iphone 3gs error 1015

Your phone is jailbroken, isn't it?

Error 1015 occurs when trying to restore a jailbroken phone, or trying to downgrade the iOS.

In addition to voiding your warranty, jailbreaking your phone eliminates the possibility of getting any further help from Apple, including on this forum.

You're on your own.

Yep. Your phone is jailbroken. You'll have to look elsewhere for assistance. Jailbroken devices can't be discussed here.

Yes... It is. You're going to have to look elsewhere for assistance.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694#error1015

Error 1015: This error is typically caused by attempts to downgrade the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch's software. This can occur when you attempt to restore using an older .ipsw file. Downgrading to a previous version is not supported. To resolve this issue, attempt to restore with the latest iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch software available from Apple. This error can also occur when an unauthorized modification of the iOS has occurred and you are now trying to restore to an authorized, default state. Very rarely this error is caused by a hardware issue and requires service.

If it's truly not jailbroken, then it falls into the category of "Very rarely this error is caused by a hardware issue and requires service."

Make an appiontment at the genius bar.

I am also having issues similar to this on my 3GS. I was on the phone and it suddenly lost the signal and went into recovery mode and prompted me to restore it. Once I attempt to restore it, I goes all the way through the process and then fails in the verification stage of it. It then prompts me to restore... its a cycle.

Any help anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Try disabling your antivirus and firewall software. The crash could have been caused by any number of things. It is a computer after all... The failure to verify and complete the activation is usually caused by security software on the PC. Kaspersky is especially bad about this.

On your Mac open the file /etc/hosts. It should look exactly like this:

=========================

##

# Host Database

#

# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface

# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.

##

127.0.0.1 localhost

255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

::1 localhost

fe80::1%lo0 localhost

==========================

If it doesn't, and there are any lines in it that contain gs.apple.com, delete those lines. That should fix it. If there are no lines like that your phone is broken. If there are then your computer has been used to jailbreak or otherwise hack a phone in the past (not necessarily the phone with the problem).

1. Open TextEdit
2. File/Open
3. Begin typing "/etc/hosts"
4. Hit enter