This iphone could not be restored. An unknown error occured (17).

Thank you so much. i thought my phone was gone. What is the cause of this problem?

I've had this problem for at least 2.5 years now and have always had to use a different mac in order to fix my iPhone when the updated bricked it. Finally found this thread and now it all works!

Thanks guys!

Thank you Stuart Greenwell, for posting the solution. It fixed my iPhone restoration problem.

Also Thanks to Rick Snagwell for the answer to how that line got in my hosts file. I did use 'tinyumbrella' with an older iPhone to unlock and use it on T-Mobile before they had the iPhone.

How do I do this? I've got the same problem after trying to update my software but I have no clue where to start looking on the mac!

Stuart GreenwellDec 7, 2013 4:03 PMin response to alexey_au

Thank you much for this. This was exactly my issue and this fixed it great. Wonder how that entry got in there!!!

I followed these instructions to remove the apple.com line, for anyone after me finding this gem!

http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/07/edit-hosts-file-mac-os-x/

THe the above post from Stuart Greenwell has a link with detailed instructions on how to edit you hosts file.

This helped me fix the problem.

Thank you guys! Fixed it!

Are there instructions for how to do this on a Windows PC?

Ok, not sure if you're still having problems, but here is what you need to do. If you solved it already, I'm sure someone else will need it!

1. Click Start
2. Search Notepad
3. Right click - Run as administrator <-- VERY IMPORTANT
4. Click Yes
5. File > Open > Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
6. Click the "Text Documents (*.txt)" button and change to "All Files"
7. Open "hosts"
8. Delete the bottom two lines that should have an IP address and say something about Apple
9. Restore phone in iTunes as you normally would

Hope this helped!

This helped me too. Thank the Lord there are people out there who can fix this stuff. Faith in humanity restored.

I just had this problem when I updated my iphone 6, and your solution helped. THANK YOU!

Thank you so so much !! it worked 100%

Just here to say thanks. Just don't know how it happened but your solution worked just great.

Another satisfied customer here! Thanks so much for posting this.

One thing I'll add is that when in Terminal, click and drag is not available. You must use your arrow keys to navigate to the end of the .apple line, then use the delete key to delete the whole line, including the numbers. Good luck!

Thank you very much :-) it helped a lot

i love you