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

Hey kenneth, your helpfulness in this thread is pretty incredible. I did the freezer trick and it seemed to work, but at the last minute I got an error 27 code. Any ideas? 

Thank you for the kind words!

I don't know what error 27 is. I would suggest you repeat the restore process again outside of the freezer. If it hangs on Error 3 again, repeat the freever steps. If it only now hangs on Error 27 regardless of doing restorer at normal temps or freezer temps, you should search this forum for Error 27 solutions.

I would NOT buy an error 3 stuck iPhone

Thank you for the mind words! Glad the freezer fix worked if you. I don't have hard stats but it appears to work about 75% of the time.

To the best of my sources Apple has NOT put in any code changes to fix Error 3. With iPhone 5c's and 5s's starting to show the problem, I am hopeful iOS8 MIGHT get a code fix for this. As I've stated before the code fix could be very tricky for Apple. There are a lot of moving parts dealing with Flash erase algorithms and potential security stuff going on, so this is likely not trivial. Right now the number of devices failing appears to be statistically insignificant - although thats hard for us users to swallow when our $700-$1000 iOS device takes it's last breath during a normal iOS update that Apple "pushes" to every user. If an influential writer had it happen to their iDevice and they in investigated, found this thread, interviewed a few people, then wrote about it, Error 3 would quickly be "no more". Sadly I don't have that pull.

Hello, kennethyoung. Do you know, if Apple will do smth with this "Error 3"? Cause i live in Ukraine, and there's no official Apple Store. Our local fixing center is filled up with iPhone/iPad that is stuck with an "Error 3". Today i'll try your freezer trick, and will post the results.

Some questions about the freezer trick:

1. I need to put my iPhone in the towel with dry rice, is that correct?

2. If the freezer trcik will work, iPhone will work correctly, no "Searching...", or it will just work without network?

Again, thanks for enthusiastic help in our problem.

1. Yes

2. Yes

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread, especially @kennethyoung .

I just encountered this "unknown error 3" for the first time only a few days ago. After spending hours on this issue, I realized that this is a pretty widespread and unresolved issue. Here's my story: I was trying to update my iPhone 5 (never jailbroken) from 7.0.6 to the latest 7.1.2 through iTunes on a PC because I didn't have enough space to update directly on my phone. Unfortunately, the update process failed and I got stuck in Recovery mode. At first, I was able to exit the Recovery mode using a third party tool. However, I noticed that my phone could no longer find a cellular network. The network status remained to be "Searching..." on the top-left corner no matter what I tried. (I even tried my SIM card on a different phone and it worked fine.) Also, I noticed that the baseband info in Setting was gone/empty.

So I decided to do a Restore hoping that it would fix the issue. Now I wish I didn't. Obviously, the Restore process failed and I got stuck in Recovery mode---for real---this time. I tried a few third party tools and none could get me out of it.

I tried Restore several times and kept getting "unknown error 3" at the end. I have tried on 2 PCs, turning off antivirus program and firewall, unplugging all unnecessary USB cables, etc. Finally, I tried kennethyoung's freezer method, twice. For some reason, It failed when I tried it for the first time. However, I decided to try it again the next day and surprisingly it worked! I guess I didn't freeze it long enough when I tried it for the first time, even though I left it in the freezer for nearly an hour I believe. I wrapped the phone in a paper towel and put it in a sandwich/freezer bag filled with some rice, both times.

Unfortunately, now I face another obstacle which has already been mentioned in this thread. I'm stuck at Hello welcome set up screen because I could *neither get my phone activated through iTunes *nor Wi-Fi. I also noticed that no IMEI info could be displayed when I press the little "i" in a circle thing at the bottom-right corner of the Hello screen. Now I'm not sure if I could ever get this phone activated...

Any suggestions on how to pass or bypass the activation process..?  Thanks again!

Thank You  Thank You,

I updated today to 7.1.2 on IPad 3 7.4.2014 could not get out of recovery I thought about freezing, I do computer repair and freeze hard drives all the time to get data off. your post made sense to me and I new nothing was wrong with my ipad(it was working great) or computer

Thank You again

Thank you for the kind words. I'm so happy it worked for you!

I got the same error 3 while trying to restore iPhone 5s

Anyone can describe freezer method in detail I never heard about it ?

Error Code 3 Resolve iOS update and restore errors

Nothing work for me I still have same error

The same problem here (like 2 days later after I upgraded to iOS 7.1.2),

Day 1) searching for service provider with no success, and stops me from using by asking me to activate, and saying that cannot connect to the apple server though my wifi is in a good condition.

Day 2) run out of battery, and prevents me from even charging. Apple store folks provide me the option of replacement with $300... declined.

Day 3) somehow allowed me to charge, so I see the "activation" screen again. I tried to upgrade/restore from this point, and could only receive error 3 ever since.... I tried the freezer trick a few times, without success yet. I'll try it more in the next a few days.

Now, error 1669 once restoring in the freezer (tried twice, once in recovery and once in DFU mode)

When it is outside the freezer, error 3...