Getting Out of Recovery Mode Loop without Restoring. - Possible?

For no apparent reason, my NOT-jailbroken iPhone 3GS running iOS 5.1.1 went into Recovery Mode:

Turning it on shows the Apple logo for 2-3 seconds, then the screen shown below for about 20 seconds, then the iPhone turns itself off - unless plugged.

If I plug it to my MacBook Pro, iTunes demands a restore (see screen shot), which I don't want to do before I recover some files from the iPhone - if that's possible at all.

Is there any way to get my iPhone out of this Recovery Mode loop without restoring?

I've read many threads about Recovery Mode loops, but all seem to involve jailbroken iPhones, or failed restores, updates or downgrades of the iOS version, which is not my case. Although I don't know if that makes any difference with regards to a fix.

Thanks in advance for any help!

iPhone 3GS, iOS 5, 32GB

Posted on Aug 17, 2012 2:58 PM

18 replies

Sep 9, 2013 8:20 AM in response to Stonykhan

Stonykhan wrote:

Try to put your iPhone in DFU mode and then restore it.

The question in this thread was how to get the phone out of recovery WITHOUT restoring it.

Nov 22, 2014 8:31 PM in response to masooda786

I really wish I remembered the process, but I did an online chat and got it fixed in under 30 minutes.

Nov 23, 2014 12:51 PM in response to Captain Rex

Do you remember which online chat you went onto?

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Getting Out of Recovery Mode Loop without Restoring. - Possible?