I upgraded my 3GS iOS to 5.01 as recommended on my phone by Apple, and after booting, it just cycles through the unlock screen and the battery screen endlessly. Tried restoring--same problem. What now?
iPhone 3GS, iOS 5.0.1
Was the phone jailbroken? Was it unlocked by someone other than the carrier it was originally locked to?
Try putting it into DFU mode and restoring it.
It was originally unlocked by AT&T.
Sorry, but there are no iPhones that are or were ever unlocked by AT&T as they do not unlock iPhones. If yours was unlocked, it was hacked/jailbroken. Updating to 5.1 has 'jumbled' the hack. You can try DFU mode (Google for it) but you may just have a brick on your hands.
Bumper47 wrote:
It was originally unlocked by AT&T.
AT&T does not unlock iphones at all.
It was hacked. AT&T does not unlock iPhones under any circumstances. It's likely the hack has caused the problem you have now.
Jailbroken and hacked devices can not be discussed here. Sorry, but you're on your own. You most likely now own an iBrick.
I must not understand. I got the phone at an AT&T store, and all I did was upgrade to iOS 5.01 when prompted to do so by Apple. Bottom line for me is: how do I get my phone working again?!!
Where (what country) are you using your iPhone and with what carrier? To clarify, did you purchase the iPhone at an AT&T store?
I got the iPhone at an AT&T store in New Haven, MO USA. My wife and I took advantage of an offer for free phones with a two year contract. She upgraded hers successfully shortly before I upgraded mine.
OK, sorry for the confusion. When you said "It was originally unlocked by AT&T", that indicated that you were using a hacked AT&T iPhone overseas, a very common occurrence here. It appears that you're not.
Try Recovery Mode... http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808
BTW, your iPhone is NOT unlocked... it is and always will be locked to AT&T.
It didn't work. I successfully connected to iTunes in Recovery Mode, re-installed iOS, then selected the latest backup--made after I started having trouble--and the problem was still there. Tried again using an older backup with the same result...
My computer's at my office and will have work on it again tomorrow.
Try setting it up as a new device (without restoring your backup). It's entirely possible there is corruption in the backup that is causing the problem.
You may need to delete the iOS upgrade file from your computer, and let it download again.
That worked (BTW, thanks for your help so far). Now, how do I restore all my stuff when all the backups are corrupt? I can live with having to start from scatch if I have too...
You'll have to re-sync contacts, calendars, etc. from whatever you were syncing them with. Apps will have to be re-installed and media will have to be re-synced. If things like text messages are important, you'll need to use 3rd party software to extract them from the backup. You won't be able to put them back on the phone as text messages, but at least you'll have a record of them. I've never considered them vital, personally, and if there was any information in them I really needed, I copy and paste it to Notes.
This kind of corruption happens from time to time, but seems more prevalent with the advent of iOS 5. I'm not really sure there is more corruption, just that iOS5 seems less forgiving. The root cause is most likely tied to some buggy 3rd party apps.
I can't get past the "setup you're iPhone" screen on my computer. It seems Apple wants me to restore before I can sync.
How do I recover from iOS upgrade instalation?
