Hi, I got an Error 23 when trying to restore my phone. Apple support centre says its a hardware issue without doing anything to come to this conclusion. They will not tell me how to escalate this case. Please let me know if there is a way to escalate.

Question

Hi, I got an Error 23 when trying to restore my phone. Apple support centre says its a hardware issue without doing anything to come to this conclusion. They will not tell me how to escalate this case. Please let me know if there is a way to escalate.

One day when tried to restart my iphone 4, I got a screen asking me to connect to itunes. Itunes asked me to restore my phone. When I tried to restore, I got an Error 23 saying it cannot be restored. I tried the phone support. They asked to contact the service centre. I then tried the service centre guys. They clearly did not know what Error 23 was. They asked to contact the apple support again. After 2-3 guys tried to blow me off saying it is a hardware issue, I asked for a senior analyst. Apple support assigned a senior guy who said he will contact the engineering team. After 2 days, I was told that the engineering team has confirmed that this is a hardware issue.

What I am surprised about is that no one seems to have done any analysis or debugging to figure this out. How do they decide that this is a hardware issue?

The first time I tried it from my laptop and got this message. The support guy told me that my laptop may have an antivirus software which may be causing this issue. So I took it to the service centre. They tried the same restore from their machine and got the exact same error.

The senior analyst that was later assigned to my case, again asked me to restore from my machine. I got the same error.

Basically what they had verified in all these activities was that I was getting error 23. I dont know how they decided that this was due to hardware issues?

Online documentation on Error 23 is vague. It is bunched long with other error codes. There is no clear explanation of what Error 23 is.

But most importantly It says 'In rare cases, this may be a hardware issue'.

So if it is a hardware issue in rare case, how was my case deemed to be a 'rare case'?

When I asked them to escalate this, they said that there is no way to escalate.

I have had a horrible experience with Apple support. Till this point I used to think of Apple as a class apart. But now I am totally disillusioned.

My phone was about a year and a half old. I dont mind it if it actually turns out to be a hardware issue. I will take it as my bad luck.

But I dont see how the support guys decided that this is a hardware issue. I need to know.

And secondly I am shocked that Apple has no escalation path.

Can anyone please help?

iPhone 4, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Sep 13, 2013 12:48 AM

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Answer 1

Ocean20

Level 6

13,727 points

Sep 13, 2013 12:51 AM in response to AshishKashalkar

Error 20, 21, 23, 26, 28, 29, 34, 36, 37, 40

These errors typically occur when security software interferes with the restore and update process. FollowTroubleshooting security software issues to resolve this issue. In rare cases, these errors may be a hardware issue. If the errors persist on another computer, the device may need service.

Also, check your hosts file to verify that it's not blocking iTunes from communicating with the update server. See iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting—follow steps under the heading Blocked by configuration (Mac OS X / Windows) > Rebuild network information > Mac OS X > The hosts file may also be blocking the iTunes Store. If you have software used to perform unauthorized modifications to the iOS device, uninstall this software prior to editing the hosts file to prevent that software from automatically modifying the hosts file again on restart.

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Answer 2

ssschmidt

Level 5

5,444 points

Sep 13, 2013 12:57 AM in response to AshishKashalkar

The senior analyst is the highest escalation for technical support. You could call back in, and open another case, or request a different senior advisor to see if you get the same responses (which is likely). Or, you could take the phone to an Apple Retal store. They may be able to run a diagnostic on the device which AppleCare support cannot, since your device will not load.

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Answer 3

Sep 16, 2013 2:27 AM in response to ssschmidt

Hi,

Thank you for your update. Unfortunately we do not have an actual Apple owned retail store in India. The only place to go would be an Apple service centre that is not even operated by Apple itself, but has been outsourced.

I did take my phone to those guys, as mentioned above. Since they tried on their machines, the previous reply that my hosts file may need to be updated so that Itunes is not blocked is not valid, since the apple service centre machines did not have anything blocking itunes access.

Based on my numerous discussions so far, I think that no one understands the cause of Error 23 very well. The fact that it is bunched in Apple own documentation with a list of other error codes also means that it is likely Apple has not been able to get a good grip on this error.

No one has told me why or how did they come to the conclusion that error 23 on my phone was because of a hardware issue.

I am not willing to settle for a paid new phone just because people do not know what happened to my current phone and are conveniently calling it as a hardware issue.

This is so completely unexpected from Apple. This is no better than the mom and pop service centres for low end devices that we so despise.

Is there no one in Apple who can atleast tell me why my error is because of a hardware issue. And how come Apple has no escalation route. What happens usually if a customer is not satisfied with the Engineering team response and service?

Please help.

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Answer 4

Sep 17, 2013 5:32 AM in response to AshishKashalkar

Hi,

Can anyone please let me know a way forward other than to buy a new phone?

Is it necessary to just accept an issue as a 'Hardware defect' even though I am convinced that the analysts/ Engineers do not know the roort cause?

If, as @ssschmidt says, there is no escalation path beyond the senior analyst when it comes to support, what does one do if I am not satisfied with the support given so far?

We have consumer courts in India. But wouldn't that be an extreme/ unnecessary step.

Can anyone suggest what could possibly be done?

Regards

Ashish

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Answer 5

imobl

Level 7

20,298 points

Sep 17, 2013 7:15 AM in response to AshishKashalkar

You have decided the engineers/analysts do not know the root cause.

Then you should be able to decide what the root cause is and how to

fix it. Since you feel this is not a hardware issue, wipe your iPhone and

restore as new; if this fresh install of software does not solve your problem,

then it would seem that the problem is hardware related after all.

Use the 'Contact Us' button in the lower right hand corner of the pages

in this forum, follow the links for your country, and let Apple know your

thoughts. You may get a reply, but you may not like it.

Use the consumer courts in your country if you think that is best.

You may wish to post the contents of your Hosts file so it can be checked -

you have ignored Ocean20's suggestion above - or at least not said

what you found.

Since your iPhone is more than a year old, you are out of warranty. Apple

has already gone above and beyond by trying to assist you when your

iPhone is no longer covered by warranty.

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Answer 6

Sep 17, 2013 10:46 AM in response to imobl

Hi @imobl,

You sound like an Apple support guy who hasn't been able to answer my questions.

To respond to some of the points you made,

- I did not ignore Ocean20's suggestion. If you has read my post, you would have known that I took my phone to the apple service centre where they tried this restore on THEIR machines. I am assuming that Apple guys know how not to block iTunes. So I actually do not understand your point about me trying the hosts file changes on my machine. Do you not believe that apple tested this issue with the correct settings?

- you also give a flawed logic of why the issue is a hardware issue. You mentioned that If I thought that the issue was with the software, i should try a restore and getting it to work. The problem is that my error (23), and many others comes up when the restore fails. And you would be astonished to know that not all errors are hardware errors. Sometimes even software errors prevent restores. Funnily enough Apple itself mention that 'in rare cases, error 23 could be hardware related'.

- all Apple has done so far is replicate the issue. I don not know how anyone can conclude that the issue is a hardware issue.

And by the way, I am not certain that this is a software bug. Again if you read my Posts, you will notice I only want a confirmation,/proof that the issue is hardware related as they mention..

Please refrain do. Responding if there is nothing to add.

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Answer 7

pvonk

Level 6

13,851 points

Sep 17, 2013 10:50 AM in response to AshishKashalkar

You've only mentioned error 23 in the first post. Now you say there are many others? And they might be ..... ?

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Answer 8

Sep 18, 2013 7:29 PM in response to pvonk

Hi @pvonk,

I probably did not word that particular statement well.

This was in response to the update from @imobl in which he had mentioned that if the software store did not solve the problem then it had to be a hardware issue.

The 'many others' was mentioned as a general statement whereby I wanted to say that when software restore fails for different people, it is not just error 23.

And it may not mean that a failed software restore only means a hardware issue.

Just to clarify again, I only get the one error -23.

I am looking to see if some has either solved it or if there is a way to get Apple to tell me why they think that I have a hardware issue when Apple's own documentation says that error 23 could be a hardware issue in rare cases.

I want to know what makes my case a rare case.

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Answer 9

May 31, 2014 4:14 PM in response to AshishKashalkar

Unfortunately Error 23 is known for either a security/antivirus conflict with the restore process or it's a hardware issue. But because majority of new anti viruses (assuming that you have a updated antivirus) don't interfere with the iTunes restore anymore, the only reason could be the hardware issue. I had the same issue with error 23 with a iPhone 4. I was annoyed there wasn't a fix so I went out and brought an iPhone 4 opening tool kit. I opened my iPhone and saw the dock connector. It's was broken, the pins were bent a dismantled. (Really don't know how it happened) but I replaced it and error 23 was NO more. So obviously iTunes couldn't communicate with my iPhone 4 properly cause half the dock pins were destroyed by something. It's always worth having a look yourself!

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