iphone won't turn on past apple logo, can't restore. HELP

All of a sudden tonight, my iphone 4s restarted, but it only got to the apple logo screen, then restarted again. It was doing that repeatedly every 10 seconds or so for the last few hours. The only thing I could do was turn it off completely but only if it wasn't plugged in. If I plugged it into a power source it kept restarting and I couldn't even turn it off. But turning it off didn't do anything anyway because when I turned it on again it just continued doing the same restart cycle. I tried a reset, which had no effect at all. I tried to do a complete restore using itunes, several times. It starts to restore but then I get a message "The iphone (iphone) could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (9)." I made sure itunes and OS X were up to date, restarted my computer, and tried again a few times with the same failed result. And now the phone doesn't continually loop through the apple logo. Instead, after the apple logo, it shows the connect-to-itunes screen (in order to do a restore, but like I said, that doesn't work) and stays on that screen for a minute until it turns off. (But again, if I leave it plugged in, it doesn't stay off. It keeps turning back on and it stays at the connect-to-itunes screen until I turn it off.)


So I don't know what options I have left. As far as I can tell, I have a brick that lights up with an apple logo or itunes logo.


One thing that did happen earlier today that could be related: I tried to update my iphone (I believe I have 7.0.4 and it was updating to 7.0.6?) but something weird happened during the update (can't remember exactly) and I ended up having to restart my phone without it finishing the update. It wouldn't let me update after that, which I didn't really care about, so I just left it with the ios version I had. Then later in the evening this happened.


One other small thing to note (probably insignificant)-- When the phone kept going through the apple logo loop, right before the screen went black and it restarted, the apple logo would grow dim and there was sometimes a horizontal line across the screen, then it went to black.


If anybody has any ideas, please help! It would be much appreciated. I don't want to have to buy a new phone so soon. Apple products are supposed to have a long life span! And I've never jailbroken it or done anything out of the ordinary.

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Feb 22, 2014 11:49 PM

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58 replies

Feb 24, 2014 12:37 AM in response to oregonjoe

I took my phone in to the Apple store today and after taking it to the back and trying to restore it, the person told me it's a messed up firmware issue and my phone is not salvageable. I really don't understand how everything works perfectly for so long, then all of a sudden one night it randomly decides to become a brick. And the hardware is perfectly fine. Shouldn't any software-related issue be fixable?

Apr 12, 2014 8:56 AM in response to oregonjoe

I am having the same EXACT issue!! This is very frustraiting, annoying, irresposible and completly degrading to the reputation of Apple products. We buy apple products not to keep them for a year or two; their reliability is becoming completly questionable. Seems like we are getting forced to update our old products(products past a year) for new ones in order to deal with these types of issues that arise (usually after a warranty has expired). Very frustrated apple customer here.

May 1, 2014 8:50 PM in response to oregonjoe

Same problem. Except with an iPhone 4. A lot of forums I've read said to put it into dfu mode or "connect to iTunes" to restore but when it reaches "waiting for iphone " stage the phone will restart and instead of continuing the restore it either gives me an error 21 message or the on/off apple logo cycle continues. I feel like apple should've fixed this by now. This is VERY frustrating. Please apple fix, iPhone is still very much useable and I cant afford to get a new apple device.

May 1, 2014 9:47 PM in response to rangel9676

A lot of forums I've read said to put it into dfu mode or "connect to iTunes" to restore b


You want it in recovery mode, not DFU, which is used for hacking or on already hacked phones


What is Difference Between Recovery Mode and DFU Mode


Error 21 usually means there is hardware damage,


Check for hardware issues

Related errors: 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 1000, 1002, 1004, 1011, 1012, 1014, 1667, or 1669.

Try to restore your iOS device two more times while connected with a cable, computer, and network you know are good. Also, confirm your security software and settings are allowing communication between your device and update servers. If you still see the error message when you update or restore, contact Apple support.



Please apple fix,


Who are you talking to? This is a user-to-user support forum, not Apple.

Jun 6, 2014 10:06 AM in response to oregonjoe

I had the same problem but with an iphone 3gs, i do not know what to do but i do know that resroing it doesnt do anything in the sligtest, i cant even back my phone up again and transfer the stuff cos it seems to also restart after about 5 10 mins, i tried to take it to apple to see if they could tell me what was wrong but they said that my "complimentry repair could not be used" i think that this is due to it being so old but i do not know...

Jul 3, 2014 9:18 PM in response to oregonjoe

Just use this if it happens ever again I was searching for 2hrs cuz my moms iphone messed up just like that & you said that the worker said it was a firmware problem & then I fount this & it worked hope it works for everybody else to so they don't have to buy or get another phone !!


DFU method is one which is a sort of advanced instance of the device loader which is used by Apple to initially load up firmware and other files. This has nosecureprotection, so inexperienced users or new ones may by mistake flash the wrong firmware or actually mess the Bootloader when you are jailbreaking. Therefore, it is advised that you carefully handle your device when you are in DFU mode.

  1. Switch ON your device.
  2. Now, open iTunes and connect your device using a USB cable.
  3. Next, press and hold the Home + Power buttons together for 10 seconds exactly and then release the Power button.
  4. Lastly, continue holding the Home button until iTunes detects your device in recovery mode.
  5. Now, restore.

Aug 10, 2014 3:05 PM in response to modular747

It is the battery and none of the comments in this thread actually helped to answer that question and so it's good he answered it now rather than ever for others that look online for a solution.

I had the exact same issue with my iphone 4s and once I replaced the battery, everything got back to normal. No security software, no hardware issues.

Thanks steveofresh.

Aug 10, 2014 4:26 PM in response to HilaN

Maybe if you bothered to read the thread in which you just posted you would know that the OP described a problem that was evaluated at the Apple store and found to be corrupted firmware. Since neither you nor stevofresh provided any descriptions of your problems beyond "exact same issue", it's clear that you didn't read the details of the original post, which described a problem beyond loop restarting and involved restore error # 9.

Aug 10, 2014 5:38 PM in response to modular747

What made you so sure I haven't read the entire thing? When I said "exact same issue" I meant every little detail he wrote in his post, including restoring the phone. One of the first things I tried to check before changing the battery is a hardware damage and that wasn't the case.

I'm sorry but I don't see how this conversation helps in any way to this post, I think it could be more than one thing since for me, changing the battery (as easy as it is) helped fixing that problem.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

iphone won't turn on past apple logo, can't restore. HELP

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