ANY ONE KNOW WHAT IS ERROR 3 IN ITUNES WHEN I TRY TO RESTORE IPHONE 5 TO IOS 7 IT STUCKS IN THE END AND AFTER 30 MIN THIS COME OUT "UNKNOWN ERROR 3" CAN SOME ONE HELP ME PLZ

I just had this exact same issue with my iPhone 5. I took it to the Apple Store this morning and they fixed it within 15 minutes. Here's what she did:

1. Plug the phone in and open iTunes

2. When the message comes up asking to restore the phone, do this:

a. Hold down both the top and bottom buttons until the screen goes black

b. Before the apple sign comes back on, let go of the top button and continue holding the bottom button for 8 seconds.

c. After 8 seconds, let go of the bottom button.

d. iTunes prompted me from there.

After it fully restored, I set up my phone as a new iPhone. The Apple Store employee said that I could try to restore my phone from backup using my iTunes when I got home, but that there was a chance that the backup could cause my phone to have the same problem again (constantly saying "searching" and having no cell service). Since my contacts were backed up to my iCloud, I'm just going to play it safe and leave it.

Just to note, the Apple Store employee didn't even hint that the issue wasn't fixable. She seemed to immediately know what the issue was and how to fix it. So for those of you who were told that your phone is now a brick, you may want to try this.

Hi brunomesquita,

Downloaded your logs and forwarding to my Apple Engineering contact today. Thank you. Everyone, keep your experiences and log files coming in please. Every one of them helps push us closer to Apple implementing a software fix. MAKE NOISE!

I lawannas,

So happy one of our threads solutions worked for you! Everyone, if our thread helps, or doesn't help, "unbrick" your iDevice, please take a minute and let us know via this thread. The "hit" count on this thread will/can make a difference in Apple decision process to "fix" this issue via a firmware update.

Hi Lsnook,

As indicated by others, what you did is known as a "DFU Restore". Is is a 'deeper' Restore and has been reported to "fix" some devices, so we're glad you found this thread and reported your solution. While it is possible the DFU Restore "fixed" your device, it is also possible that your iDevice had been "off" for a period of time, allowing all the internals to "cool off" a bit. This problem is very temperature sensitive, as others have reported 3-5 degrees cooler has "recovered" some devices. Regardless, glad you are up and running again!

I have an iPhone 4s, which was working great until i tried restoring/updating via iTunes, got error 3, and my phone will only boot into recovery mode now. I went to the apple store to talk with them about the issue. they were confused and did not recognise error 3 as anything.They just told me it was a hardware failure and it was time to buy a new phone and update to the newest model. I was pretty upset about their solution and they told me to call apple care to see if they would help me out. Called Apple care and they didnt know what error 3 was either. the representative i was talking to then went to talk to his supervisor and when he came back he told me it was a hardware issue and i had to buy a new phone or get this one repaired for $200. I told him i had read about this issue on forums and it sounded like it was an issue with the firmware. I have had this phone for 2 years. It cost a lot of money and when i asked the representative what kind of hardware issue it could be considering there were no issues prior to me updating the phone he just said that the hardware could fail at any moment and if it isnt under warranty there is nothing they can do to help. I am so frustrated and upset about all of this. reading all these posts makes me want to never buy any more apple products again ever and spread the word. Feel like im being scammed.

Hi ZKG,

Like any large organization, left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing. We're still just shy of 50K hits on this web thread, so the issue while very frustrating for all of us, and the many others who have this problem and never find this thread, its still likely a low % failure rate for Apple. We're doing all we can do encourage Apple to provide a firmware fix in a future update, but no commitment yet.

Please try the "freezer fix" as described herein as it has been successful for what seems to be a fairly high percentage of this threads followers. Also please load a link to the log files as described herein so I can provide them to my Apple engineering contact.

Good luck!

Hi,

I have one iPhone 5S and it start to show Searching for network, when I tryed to restore, its get stuck on the last update firmware and show the same error=3.

I tryed the "freezer fix" even my iPhone still coverd by warranty because it model is not supported in my country (I'm from Brazil and the iPhone is from USA), but even the Freezer fix didn't work.

Very dissapointed with Apple support on this. I've been using iPhone since the 3G model and It's the first time I have such a big deception.

Hope someone find any other update or I can send my iPhone for USA and get it replaced.

Hello Kennethyoung, i have 2 idevices with me, one iphone 4S and one iphone 5 that have also this same problems.

The 4S always give error 1, baseband error, the person who give it to me said she get it as a gift in a lucky draw and was like this and nobody would replace it, so im trying to fix it.

The iphone 5 was giving error 4013, i replaced the front camera and sensor flex, and the restore process went almost to the end, like 99% and stop and give error 3, all the time, i tried once to put it in the freezer for 15 minutes, same result, i will try to freeze it longer and ill port more results. Funny thing is, for sure theres no problem with the baseband chip, as it happened only after updating the firmware and bricked it. Im glad i found this thread.

Just want to clear out a detail, when puting it in the freezer, put the phone inside the zip lock bag, and also put some rice inside a paper towel, or the phone rolled up in the paper towel?

thanks a lot

Hi Artir Maccau,

Put about 1/2 cup dry rice inside a paper towel, pull the edges together and seal with a twist tie to keep the rice inside . Put the enclosed rice and your iDevice inside the freezer bag. Put the sealed bag in your freezer set as cold as you can for 40 minutes. BE SURE THE PHONE IS FULLY OFF! After 40 minutes, if possible, leaving the phone in the bag and in the freezer, plug in the cable connect to your Mac/Win notebook and turn on iDevice and start Restore. Close the freezer door with the iDevice still inside the freezer having started the Restore process. This helps keep the iDevice cold as long as possible. If you can't leave the iDevice in the freezer because you use desktop, start the Restore process within 15-30 seconds of removing the iDevice from the freezer. If this fails and you are lucky to live where the temperature drops below 0F at night (which is colder than most freezers) leave the iDevice inside your car (hidden) if parked outside. It dropped to -20F and at least one person successfully restored their iDevice after their freezer failed to restore their iDevice. Colder is better chance of successfully Restoring for Error (3),

Good luck! Let us know of it works or doesn't.

Hi er.ravish,

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your Error (3) experience with the group.

The issue with Error (3) is getting spread about to more Applecare Engineering team members. We continue to encorage everyone to call Applecare if all else fails. Even if you've called Applecare before, now might be a good time to call them again and explain the issue, give them this discussion thread number, and ask for a refurbished replacement for "their" iOS Update bricking your $700 to $1000 iDevice.

Error (3) IS NOT a baseband hardware failure as some miss-informed Applecare Engineers have been telling some customers. These Applecare Engineers need to go back and talk to the head of Applecare Engineering to get an update on the true cause of the Error (3) issue so that they are not inadvertantly miss-leading their valued customers.

Having the same problem!

Just updated the software today to 7.0.6 and now I can't use my phone!! it keeps saying "unknown error occured" (3) everytime I try to restore my phone on itunes. And I live in a small town in Thailand and I dont know what to do with my phone now. Someone please help!

Hi

Read my post on this page on how to use the cold temperature of your freezer to successfully restore your iDevice

Everyone - there is no code fix in 7.0.6 for the Error (3) issue. If you previously had to use cold temperature of your freezer to Restore your iDevice updating to 7.0.6 could brick your device again. If you do update to 7.0.6 from 7.0.4 from an iDevice that previously bricked updating to 7.0.4 and you successfully Restored using your freezer, please report your results on updating to 7.0.6

Hi

Last week my phone fell into my bath. For like 5? seconds

I dried him and everything was still working just fine. But at the top it kept saying 'searching'.

So I deleted my phone, put him into recovery mode and tried to restore him. But the error 3 came up everytime after an hour or so. I also tried the freezer fix (like you described how to) several times, also with my phone still in the freezer (-18oC) while restoring, but still the error 3 came up. I hope Apple can fix this (soon)!

But does this error has nothing to do with the fact that my phone maybe has waterdamage? Or has it?

Could that be the problem?

Hi,

You may have water damage, but now that you are stuck in Error (3) mode it is not possible to determine if you do or don't. Your best bet it likely to throw yourself on the mercy of an Apple Genius, tell them the truth, and see if they will offer you a refurbished device at a discount. Even if Apple brings out an Error (3) firmware update, your phone may have other damage from the water. Best wishes. Perhaps others on this thread have some other suggestions they can share?

Hello again, well i tried several times in the freezer and both iphones no luck.

Even tried to restore it once after 40 minutes, connect the cable keep it inside the freezer while restore but still always getting error 3 on the iphone 5, and error 1 on iphone 4S ...

Really dont know what else to try ...