DFU mode to Restore

DFU mode is signified by having a completely black screen on the device.

Connect the iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes. Turn the iPhone off (hold down the power button at the top of the iPhone).

Hold down the sleep/power button and home button together for exactly 10 seconds, then release the power button.

Continue to hold down the Home button until a message appears in iTunes telling you an iPhone in recovery mode has been detected by iTunes.

Thanks jermainepaul! I had an iPhone 5 with an expired iOS 7 Beta that would not restore no matter what I tried. I suspect a prior user may have jailbroken it. I must have tried at least 20 times to restore using the latest 7.1 ipsw downloaded from Developer Center. I kept getting Error 3194.

I went into DFU mode following your directions and then the restore worked perfectly the FIRST time! Many thanks!!

Mike

DFU mode is not needed unless trying to repair a previously hacked/jailbroken phone or for hacking. Recovery mode should be used and is safer:

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This may be a dumb question. Where is the DFU firmware stored? I think I may have been lied to the other day when one of the Geniuses says they pulled it from Apple's website. However, the above method indicates it's actually stored within iTunes.

In otherwords, if your DFU firmware package is somehow corrupt on your PC, then it will transfer the corrupt firmware back onto your iPhone.

Thanks jermainepaul, I read at least 4-5 different ways on how to put your iPhone 4s device into DFU mode and yours is the only one that worked and it was the easiest way as well. 🙂

I tried this and it didnt work for me. any other suggestions?

There is another method posted here which is not as clear as the above method:

1) Power the device down

2) Start holding Power button for 3 seconds (do you keep holding or let go?)

3) Hold Home button but don't let go of the Power button, 10 seconds

4) Keep holding Home and let go of Power. About 15 seconds just to be sure

That's it. You should now be in DFU mode.

That's brilliant except when it doesn't and nothing seems to fix it!!

I am trying to recover a replacement phone for my wife from a 'work' phone. all her contacts etc were on the old phone and backed up to iTunes. Took the replacement phone after reset and wanted to restore the iTunes backup to the new device.

Connected to the computer [Windows PC] via USB cable and followed the steps. Asked if I wanted to upgrade the software to the latest version, so I stupidly clicked 'YES' assuming it's be better to do both.

That was more than 8 hours ago the first time. Stuck on 'Preparing iPhone for restore...' for several hours. Thought is was stuffed to disconnected and attempted to reset/restart.

Went through the same loop again and decided to leave it connected while I went out on appts. Arrived back at the office at 10pm to pick up the phone... and it's STILL going!!! [over 8 hours]

Thought again it must be in a black hole going nowhere, looked up for some expert tip online and only founds lots of people saying the same thing, 'Why is it taking so long?'

Figured it need to be restarted as there was no sign of any progress at all. so have restarted for the third time and can only hope that some miracle will occur in the next 10 hours because my wife needs to phone for work first thing tomorrow morning.

This is rubbish. There's got to be some clue as to what's going on. some sign to show progress or lack thereof. On an ADSL2+ link just next to the exchange. Download speed is lightning fast.

HELP!!!! Anyone...!!!?

Rgds Rex

Ive restored my phone back to factory settings. Twas successful. I went through the normal iOS setup and restored my back up. I need to say though that during the setup, I was successful to set my touch ID and my passcode (entered my passcode twice). Then.. the twist was that when I went back to Settings after few minutes to add more fingerprint and after attempting to enter the passcode I just input earlier, my phone is prompting me an incorrect passcode, which blocked me from using my phone!

Okay tried the following:

1. iTunes + Restore Back Up - prompts me to turn off Find my iPhone. (But find my iphone was already disabled. Got an email conformation and checked icloud.com. My iPhone 6 is not listed on the devices list anymore) Could that be a problem as well? iTunes prompting me to disable my Find my iPhone where in fact it is actually disabled?

2. iTunes + Recovery Mode + Restore - this is what I've been trying now. Issues encountered:

- Error 9006 - Tried downloading the software 5x now!

- When I enter recovery mode, it stays there for a while but the phone reboots at some point and shows a white screen with "Slide to upgrade" then if I swipe my screen prompts my passcode, which I do not know!

3. iTunes + DFU + Restore - this is what I'm trying now. iTunes is downloading the software and it's taking a while to finish the download.

So, do you have any suggestions on how to get my iPhone back in shape? It's killing me too!

You won't be able to restore a backup file if you don't know the passcode. You'll need to restore as a new device.

Forgot passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled - Apple Support

Thanks! I was able to fix my own mess! It was okay til the software download but when iTunes tried to "extract the software", it didn't allow me to go further. Tried restarting and all but Error 17 kept on showing. Researched Apple Support - Advanced Troubleshooting for Error 17 and instructed me to edit some codes in my Mac.. It was so geeky but good it put back my iPhone running.

trying to perform this task...as it downloads my iphone will try to turn on

also i will get an error=9006

Thank you jermainepaul, I put my iPhone 6 Plus in DFU mode by your guide successfully.

my lock button is broken,

what should i do?

jermainepaul wrote:

DFU mode is signified by having a completely black screen on the device.

Connect the iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes. Turn the iPhone off (hold down the power button at the top of the iPhone).

Hold down the sleep/power button and home button together for exactly 10 seconds, then release the power button.

Continue to hold down the Home button until a message appears in iTunes telling you an iPhone in recovery mode has been detected by iTunes.

Google led me to this page when searching DFU related topics and found out this is great. helped me rescue the iphone to the normal state.