Endless "Recovery Mode" loop on my iPhone 5.

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Level 1

5 points

Endless "Recovery Mode" loop on my iPhone 5.

Last night I decided to update my iPhone 5 to iOS 7.0.3. I connected my phone to my PC using the lightning cable and opened up iTunes, which prompted me to update my iOS. I hit "Cancel" so I could do a sync and backup before updating (as I always do). I then went back to the phone summary page and clicked the button to update the phone. It took about 40 minutes to download the update and after it downloaded, it failed. My phone went into Recovery Mode (picture of cable pointing to iTunes symbol). The summary page now prompted an alert saying that it has detected a phone in Recovery Mode and will need to be restored before being used. I hit "Ok" and then hit the "Restore iPhone" button. I got the warning that all data will be lost and I agreed to the terms of iOS 7.0.3 etc. The download then began. At the end of the download, nothing happenes at all. No error message appears. The phone screen simply goes black and then the Recovery Mode screen appears again. Once again, I am prompted to restore the phone. I have restored six times now and everytime it does the same thing. It is an endless loop.

I have tried different methods such as using a different lightning cable, different USB ports on my PC, and holding the power button and home screen to force it out of Recovery methods. My wife has the extact same phone and hers updated fine on my PC.

Any suggestions?

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Nov 11, 2013 12:16 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MFothy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 11, 2013 9:36 PM in response to MFothy

Just to help others that may find themselves in my situation...

I have solved my problem. I used the instructions on this site: http://geekindisguise.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/how-to-put-ipod-touch-iphone-into -dfu-mode/

My phone was displaying Recovery Mode and I was stuck in a Recovery Mode loop. Using these instructions I put it into DFU Mode, directly from Recovery Mode (while connected to my PC). As I did this, my computer installed a driver for my iPhone and said it was "Ready to Use" in a Windows pane. I then tried the "Restore iPhone" button in iTunes again and after it worked! It downloaded the update and restored the phone to factory settings. I had backed up my phone last night (I backup my data locally on my PC) so I got all of my data back.

Follow the instructions on that site and you're golden. It took me a couple tries to get the timing of the holding of the buttons.

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Answer 2

akorman

Level 1

17 points

Feb 9, 2014 8:21 AM in response to MFothy

I was having this same problem (endless recovery mode loop) but I also have a broken Home button, so I'm not able to enter DFU mode. The fix for me was to go through the recovery, but after it restores the firmware, iTunes will tell you to leave the phone connected to your computer while it reboots.

If I leave it connected, the phone re-enters recovery mode. But, if I unplug the phone at this point (during the reboot) the phone goes to the Welcome screen and I can set it up again. If I try to restore from the iTunes backup, I get put back into recovery mode, but if I restore from iCloud backup, everything works.

So, in short:

Plug in the phone, start the recovery
After firmware is installed (while the phone is rebooting), unplug from the computer
Restore backup from iCloud, not iTunes

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Answer 3

Miner36

Level 1

0 points

Jul 17, 2014 1:03 AM in response to akorman

Thank you so much!!!! I just had to make an account just to thank you. My power button is broken so I had to do it this way.

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Answer 4

Jul 22, 2014 3:16 AM in response to MFothy

You can follow these steps :

Press and hold the power button that is present on the top edge of the iPhone and along with that press home buttonfor at least 15 seconds

Wait till the iphone device turns off and then release the power and home button. It could take around fifteen seconds to power off. Turn iPhone On by pressing iphone button. And hwen the iphone reboots, it will not be in recovery mode.

And for More info visit : http://www.iphonerecoverymode.net

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Answer 5

nitro93

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2014 3:19 AM in response to MFothy

THANK YOU VERY MUCH !

I have resolved my loop with instructions from akorman, thank you dude !

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Answer 6

Oct 26, 2014 5:14 AM in response to MFothy

Use Reiboot, plug your iDevice into your computer with Reiboot installed. Click Recovery to reboot your device normally. Trust me I had the same problem. ITS FRUSTRATING!

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Answer 7

dijipiji

Level 1

0 points

Apr 20, 2015 1:50 PM in response to akorman

extremely useful info - saved my pain 🙂

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Answer 8

Apr 21, 2015 9:36 PM in response to akorman

akorman Feb 9, 2014 8:21 AM
Re: Endless "Recovery Mode" loop on my iPhone 5. in response to MFothy

I was having this same problem (endless recovery mode loop) but I also have a broken Home button, so I'm not able to enter DFU mode. The fix for me was to go through the recovery, but after it restores the firmware, iTunes will tell you to leave the phone connected to your computer while it reboots.

If I leave it connected, the phone re-enters recovery mode. But, if I unplug the phone at this point (during the reboot) the phone goes to the Welcome screen and I can set it up again. If I try to restore from the iTunes backup, I get put back into recovery mode, but if I restore from iCloud backup, everything works.

So, in short:

Plug in the phone, start the recovery
After firmware is installed (while the phone is rebooting), unplug from the computer
Restore backup from iCloud, not iTunes

I have been messing with this for hours now, I finally came across your response. This worked like a charm, thank you so much!!!

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Answer 9

zshah

Level 1

0 points

Dec 25, 2015 1:22 PM in response to akorman

Very helpful. Key was to wait patiently while the restore happened (took ~10mins), then as soon as it finished and the phone was booting, unplugging the USB from the computer. Then it finished the restore on the phone and started up as new.

Thanks again for the great tip, akorman.

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Answer 10

Sep 14, 2017 9:06 PM in response to akorman

Good, so if the home button is broken, how did you pass de Welcome screen ? (maybe the only way is fix it). Thanks a lot!

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