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

My Ipad is having the same Error 3 message for a few days. I took to the Apple repair place where I live in Jakarta and got a non answer. They have no idea what to do. My ipad is exactly 1 year and 4 months old. Ive tried almost everything to fix it except the freezer repair and I will try that tomorrow. I will also try to unistall then reinstall my itunes. If I do this will my last Ipad backup that is stored in my itunes disappear? I am so frustrated with this whole business. We pay a fortune for these devices and then for something like this to happen after such a short amount of time to only be told that our device is worthless is unacceptable. I paid $900.00 for it. I sure hope its not just a brick. I will be back in the USA in a few weeks and I sure hope they have it sorted by then.

Hi!

Having the same issue (error 3) with my Ipad3+3G after update, tried restoring it on 3 computers (macbook unibody, macbook pro & PC windows 8), also went to apple service center and they could'nt install or help me either. Even tried the freezer trick with no luck, sadly.

Im out of warranty & the apple support says that the only thing that they can do for me is to take the ipad in for repair, and the price will probebly land at around 400USD (I'm from Sweden)

I find it sad that Apple thinks its fine to take that kind of amount of money when the problems came after the update. I take good care of my electronics and I have been a loyal costumer of Apple since i became a student in 2006 (macbook, macbook unibody, macbook pro, Iphone 4, Ipad 3, Iphone 5s).

Well enough with the sadness here are parts from the installationlog i got from my PC. I hope it helps those who are trying to understand the error 3 problem.

"

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Waiting...bbupdater: OK

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: END: Sending 5 Images

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Finalize...bbupdater: OK

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Disconnecting...bbupdater: OK

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: BEGIN: Preparing Initial stage

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Requested boot mode: kBBUBootModeNone

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Adding 60.000000 seconds in timeout for EFS erase

[19:01:20.0462]

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 1...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 0...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem not responding

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem must boot - attempts left 1

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Adding 60.000000 seconds in timeout for EFS erase

[19:01:20.0462]

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 1...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Creating transport, attempts remaining 0...bbupdater:FAILED(kBBUReturnIOError)

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem not responding

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: Modem must boot - attempts left 0

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: END(kBBUReturnTimedOut): Preparing Initial stage

[19:01:20.0462] bbupdater: END(kBBUReturnTimedOut): Perform stage at second

[19:01:20.0462] send_bbupdate_status: sending baseband update status to host

[19:01:20.0462] update_baseband: bbupdater error: The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (BBUpdater error 3 - Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.)

[19:01:20.0462] 0: RamrodErrorDomain/3ec: update_baseband: failed to perform next stage

[19:01:20.0462] 1: BBUpdater/3: Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.

[19:01:20.0462] unable to convert ramrod error 1004

[19:01:20.0462] restore failed with CFError:

[19:01:20.0462] 0: AMRestoreErrorDomain/ffffffff: failed to update device firmware

[19:01:20.0462] 1: AMRestoreErrorDomain/ffffffff: ramrod firmware update failed

[19:01:20.0462] 2: RamrodErrorDomain/3ec: update_baseband: failed to perform next stage

[19:01:20.0462] 3: BBUpdater/3: Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.

[19:01:20.0462] waiting for host to acknowledge final status received...

[19:01:20.0462] host received final status

[19:01:20.0462] attempting to dump restore log

"

&

"

[19:30:58.0203 entries =>

[19:30:58.0203] 4 : <CFString 06751160 [745E8078]>{contents = "attemptedToFuse"} = <CFBoolean 745E8A80 [745E8078]>{value = false}

[19:30:58.0203] 10 : <CFString 03156960 [745E8078]>{contents = "fused"} = <CFBoolean 745E8A78 [745E8078]>{value = true}

[19:30:58.0203] 12 : <CFString 03156A80 [745E8078]>{contents = "done"} = <CFBoolean 745E8A78 [745E8078]>{value = true}

[19:30:58.0203] }

[19:30:58.0203]

[19:30:58.0219] device returned CFError with code -1

[19:30:58.0219] dumping CFError returned by restored:

[19:30:58.0219] CFError domain:AMRestoreErrorDomain code:-1 description:failed to update device firmware

[19:30:58.0219] CFError domain:AMRestoreErrorDomain code:-1 description:ramrod firmware update failed

[19:30:58.0219] CFError domain:RamrodErrorDomain code:1004 description:update_baseband: failed to perform next stage

[19:30:58.0219] CFError domain:BBUpdater code:3 description:Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.

[19:30:58.0219] Sending acknowledgement that final status was received

[19:30:58.0469] Restore completed, status:3

[19:30:58.0469] Failure Description:

[19:30:58.0469] Depth:0 Error:AMRestorePerformRestoreModeRestoreWithError failed with error: -1

[19:30:58.0469] Depth:1 Error:The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (AMRestoreErrorDomain error -1 - Failed to handle message type StatusMsg)

[19:30:58.0469] Depth:2 Error:The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (AMRestoreErrorDomain error -1 - failed to update device firmware)

[19:30:58.0469] Depth:3 Error:The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (AMRestoreErrorDomain error -1 - ramrod firmware update failed)

[19:30:58.0469] Depth:4 Error:The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (RamrodErrorDomain error 1004 - update_baseband: failed to perform next stage)

[19:30:58.0469] Depth:5 Error:The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (BBUpdater error 3 - Failed creating a communication transport to baseband.)

"

The first error I see early on the log is an "erase fail", which is consistent with why my "freezer physics" fixes some, but sadly not all, of devices with Error 3. They next appear to do a 60 second time out, which seems strange, as what they should do is reattempt the erase process, them if that fails, go into flash repair mode to map out the bad flash address locations, then start the restore again. Once the erase step has failed, the rest of the error log is rather irrelevant and the process should have simply halted. If Apple engineers are able to modify the install code similar tou suggestion above, they should be able to recover most devices with this type of Error 3.

Hi Kennyyoung, Thanks for the freezer tip. It worked well enough to get me through the restore process but has started crashing again every 1-2 minutes or so and brings me back to the apple logo page every time. Not sure what is going on.

So after a long month and a half...I was asked to send files to Apple about this issue. I have been giving the ios programmers and the engineers apparently the info that they needed since no one had a clue about this error code. I think kennethyoung and myself are the only two people that have actually gotten through to apple and their people. I can confirm that the answer to the error code 3 is a baseband issue. your phones modem has gone bye bye...if your under warranty still, they will replace your device. if not...well I suggest when you call apple about this you be really nice to them and see what they can do for you😀. Thanks to kennethyoung for all the help and info in this process as well.

Hi LucyBowen,

I'm not sure what is causing the repeat crashing every 1-2 minutes. If the restore process completed correctly, you should have been presented with the "Hello" screen, followed by screens to pick your country, your language, etcetera. Did you get through all these screens successfully? What screen do you have up when the crash happens?

Hi Ogm1er,

I agree with you and whomever at Apple that shared with you that the "modem" (which is what we semiconductor folks call a "baseband" chip) is being reported as "dead" during the Restore process. However, it appears to be failing solely due to an unsuccessful erase step, which is done prior to being programmed with the proper baseband code for your device. An incomplete erase is actually quite common for Flash technology and ordinarily the algorithm programmers use account for a failure to fully erase and repeat the erase process using a modified algorithm that will usually result in a successful erase on a second attempt. From the log file it does not appear that the code in 7.0.x is written properly to do this second erase attempt, but is instead doing a 60 second timeout, which is not correct for a failure to erase.

Again, the Apple software team has a bunch of smart people in it, and I believe if the Apple software engineers carefully look at this part of their baseband erase algorithm (and compare to 6.1.x), they can make a correction or two that would fix an unsuccessful Flash erase attempt. One person reported being able to successfully install 6.1.3 on their device after getting Error 3, which strongly infers the algorithm used in the baseband erase step has changed in 7.0.x in a way that appears to cause unnecessary Error 3 fails, and the baseband (modem) chip is not permanently "dead". My "Freezer Physics" works for many simply because Flash is easier to erase at cold temperatures, providing a crude workaround for the present software shortcoming in the baseband erase algorithm being used in 7.0.x. Lets give the Apple team a little more time to hopefully dig into this and push out a fix in 7.1.x.

Hi Kennethyoung. I did get through those screens ok. I am back to my regular screen. It will crash no matter what is on the screen. I actually took a vid of the crashing from my iphone as it looks so weird. Is there somewhere I can send to you? Or is there a pay to post a vid here?

Hi, here is a link to the video of my ipad crashing.

http://youtu.be/tWiDyxyT3Ms

My Ipad crashes every 90-120 seconds. Goes to the Apple logo page and then resets to my home screen and does it all over again. It has been doing this for about 2 weeks. The Apple repair store in Singapore said to install the new update 7.0.4 ( I only updated to IOS 7 about a month ago) I tried and got stuck with the error 3 message. I took Kennethyoungs advice and used the freezer trick. That worked to unstick it and upload 7.0.4 but now my ipad is crashing again every couple of minutes. I have turned it completly off until I can find a solution or get to the Apple store in the USA in 3 weeks.

Any ideas?

Hi LucyBowen,

Do you see the discolored grayish app icons like Facebook on the screen? These apps did not Restore correctly. I had the same issue with several of my apps after Restore. You can try these solutions.

(1) press and hold each discolored app icon and delete them. Once you've done all the discolored icons, see if this stops the crashes. you can then reinstall those apps.

(2) if that fails to stop crashes, do a Restore again, ideally from an earlier backup if you have one, or if not, try the same a second time.

(3) if that fails, Restore the device as a "New Device". This will only install Apples basic iOS apps and should solve the crashing problem.

Let me know if this solves your problem

Please feel free to forward my comments to anyone that may be able to help. Also include the error log from "andben" on the previous page. I think I saw a log file from another person elsewhere and it showed the identical "erase fail" error, so this is most likely the common fail point for Error 3. Let them know they may contact me also if they wish.

I, too, am having this error with the iphone 4s. I have tried all the various methods listed in this discussion including the "freezer fix" without success. Also, when I try to install ios 6.1.3 i get an error saying my phone is not compatible with that version. I will follow this thread as it is the most comprehensive. Plus, Ken seems like a super smart dude who will rain down knowledge and, hopefully, a solution. 🙂

Soupandsalad,

Thank you for the kind words. We have to all work together to come up with solutions to problems that Apple themselves have not come up with solutions for. I have not heard anything new from Apple since Apple requested I swap my Error 3 device out for a free replacement, but I continue to hope that they are both looking at multiple devices that have this Error 3 issue, and are looking at this thread to aid in their effort.

I just got a post kicked off this thread a few minutes ago by Apple because I suggested that those of you who have had no success with the various solutions posted here might want to try on your bricked Error 3 devices, but Apple didn't like me suggesting this idea, because it apparently violated some Terms of Service on this forum that I was unaware of, even though doing this to "your device" has been ruled legal by the US government. Apparently we can't even use "that word" on this forum, so I won't. I'll have to let you read between the lines. One thread indicated that it didn't work for them, but details of why and how it didn't work are lacking, so it may be worth the effort for someone willing to try and document their results.

Good Luck. If I find solutions elsewhere or hear from Apple Care Engineers, i'll update.

Kennethyoung,

The "solutions" may help, but not everyone took the precaution of saving the signature before the upgrade. As Apple stop signing firmware below 7.0 which makes it difficult to downgrade. Which explains soupandsalad's incompatibility plus maybe the wrong version (CDMA or GSM). I hope you could read between the lines I cannot be more specific. If they did save the "signature" from 6.1.x then they may be in luck. I luckily saved mine and sticked to 6.1.3.

Hi Jamesvilla19,

I agree with you 100%, but I thought it was worth putting this "possible solution" out there for those who might have saved the prior files. I am almost 100% positive that 95%+ of those with error 3 on devices that once ran 6.1.3 can restore to 6.1.3 if they saved the files necessary to do so, but usually only developers and people who regularly use this "other possible solution" on a regular basis for other reasons, are likely to have those necessary files.

I have reason to believe Applecare Engineers are at least looking into the issue, and into what I think was either an intentional or accidental change in that part of the erase/verify code that is resulting in Error 3, between 6.1.x and 7.0.x update algorithm. I don't know that if they do "fix" it, if they will tell us or not, but thats a marketing decision. Time will tell. We can only hope and continue to try for alternative solutions.