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

it is a vague and lame response, though I suspect they don't want to write "your phone has to be replaced" so they say the nice thing "bring it in". I bought my phone on 29 December 2012. It was defective when I bought it and I had to fight with Apple for a replacement. Less than six months later, some idiot at the AT&T store did an iOS upgrade (that I did not ask him to do), and that was corrupt. It killed the battery because the phone kept getting stuck in loops and resetting. Apple replaced the battery, but couldn't fix the corruption issue and replaced the phone because in less than two weeks the battery was damaged again. The third phone, after five weeks, within hours of being notified about the iOS upgrade, started "searching", and had to be replaced. I am on my -FOURTH- iphone 5. I think everything about it is pathetic, and I am lucky I have Apple Care +. They are very hard to pin down on problems which are documented here, if you get the right person at the store, great, if not, you are told things like "It is completely normal for a brand new iPhone at 100% to last fewer than 5 hours even if you don't use it. You need to adjust your expectations." I have been extremely unlucky, and customer service has been inconsistent.

WCA2000, you weren't trying to keep people informed, you were specifically disagreeing with my first hand experience at the Apple Store, and sought someone from Apple to give an answer. What they told me was exactly what I wrote, there was no interpretation there. What else can I say? Seriously? I can't make up something that wasn't said. The Apple techs or someone who knows something about phones could very well pull you aside and say "look, put it in the freezer, it works" but that's not what I was told and that's not what happened to me, so why are you singling me out? I didn't write and say "I disagree with you that when you put your phone in the freezer it solved your hardware problem."

I asked the Apple Genius a million questions about possible fixes and possible causes, because the phone was only 5 weeks old and was the third phone since I bought the first phone that was defective, and it seemed absolutely ludicrous that an $800+ phone just stops working after 5 weeks with no possible solution except to replace it. It hadn't been dropped, no water damage, no mechanical stress, I had just made lunch reservations and then it stopped working! I have apple care +, but the phone would have still been under the 90 day warranty, even without Apple Care. All of my phones and batteries and misfortune have been covered by Apple Care +. If it weren't under warranty, I'd try all of the crazy things people suggest on the forums too like waving it in a figure 8 pattern and putting it in the freezer. But at the end of the day, I am still stuck with my fourth phone in under 16 months, all for different defects, so I plan to get rid of it as soon as Apple Care + runs out because I have little faith in their hardware at this point and don't want to end up

paying for this crap.

You might get lucky and find someone nice, I have found both nice people at Apple Stores and nitwits. Offensive condescending incompetent nitwits. The worst thing that can happen if you go to a store is that they give you an estimate of repair / replacement and you refuse it. But at least then you'll have an answer to the question firsthand.

Kristina,

The worst thing that can happen at an Apple store is that they offer you an estimate for repair/replacement and then refuse it after they look inside your phone and find non genuine Apple parts.

Your are very fortunate to have warranty and apple care on your phone and therefore as Kenny stated in an earlier post, you shouldn't even try putting it in a freezer for fear of invalidating that protection.

However, there are many people on this forum who are not in that fortunate position and error 3 seems to be so generic that even Apple techs themselves cannot give an answer except to suggest a 'hardware fault'.

I took my daughters Iphone 4S to the store and told them upfront that it was a 'refurb' phone purchased before Christmas, without any Apple warranty and all I was seeking was to have the software restored to an earlier version, not a handset replacement. They told me they could not do this, which wasn't that surprising as Apple have put much effort into recent IOS versions to ensure phones cannot be restored to earlier IOS releases.

I had to take them at their word that the phone was faulty because I could not prove otherwise and they would not assist with this. Apple seem to have it well stitched up..

Anyway, a 12 year girl does not understand the frustration of all this poor support service which doesn't do much for the 'older phone' sector. Her phone worked before the update and then would not work after the update, so she is now the proud owner of a new Iphone (complete with Apple warranty) and I am the poorer for my false economy.

Unlike your well justified opinion of these phones, I could not convince her that Iphones were 'crap'

I've been following this form for quite some time now hoping for a new solution as I tried everything I read so far with no success. I have an ipad 3rd generation wifi + 4G and got the error for the first time when updating my iPad from 7.0.2 to 7.0.3. Based on everything I've read, it leads me to believe the error is being caused by the cellular antenna or the sim card reader. Has this error 3 ever happened to someones ios device like an ipod touch or iPad wifi only device? Since my iPad is out of warranty and Apple would only sell me a replacement for $300 I have been considering to open it up and remove the cellular antenna's inside. I have been holding back doing so as it doesn't appear to be very straight forward.

I have an iPhone 4 CDMA with the same problem, word im the net is that a baseband realated issue. I'm about to try the freezer thingy and maybe update the baseband or deactivate the phone. Also try with ipod touch 4 ipsw sounds kinda agood idea.

Hey, I've had the exact same problem as everyone hear except with my ipad mini and my error was called "error 3194",so I rung the apple support and they guided me through a process where we found out the problem and fixed my pad, there is no longer any error message and my ipad was restored succesfully. The way in which I fixed it was:

click on your start menu, type in services and choose the services programme.

find "apple mobile devices" and, on the left, click "stop" process, then afterwards, click "start" process, close it down and restart PC, your itunes must be at the latest version.

If this doesn't work for you then contact apple support, they were a great help.

However i'nnot sure if this will work for "error 3" as mine was "error 3194" but despite this they both have the exact same symptons and problems sohopefully it should work, good luck 🙂.

This freezer idea was way out of the blue... but it worked fine for me with my iphone 5s

i couldnt get to an apple store in the next year since i bought my iphone from america and im in europe now and the warrenty only works continent wide

Anyway, thank you soooooo...oooo much 😀

ur awesome and a nice cool guy

kristina...

Once again, i go back to what I read in your post:

"the only method is to get your phone replaced! it's a hardware problem that can't be fixed..."

I read this as a statement from you...a conclusion.

If you were quoting somone from Apple Store Support, it was not obvious to me. If that is the case, then I'm sorry that we wasted other peoples time reading our replies.

You might want to check out this thread:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=19148895#post19148895

I'm having a similar issue, I believe the unknown error 3 and -1 are essentially the same thing (base band issue).

Good luck.

any update guys regarding ios 7 big failure the so called UNKNOWN ERROR 3 who ended my happy moments with my iphone 5 ... I HOPE AND PRAY the ios 8 is the solution ... and I will be able to use my iphone again.

Your cure worked! Thanks a bunch -- this saves me a trip back to the Apple Store.

Do you know if having an "error 3" pop up once means I'm going to have similar problems like this down the road, or is it just a restore issue?

My daughter has an iphone 5s. She was having network issues while using the global plan in Italy. She was told by Apple to restore her phone. It worked for a few days then she lost connection again. She restored it again and now has the error 3. I have read this thread and it seems there is no fix. Am I correct?

If the "Restore on another computer" doesn't work (it didn't for me or the Apple Genius), or is not an option, go back to page 2 of this discussion and read how I used my "freezer" to solve the "Error (3)" problem on my iPad 3, and try it. Right now you have a "brick" so there really is no downside to my "freezer" fix that worked for me. I would recommend a freezer bag with a paper towel wrapped around 1/2 cup dry rice to minimize any condensation, placed inside the freezer bag (I didn't do this and just had some condensation on the outside, but I do recommend others use a freezer bag). The rice wrapped in the paper towel absorbs much of the moisture.

Tell your daughter its time to think outside the box. Have her go to the cafeteria and ask the staff to let her borrow a freezer bag, a paper towel, some rice and a freezer for 30 minutes in order to "save her phone". I can't imsginevthey would refuse such a unique request. Just the act of trying will likely add to her self confidence and give her a great story to share throughout her life - especially if it works (about 75% succeeds rate).

Hi- if her phone is unlocked and covered by Apple Care, she can go to an Apple owned store (like at Porta di Roma) and get a replacement. They can order the US version of the iPhone for her here. That is what I did with mine, which I purchased unlocked from Apple Store in USA, and which is still covered by Apple Care++. I spoke with the manager about my unhappiness with the fact that I am now on my fourth iPhone in 16 months because of defective handsets... He was very understanding. Hopefully if she goes there, she finds someone nice.