn’t be worst. I started an update just as I was preparing to sleep - in few hours I had planned long distance journey, between countries using: tram, train, taxi, plane, plane, taxi - you know that in a moment like this you 10000% rely on your phone. And here I was - lost my phone, access to all tickets and possibility to start my journey. So i didn’t sleep, just kept fighting to try to restore my phone - thanks to you I resign from trying fifth time to just update, but started to push for restoring while I made peace that I lost all my data and years of memories.

now, whoever got to this point reading it - it WASNT working, the combination of iPhone SE connected to Mac m2 running on newest iOS - obviously my Mac doesnt have an iTunes, so restoring via iTunes was out of questions. Endless dead ends, not being able to ‘trust’ this computer after multiple attempts of redownloading but always ending up on this dead screen asking for a code that doesn’t exist (you posted a screen shot of it)

WHAT HELPED

in last attempt of desperation - I took my Mac air mid 2013 which barely works - thanks god it became alive with cable this time - and that Mac obviously has older iOS and it has iTunes - so I connected iPhone to that Mac - it didn’t work out twice - different type of problems kept occurring still at different time, BUT finally that update - got downloaded to my old Macs iTunes - and I had to remember to keep my iPhone off then - once it was downloaded I restarted it and kept pushing on button and volume super long - and only in this attempt it didn’t get stuck on trust / not trust this computer nor any other error. Finally - it said that now it can RESTORE my iPhone (finally not restore AND update cause that was all the time the only option which was f****g it up I guess) - so then all of it was erased, and then it was updated only in next step.

when on phone I got option to start from scratch or to take my data from old phone - I unplugged from old Mac and plugged to new Mac - and continued there, where I had possibility to recover from a backup.

long story short - once phone turned on I discovered I lost ‘only’ my chats /messages - but photos etc, all of it exists which I’m grateful for.

apple - f****g ****, this was a nightmare. Right now I’m in the train to the airport, I didn’t sleep even one second.

hope this detailed testimony helps someone to overcome this madness

good luck!

I have this problem. Wife wanted me to save pic's to pc because phone was full.

I plugged the phone into iTunes and selected backup/update got 99% through and then failed and locked the phone with PC/Cable icon say Apple /restore (iso17)

The problem was it didn't backup in the previous step either and if I select restore I will loose all data, I selected update again and got a message 1110 error (memory to full for updated) you think it would have checked before updating.

Apple store was no help

No I need to spend hundreds for dollar to try to retrieve photo's from data recovery company

I got this error code while restoring my iPhone 12 Pro Max in Apple Store in Fairview mall. According to them the problem is the logic board and the fix is $649.00 + tax. Anybody there got this error code and the fix?

Hi, this is not my first time being here, but it's my first time replying. I just want to say THANKS A LOT; YOU JUST SAVED MY LIFE FROM COMPLETELY LOSING ALL OF MY DATA (120GB!!!). It helped me, and finally, I can use my phone as usual.

Okay I’ll just come