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

Thanks kennethyoungit worked for me. I was struggling to fix this from past 3 months and went to Apple store twice to fix this error. But they were asking me to pay $300 to get a same ipad version. As you said in early thread it's Apple issue and they have to fix it for free, but some how they were asking to pay money for replacement.After keeping the ipad in freezer it worked like a charm.

Hi Nico,

See my input on page 6 to SoupandSalad. Unfortunately this forum rules won't let me go into details on how to do what I hint at, but if you got the drift you can try that route.

You might also try the freezer a second time first. Leave in a solid 30 minutes with the device Fully Off. Its key that the internal chips get real cold. If the device is not fully off, this won't happen. Then immediately after pulling out of thrpe freezer, plug in your ios cable, turn on your device and start the restore process.

Beyond the above, these are all the potential work-arounds to the Error (3) issue that this group has jointly discovered so far.

Good Luck!

Hi guys,

I had error 3 on my 4S after 7.0.4 restore this morning. All I had to do was disable the firewall on my macbook and it worked!!! I was amazed after I was reading all the posts here how easy it was for me. Maybe I was just lucky!

Hope this helps someone!

Cheers

Hi every one,

My iphone 5 had problems in ios 6.1.3. Is error reports searching... in carier even when i remove simcard. I have to restore to 7.0.4 and get an error (3) until now still can not overcome. Now I'm restoring in my imac and off the firewall as Ivo.Dimov said .... hopefully positive...

For anyone that is having a problem and getting error 3....if your out of warranty, please read through a few of these pages and refer to kennethyoung and his posts. If your still in warranty, take it back to apple. This is a firmware issue. I got my device replaced out of warranty due to the fact I worked on this for 2 months literally with AppleCare iOS reps, and AppleCare engineers. I gave them great information to help solve the problem. So to everyone, please read past post from kennethyoung and myself on this issue. Either way, just be nice with the person your dealing with at Apple.....you just may get a replacement if your out of warranty.

Has anyone heard whether Apple will come up with a new update to fix this issue. Or if the folks at the genius bar are acknowledging this error 3 as anything but a hardware issue. My Out of Warranty by (4 months) $900 ipad still lies unusable. I plan to go to the Genius Bar after next week but am afraid they will say "Too bad so sad".

😟 I wonder if Apple has even looked at this thread. 😟

Hi jgm3100,

Forum Rules don't allow me to give details but google for "Downgrade ios 7 to 6" and you will find instructions. I believe jamesvilla19 on this thread had success downgrading to 6.1.3 which I also believe will work for 95% of Error 3 users due to a change I believe the Apple engineers made in the flash erase verify algorithm that is causing some corner case failures like ours.

Hi

I thought i was also one of the victim for this error for my ipad.After reading all comments i followed the below way to fix it and worked for me,hope this helps you.

1)Removed the old itunes and its associated software completely.

2)Installed the latest version of Itunes.

3)As i am using Windows OS,disable the antivirus and turnoff the windows firewall

4)Connect Ipad to laptop-->Restore from Itunes

And it worked for my Ipad3

Hi jfm3100

It seems my last post violated apples forum rights which in fact did not suggest of doing anything to render or customize the device in question, simply revert to factory stock of an older version. In summary, apple signs their firmwares and does not continue to sign older ones which in this case is 6.1.3, 7.0, 7.0.2. Therefore one simply cannot go back without additional directions. Thats right apple I'm not mentioning anything "bad". Sorry I cannot be much of help as I feel like the monkey is watching me from toy story 3.

I am in utter disbelief right now, kennthyoung you are the man. I have spent weeks trying to restore my 3rd gen iPad with no success. Literally, tried everything in this forum and all other forums on the Uknown Error (3). Talked with Apple Care on the phone, and took it into the Apple Store, no luck. Was literally about to hand over the $299 to replace my out of warranty iPad, and thought heck, I'll give the freezer trick a try. It worked first try. Thank you for your extensive knowledge on Semiconductors. You were more help than Apple was, even though that isn't saying much. You need to be in contact with Apple Engineers and get this thing figured out. I would buy you a beer right now if I could buddy, again, thanks a bunch. CHEERS!

Hi peter876,

Thank you for the kind words. All the methods shared by others on our discussion team have contributed to helping solve this thorny problem for various visitors. As you did, I recommend my Freezer Physics be used after all other methods have failed, including a visit to an Apple Store, if possible, and a chat with an Apple Genius.

I continue to believe we may get a fix from Apple in a future OS update but we will have to hang in there for a bit. Our issue appears to me to be a "corner case" (even with this forums 16K+ views, its not a lot of devices). Apple scrapes these discussion threads regularly looking for problems to tackle, so the more people with Error (3) that share their experience, the more likely this issue will get attention (squeaky wheel).

Hi Kennethyoung,

Please, you said we have to turn off the device completely before trying the freezer trick otherwise it won't work. My iPad is already in recovery mode showind iTunes logo. Is it enough to hold the power button or is there anything else to do to turn it off completely ?

Thanks.

Hi xx1544,

Yes. 10 seconds holding down the power button on the top right edge if the device should turn it off but I have seen one case where it didn't and the user still froze the device and was able to successfully restore the device. Turning it off if you can helps the chips get colder enhancing the likelihood of a successful restore. Let us know how it works out for you

7.1 is already out at Developers so any fix in 7.1.0 is unlikely. The issue is being looked at by Apple so depending on what they find for a possible software fix it will come later. Your device not being fixed for Error (3) by any of the techniques described on this thread may make it a good candidate for the AppleCare engineers to study for this problem. Have you talked with an Apple Genius and store manager and contacted AppleCare directly on this issue? Of not, I urge you to do both as they may be collecting some of the devices that exhibit Error (3) to study the failure mode and see if a software fix can be derived.

I already contacted them through the chat. They told me to send it back to apple so they will give me a new one (i'm still under warranty). The problem is that there is no apple representative in my country. It is now more than two months i'm looking for a solution. May be I will just buy a new one. But please, keep us informed whenever a solution is provided by apple. Thanks in advance.