My phone has gone into recovery mode, but I want to save my pictures before I restore it. What do I do?

To anyone who is searching through this post looking for an answer to the original question, let me tell you this. NO.. YOUR INFORMATION IS NOT GONE AND YOU CAN STILL GET IT BACK. If your iphone is stuck in recovery mode, you can still get your photos, contacts, and any other information needed back again.

I know you're probably frustrated like I was of people saying things like "just restore from back up", or "you have to restore the iphone first to get it working again"...or suggesting tools like Dr. Fone, and TinyUmbrella which don't work at all because the phone isn't being recognized in Windows explorer or by the USB in general.

This is what you have to do. Repeat, this is ONLY for an iphone that is able to be turned on an all you get is the usb plug saying plug into itunes screen (the Recovery Mode screen).

This process is for Windows. I think some MAC users will be able to follow it also, but the instructions are for PC users.

1.) Turn your iphone on if it isn't already.

2.) Load up itunes (make sure you have the latest Itunes. I would even suggest that you uninstall your itunes if it isn't up to date, through Control Panel Add/Remove programs, and then go to the Itunes website and download the latest version.)

3.) When you load up Itunes, it will tell you that your iphone needs to be updated or restored. Just click okay or cancel to get that dialog box out of the way. Then just minimize the itunes for right now.

4.) Download the LATEST firmware for your correct model of iphone. Just choose your model from the drop down boxes. Once you've chosen everything, click the Download button. It will produce a link. Just click the link and take note of where that file downloads on your computer.

5.) Once the download finishes, go back to Itunes...and you'll have two buttons to click... Restore and Update. VERY IMPORTANT: Hold down the SHIFT key and click UPDATE (SHIFT + UPDATE) .

6.) A box will pop up to search for a file. Navigate to the folder that you downloaded the firmware file in step 4 to. And choose that file.

7.) Then Itunes will tell you things like Blah blah..this file might not work, if your phone can't be updated it will have to be restored....blah blah. Just click OK through all of that and start the update.

8.) Your phone will update to the latest firmware after a pretty lengthy process, maybe about 30-40 mins. Could be longer, but it will work. Don't get anxious, don't unplug the iphone because you think it's frozen or something. There will be times when it seems like it's not doing anything. Just sit back, put on a netflix movie, and continue to monitor the process from time to time. Soon your iphone will turn back on...and everything will be updated and back to normal.

BACK IT UP IMMEDIATELY 🙂

I hope this works for a lot of you out there, and I hope it gives those of you like me who felt there was no hope.......a little bit of relief.

<Edited by Host>

Had a iPhone 6s that lost power during an iOS update and went into recovery mode. Followed the instructions of Digital311 and it worked exactly as described. Wonderful result and everything, including photos, was recovered. This was my daughter's phone and she had many, many photos that were not previously saved elsewhere - they are now.

I was amazed at how many people told me this was not possible - including Apple Tech Support.

Thanks for your help.

I know this post is too late to help the OP, but hopefully it will be of some help to others. This very thing happened to my wife's iPhone while attempting to update to iOS 7. If you have a recent backup on your computer, the process is easy and straightforward. However, you probably wouldn't be reading this if you did. With any luck, you had the auto backup feature of iCloud turned on. Whether you did or didn't, you will need to perform a restore or your phone will simply live out it's life as a paperweight.

If you can not get restore to work, you may need to put your phone into DFU mode first. This was the case with my wife's phone. The process is simple and quick. There are tons of how-tos all over the web, so a Google search is all that is needed. Once your phone is in DFU mode, the restore process should complete. Once it does, you will either need to select to treat the phone as new or restore from a backup. If you don't have a recent backup, any backup will do. If no backup is available at all, no worries.

When the restoration process is complete, go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all. Once you erase all data and settings from the iPhone, using the phone itself, complete the activation process. Part of that process will be choosing an iCloud backup to restore from. If you have a recent iCloud backup, you're good to go. If not, you'll have to use whichever backup (computer or iCloud) is most recent. Unfortunately, that does mean you will lose the data from that point to the present.

My wife's most recent iCloud backup was only two days old, so she barely lost anything. Which was good, because she had a lot of pictures of our newborn son. Needless to say, we are now backing up our data in three different locations. Live and learn. I hope this helps!

P.S. using Google+ to auto backup your photos is a great option.

Message was edited by: btmead

Apple provides 5 ways to sync or back up pictures, and if you add 3rd party options, there are over a dozen ways to back up photos, some in real time as soon as they are taken. If you didn't use any of these then they are probably gone.

There is one very unofficial option that has a very slight chance of working: google for "recboot"

Regardless of how the phone ended up in recovery mode, I'm trying to help this person save their pictures. That is what these communities are for. For you to be so rude and closed minded to new things isn't right. If you don't want to try and help these people than you don't need to be on this site.

Indeed jbond110 is correct. Recovery mode is just a state where your iDevice believes that a major problem has occurred in the system and will refuse to start up correctly. Purposes for going into recovery mode can be for escaping the ever so terrible boot loop that causes your device to constantly restart until drained (or destroyed (physically)). Your data is still on there but currently is unaccessible. In about 1 year I have already gotten my iPod Touch 3g into 4 boot loops because I tweak around with it a lot. And currently I am stuck in 1. If anyone knows any possible way to restore my iPod without losing my important file data, please inform me. Even if you have the slightest bit of knowledge that would be of use too. Thank You...

Jbobd10 you are trying and you are right about this guy being a d0uche but I tried to save my pictures from my iPad that's in recovery mode but it's not recognizing the iPad in my computer so I can't save my pictures. If you know of any other way to try to save my photos please let me know here or if you can email me I would greatly appreciate it thank you in advance. Or if anyone knows how to save my photos please please let me know I don't want to lose my sons baby pictures.

<Email Edited by Host>

Were is the firmware files on apple's website? Ipsw me is downloading From apple's servers therefore making clean of "viruses and malware".

P.S I've installed iOS on my iPad, using firmware I've downloaded from Ipsw me, Nothing happened yet.

A hacked version of iOS is not secure. And, as I said, there is no way of knowing if your iOS version has been hacked if you did not get it from Apple. And I did not mention "virus" - you did. I said "spyware" which is not the same as a virus.

You aren't hearing me. I said that if you did not get the IPSW file from Apple then it could have been hacked. That is a fact. It is real life. If you restored iOS using DFU mode and iTunes and let iTunes download the IPSW file rather than you downloading it and pointing iTunes to what you downloaded that should remove any potential hack.

Lawrence's point is that you downloaded the iOS from a site that is not Apple. So, the software you downloaded can have anything in it.

So iOS is secure if you get a legitimate version of it. If you get one off of the internet, then you are taking a risk, and, you have jailbroken your device.

GB

Tonyrocky104 wrote:

My iPhone 6s just locked up after doing a software update. No back up. Going nuts! Apple said there is nothing that can be done. I just need my photos. Any thing you can suggest.

Nope. If you didn't back them up and they were not synced to the cloud. They're gone.

Error 14 can mean that your USB cables are, faulty, not plugged in properly, or the USB port on your computer is faulty.

Try switching cables, or USB ports on your computer.

You might also want check firewalls, and antivirus/antimalware to see if they are blocking iTunes to access the Apple update server

Your second sentence is the state I was referring to, not an actual State.... 😀

So, if you are seeing the Connect to iTunes screen, then you are going to have to erase the device using one of the methods outlined in this support article: If you see the Connect to iTunes screen on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support.

You can erase your device using iCloud if you have a cellular or Wifi connection on the device. Otherwise, you can follow the first or third set of steps as applicable to connect to iTunes so you can erase and restore the device.

Cheers,

GB

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! This saved my phone after six hours of research and trying to get help from apple support and was told by them that there is absolutely no way I can get anything on my phone back and should just go ahead and do a factory reset. Got my pictures, contacts, every single thing back except for a few pictures I took yesterday. I really can't thank you enough!!!!!!!!