Q: iPod Touch 5th Generation stuck in recovery mode
I am not seeing anything on it anywhere. However, I 'bricked' my iPod Touch 5th Gen while applying the update from 9.2.x to 9.3.1. I held off on 9.3 as people around me ran into a similar issue with their iPhones but they were able to recover their phones - just with wiped data.
My experience:
- Received the notice that 9.3.1 was available.
- Connected the device to my PC and backed it up with iTunes.
- Downloaded the update via iTunes and started the process of updating.
- Entered my PIN to unlock the device and authorize the update.
- Update started a few minutes later I received a notice that it failed and the device would need to be restored. (Error code was 3014 in my case.)
- Restore is only a "Restore and Update" option.
No matter what you do the device fails to ever restore.
The link they send you to is pointless: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201210
In my case everything was up to date. I restarted the system - multiple times. Forced restarts on the device. Put it into Recovery mode, etc. (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263)
There is no problem with my hosts file (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201442). I completely turned off my firewall and AV. I didn't have anything else plugged in other than the KB and Mouse... I even tried it from another computer - nothing.
Actually I never get a true "Restore" option - always started with restore but the next screen was restore and update.
I have seen a post were actually downgrading iTunes to an older version (for a first generation iPod Touch) solved the issue but I have not tried that yet.
Windows 7
Posted on Apr 4, 2016 11:22 AM
It has been a while since I posted on the topic but here is the final solution.
The problem was updating from a PC and the iTunes software failing to recognize it had not downloaded a complete file for the upgrade. I loaded a fresh PC (windows 7) with just drivers, Windows fully updated, 3rd party browsers installed and patched. I put iTunes on and it still failed. So having tried it on 3 different PCs with 3 different connector cables (2 Apple and 1 Amazon) and going so far as to have security software completely uninstalled, firewalls disabled, etc. The bottom line was the software was failing to download a complete file and the installer function was not smart enough to recognize this. It would try to install partial downloads. I bricked my iPad Air 2 in addition to my iPod touch while trying to figure this out.
I then fired up my MacBook Pro and connected my devices to that (with one of my previously used cables) and the update worked via iTunes and they returned to full functionality. I monitored the process and that is where I spotted the anomaly. I don't know why I am seeing this and it wasn't being widely reported.
Posted on May 2, 2016 8:28 AM
