Q: 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

Nielle21, You should be proud of yourself that you got as far as you did.

I just wondering if your sisters phone was an 'untouched' example, or was it like my daughters's phone, a refurb which turned out to contain many non Apple parts. I have a theory that this update (7.1) was built to settle a lot of scores with variuos people, such as 'people who repair cheaply, people who unlock from carrier, people who jail-break and people who steal and sell. Maybe it detected not genuine parts and gave the phone a generic code 3 'fail' which basically disabled it and labelled it as a hardware fault.

My daughters phone started to do the 'searching' routine just after an earlier IOS 7 update. I think apple then locked out any opportunity to reverted to and earlier version of IOS 6 and its fate was then sealed. Her only other option was to update to 7.1 to try to fix the searching problem.

I did notice one thing however and this is the reason for me asking if your sister's phone may have been a refurb.

Many of these refurbs are done and shipped from the Far East, only to be dumped on the UK market just before Christmas, to make a killing. My daughters phone cost £250 and looked real neat and new and was completed with sealed box....but buyer beware. However it really was junk to say the least. Anyway, they say that the searching problem can be fixed by setting the phones time to the correct zone, date and time. These phones arrive from the Far East with Pacific zone setting. Although I changed the zone etc to UK, after the phone was then locked during the download, I went onto her icloud account and noticed the zone was still Pacific....maybe this accounts for the 'searching' issue, but I'll never know.

I'm now heading out to buy her a 'Brand New' 4s from a reputable dealer.

please let me if there is any new developement to fix error 3.

Baby Joseph

<Edited by Host>

were you able to activate?

Bought a Iphone 4s on ebay  - Would not ACTIVATE, I tried to RESTORE it but go stuck in RESTORE and would not go into DFU mode - put it in the FREEZER for 30 minutes tried to RESTORE in DFU mode - failed - RESTORE in restore mode SUCCESS & it went from 7.0 to 7.1 IOS.  a few weeks go by and then it goes SEARCHING for network.  I try again to restore and now it is again stuck in RESTORE.  Tried DFU mode.  disable firewall/antivirus.  FREEZER, 30 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours.  I've even tried while it was in the Freezer.  Different computer/User,  Uninstall ITUNES/reinstall.  FlushDNS. Took off FIND MY PHONE from ICLOUD.  FIND MY PHONE is on the phone but I can't change that.  I am logged into ITUNES with the user name that RESTOREd it before.

Must be something the APPLE SERVER doesn't like

but WHAT?

Ed

I have the same problem. I'm in Argentina and there are no apple store. I'm desperate.

Could apple replace the iphone? Do you had to pay?

I'm having the same problem, im in Argentina too. I've been trying for the past 3 weeks using the freezer technique like 12 times without any luck.

The iPhone's warranty is until June 15th 2014, the nearest official apple store where i could have it replaced is in Brazil, but i won't travel and i don't know anyone that will.

There MUST be some kind of fix we can download.

I am the biggest Apple Fan there is, i have more than 17 Apple products, i've convinced lots of people to buy their products, never a complaint. So please, please help us with this.

I'm from Argentina too. I bought my iPhone in US and I have the same problem. I called the Apple Store in Rio de Janeiro but they told me that they couldn't change my phone for another one because US model is different than brazilian model because of LTE bands.

Here's a list of different models:

https://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

Apple Authorised Service Provider can also replace your iPhone. Search for the nearest in your area.

Kombauh the problem is that there are no companies that sell the iPhone in Argentina, so no one could replace it. All the AASP that i called told me the same thing, no one can provide me any solutions.

I am really desperate.

I have the same problem with my iPhone 4S... I had a Network Connectivity failure error so I tryed everything possible to fix it on my iPhone 4S, so I decided to restore it but my iPhone got stuck in Recovery Mode when I tryed to restore it using iTunes and always shows "error 3" and there is no way to restore it

There is any solution to solve "error 3"  already???

@KennyYoung:

You have another satisfied customer here!    You helped to save my iPhone 5 with your "freezer fix"!    First try!

Now I can cancel my appointment at the Apple Store Genius Bar scheduled for this afternoon and save a few hundred $$s too!

Thanks again.

Hi wca2000,

Glad my freezer physics worked for you! I only wish that our group had been able to convince Apple to implement a firmware install fix, for their installation bug, but they've had bigger fish to fry as of late. If a big blogger picked this issue up and runs with it, it might embarras them enough that they will but I don't have that kind of pull.

Hi Belfast-Bill

Glad my freezer method worked for you! We all have to help each other with these types of issues.