Q: My iphone is stuck in recovery mode and itunes will not recognize my phone. I've tried pretty much every trick i can and i still do not know what to do. Someone please help me
My iphone is stuck in recovery mode and itunes will not recognize my phone. I've tried pretty much every trick i can and i still do not know what to do. Someone please help me
iPhone 4
Posted on Oct 6, 2013 4:42 PM
Just wanted to add what worked for me- after, literally, months of trying on-and-off to find a solution, innumerable searches on Google/Bing/etc, I found a solution that worked for me after mixing together a few solutions I found on the Internet. My problem was that the original restore was interrupted, and I couldn't re-restore. Every time I powered up my iPod Touch 5g, it would go to the recovery screen, then shut off in 5 seconds. No matter what I tried (DFU mode, hard reset, etc), it would always take me back to the same restore screen, and iTunes wouldn't recognize it. These steps finally got it working for me. Some of them might be excessive and/or unnecessary, but this what got my iPod going again. I use Windows 10:
(1) Go to Control Panel, then "View Devices and Printers."
(2) Right-click "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver"
(3) Click on the "Hardware" tab, make sure "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" is selected, then click "Properties" on the bottom right
(4) A new "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" window opens, but with more tabs. In the "General" tab, click "Change Settings" on the bottom
(5) A 3rd "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" window opens. It should default to the "Driver" tab; if not, select that tab.
(6) Click "Update Driver." Chances are, the driver is updated, but doesn't hurt to make sure.
(7) Then click on "Disable." Your computer should recognize that the iPod's been "disconnected."
(8) After a few seconds, click on "Enable."
(9) At this point, iTunes re-recognized the iPod (finally!) and informed that it needed to be restored. However, it wouldn't get past a certain screen, and then failed to recognize the iPod again. So, I repeated steps 1-7, but before enabling, I uninstalled the driver. After uninstallation was complete, I clicked "enable" and the driver re-installed.
(10) Went back to iTunes, and it again informed me that the iPod needed to be restored. I was able this time to download the new iOS, but after extracting, iTunes got stuck on "Waiting for iPod." Eventually, I got an error message saying iPod could not be restored (error code 21). So, I had to repeat steps 1-8 again (you may have more luck skipping this step- meaning, don't click restore just yet!)
(11) Minimize iTunes, then go to "My Computer," "Windows," "System32," "drivers," "etc"
(12) Drag the file "hosts" to the desktop (I made sure I was in the "Details" screen and moved the *file* hosts- some webpages said make sure you don't move the umbrella named hosts). "hosts" should no longer be in the "etc" folder
(13) Go back to iTunes, and proceed with the Restore process
(14) Going through all these steps worked for me. After my iPod restored and re-synced, I dragged the "hosts" file back to the etc folder.
I hope this helps someone. Like I said, I spent various hours in the last couple of months trying to find some sort of solution, so I hope this saves someone a little time.
Posted on Feb 15, 2016 3:13 PM