Instruction : How to force restore

[Deus]

Ok so after an hour on the phone with Apple and having to retry all the basics like soft reset, hard reset nothing worked. So here is the way to force a hard reset (this will erase all data so hopefully you have backed up!)


I used this when my iPhone 3G was stuck on the Apple logo and would not do anything else. Even after a hard reset (Holding down the home button and power button for 10 seconds). iTunes would also not recognize my iPhone when plugged in.


I am NOT responsible for anyone doing this. I did this myself and it worked fine.


1. Hold down the home button and power button at the same time. This will force the screen to fade and the Apple Logo to reappear. KEEP holding the two buttons down until the iPhone shuts off.

2. Once the iPhone is off plug one end of the usb cable into the PC .

3. Open iTunes

3. While holding down the Home button plug the cable into the iphone.
Contunue holding the home button until the you the itunes logo and the picture of the cable on the iPhone screen. This may take up to 30 seconds.

4. Voila iTunes should now detect the iPhone and you can perform a restore.

Hope this helps someone. Maybe stickie this?


Cheers

[jfnc]

This works great, truly a lifesaver move when you have no other option. I've had to resort to this about once a week or so since 2.0 came out, and it hasn't failed to work yet.

[Deus]

Here are some situations where I have seen this happenning. When going into Settings. If nothing actually loads and you are looking at the greay background...well... either wait of hold down the clack button until it closes. Resetting at this time will cause the death apple.

I have noticed the setting freezing like that when trying to access it while an application is downloading. Whenever you have a frozen app, hold down the black button for like 30 seconds and it should close the app. Never reset with a frozen app or you too may get the death apple .

This is just from observations I have made over the last couple of weeks. I have had to force this reset about 5 times so far.

[rafayj]

ahh really ?

[RRaceRB]

thanks.
f'n iphone just dies on me and i couldn't figure out why.
rb.

[griznhoney]

This work to migrate from my broken phone to a new-er phone? Gen 2?

[hashmash]

nice lil tutorial

[paul100]

Thanks for teaching us about force/hard-reset/restore and its pro's and con's. And It helped me a lot of times to make my iTunes recognize my iPhone.

[RompaRoom]

Not now but previously this saved my life, I was ####ing over my jailbroken iPhone not booting up after running cydia thought what am i going to do. Apple will know im jailbroken lol. This worked wonders!

[cougarric]

this is the same solution I came up with to solve my ipods problem. definitely worth a sticky

[Spewy]

Originally Posted by Deus

Ok so after an hour on the phone with Apple and having to retry all the basics like soft reset, hard reset nothing worked. So here is the way to force a hard reset (this will erase all data so hopefully you have backed up!)


I used this when my iPhone 3G was stuck on the Apple logo and would not do anything else. Even after a hard reset (Holding down the home button and power button for 10 seconds). iTunes would also not recognize my iPhone when plugged in.


I am NOT responsible for anyone doing this. I did this myself and it worked fine.


1. Hold down the home button and power button at the same time. This will force the screen to fade and the Apple Logo to reappear. KEEP holding the two buttons down until the iPhone shuts off.

2. Once the iPhone is off plug one end of the usb cable into the PC .

3. Open iTunes

3. While holding down the Home button plug the cable into the iphone.
Contunue holding the home button until the you the itunes logo and the picture of the cable on the iPhone screen. This may take up to 30 seconds.

4. Voila iTunes should now detect the iPhone and you can perform a restore.

Hope this helps someone. Maybe stickie this?


Cheers

Hi all,

The above didn't workl for me. I done a reset last night as i am selling the phone and wanted to clear all content.

The phone never restarted, it keeps coming up with the apple logo and a round timer. I tried the above steps and it doesn't help, Itunes comes up with a message 'iphone in recovery mode, restart.

I can't get it to do anything.

Please help,

[Spewy]

Got it sorted -- Cheers

[Podgeek66]

You just saved the life of my iPod, thanks a lot!

Craig-are you not aware of the errors in that pdf?

-paul.

[just_a_phase_uk]

Would a force restore reset the phone to it's original firmware?