Howto DFU mode/Recover your iPhone/iPod

This is a question i hear a lot.
First of all, why do you need the DFU mode?
Dfu stands for Download Firmware Update and you need this to recover your iPhone or iPod touch.

Her’s a quick guide.

1) Start your iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPod touch to your mac/pc.

2) Keep holding the sleep/wake and home button for about 10 seconds. Release the sleep/wake button, but keep holding the home button. you will hear some sounds.

3) If you did it correctly iTunes will tell you that it has detected an iPhone or iPod touch in recovery mode.

4) If you see the iTunes icon and cable on your iPhone, your device is not in DFU mode, but in recovery mode. Your device’s screen will be black when you are in DFU mode. I always have to try this several times so succeed.

5) Connect your device back to your Pc/Mac and press SHIFT+CLICK (pc) or COMMAND+ CLICK on the restore button.

6) Select the firmware version you’d like to install 1.1.4 (you can find it on our firmware page).

7) Wait for a couple of minutes and your iPhone/iPod will be as new.

enjoy ….

 

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106 Comments

  • At 2011.11.13 20:19, Chris Eissens said:
    • At 2011.11.18 21:28, Deej said:

      Hi, I cracked my screen on my 3GS and after installing a new screen and digitizer, my phone won’t go past the apple logo. I have restored it and all I get is the spinning icon or the apple logo. Any help or suggestions would be so very much appreciated…

      • At 2011.12.09 05:58, Yusuf Khan said:

        Hi, Follow Correct instruction then you can get good result. No mistake.

      • At 2011.11.30 06:53, Rhys said:

        Have a 3gs and in dfu mode it gets all the way to the end of the restore and comes up with error (-1) what do i do?

        • At 2011.12.06 20:47, sean said:

          ive the same problem as nancy but once i put it in dfu mode nothing comes up

          • At 2011.12.09 06:16, Yusuf Khan said:

            Hi,
            I have a 3gs and I was confused about DFU & Recovery mode.
            First you find correct problem of your iphone.
            How you know ur iphone in DFU mode? it is black screen?
            1.DFU mode- black screen
            2.iTunes icon and USB cable – Recovery mode
            3.Apple logo………..- Have to restore. If you don’t have backup in iTune then you hv to dwnld upgrade vrsn or same not dwngrd.

            then follow correct instruction, you will get your new iPhone.

            7) Wait for a couple of minutes and your iPhone/iPod will be as new.

            • At 2011.12.11 05:05, joe said:

              click means enter ,shigt and hit enter or double click on your mouse (click )

              • At 2011.12.22 02:44, Adriana said:

                If an itouch is restored on a different computer, do you have an option of keeping the pass code the same or will it just reset it after you use the itouch?

                • At 2011.12.28 20:26, daniel said:

                  hey i just got my ipod touch 4gen on christmas and its stuck on recovery mode and i tried to restore and this is what pops up, the ipod ipod can not be restored.an unknown error occured 1611
                  i need help im new to the ipod

                  please help

                  daniel

                  • At 2011.12.28 22:46, Chris Eissens said:

                    Are you using the correct firmware version? Make sure you are using the iOS version that is made for the iPod Touch 4G.

                    • At 2012.01.02 02:43, Heaven said:

                      HELPPPPP MY IPHONE 3.1.3 IS OFF.. IT KEEPS TURNING OFF AND TURNING ON AND WHEN IT DOES TURN ON THE SCREEN IS WHITE AND THEN IT TURNS OFF AND WONT TURN BACK ON FOR A FEW DAYS.. HELP PLEASE I TRYED TO FOLLOW YOUR STEPS BUT ITS NOT WORKING.. HELP PLEASE!@

                      • At 2012.01.04 15:24, edz said:

                        help ipod touch 4G The iPod “iPod” could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (21) when in recovery mode .. what to do ?????

                        • At 2012.01.13 05:56, emiley said:

                          same with me

                        • At 2012.01.11 15:58, Yusuf Khan said:

                          You are the master of of iPhone. Thanks a aaaaaaaaa lot.

                          • At 2012.01.13 00:23, coolbro said:

                            thankyou soo much these steps worked my ipod was stuck on apple logo and it woeked

                            • At 2012.01.13 05:54, emiley said:

                              hello i have tryed several times and my ipod is still locked can you help me and if i dont get it unlocked i hve to call the apple store so any way you can help plaese say yess

                              • At 2012.01.18 01:23, ZACK said:

                                how long should my ipod stay in dfu mode

                                • At 2012.01.19 02:33, Carl said:

                                  OMFG THX SO MUCH!!! ok first off i fuck up my jailbroken ipod touch BIG TIME by interrupting a cydia download.. then for the whole day it would ONLY show the apple logo:: Then I got around to finding the Itunes logo AND finally I SHIFT+CLICKed the restore button and put in ur firmware document. HOPE IT WORKS :)

                                  • At 2012.01.20 04:11, Greev said:

                                    Should be called Don’t Fuck Up mode.

                                    • At 2012.01.21 00:14, troy said:

                                      how did you get the Error 9 fixed ? what did you do ? help please.
                                      mine is stuck doing this as well.

                                      • At 2012.01.25 10:08, 1337 said:

                                        thnx i recovered my ipod

                                        • At 2012.01.26 23:49, oksana said:

                                          i cant recover can you please help me i try whats on this site but its stillwhen i push presss sleep and wake botton its takes picture of screen

                                        • At 2012.01.31 09:30, David said:

                                          Hi thx so much it worked!

                                          • At 2012.03.04 11:59, Char said:

                                            We can’t get past the dfu mode. We here the sounds but I tunes doesn’t see it and recognize it so we aren’t getting the message box. After we heard the sounds we went ahead and disconnected then reconnected and still nothing. Now what?

                                            • At 2012.03.05 10:31, kiran said:

                                              i got an iphone with me( i am a techinician) which is saying iphone disabled connect to itunes.. when i do it is asking password.. phone is not allowing me to enter password.. it is not going into dfu mode..tried with redsnow and ireb and then manually as well it not working

                                              • At 2012.03.08 16:43, Dennis said:

                                                You just need to try it 5 times or more, it’s not a piece of cake.

                                                • At 2012.03.11 07:20, AJ SPARK said:

                                                  Hey man, thanks a million, cuz for a sec i thought i have lost my iphone 4s… cheers mate..

                                                  • At 2012.03.12 04:06, tony jones said:

                                                    i have an iphone 3gs that was jailbroken with redsn0w, a few months back, today it started saying the storage was almost full, then after i removed some apps, it turned itself off, and now all it will do is show the apple logo, for about 5 seconds and then turn off. and i’ve tried to restore it thru itunes, but it gives a message that it can’t be restored. and i’ve tried the hard resets numerous times and still nothing. i have no idea what to try next?

                                                    • At 2012.03.13 00:43, John said:

                                                      My iPod touch is third generation, 32 gigs and it wont go into DFU mode! I have done it correctly and tried everything, please help!

                                                      • At 2012.03.22 21:20, christine said:

                                                        So, everything goes fine until i get error 3194, after pressing shift and click and select the fimware. i updated my itunes, and tried a couple of other firmwares to ipohne 4, but nothing works. i still get the same error from itunes.
                                                        what do i do now?????

                                                        • At 2012.04.05 01:42, Dawn said:

                                                          My son “restored” his IPod touch after it mysteriously went into DFU mode. Now he’s lost everything except the basic apps it came with when we bought it new. All Itunes etc are gone. HELP???

                                                          • At 2012.04.27 15:58, ash said:

                                                            nothing works on my iphone, it wont go into dfu mode or anything. it just goes blaack, then wont even turn on at all for hours!!!!

                                                            • At 2012.05.12 12:21, Daryne said:

                                                              hello, so i’ve been reading your post, and the same thing happenend with me ! i just plugged my ipod into my pc and deleted the songs then downloaded them again. hope i helped :)

                                                              • At 2012.05.19 17:07, jp4 said:

                                                                go to softpedia.com & search firmware then click on apple and look the firmware that ur phone is compatible to i.e. 3gs, 4s, 2gs… etc

                                                                good luck :D

                                                                • At 2012.06.05 05:49, deestroyy said:

                                                                  i know someone that has an iphone 3gs stuck in recovery mode. it just shows the connect to itunes screen no matter what. itunes says that the ipod must be restored for itunes to work with it. if it is started in dfu mod,e and we try the shift-click + restore will this wipe all data off the phone? genius didnt bother to ever backup anything on the phone.

                                                                  • At 2012.08.06 23:18, nate said:

                                                                    hi i need help people. ive put my iphone 4 into dfu mode, but im stuck at the bit where it says “push CMD + click on the restore button”. ive downloaded the firmware but i just dont know how to do the commad bit on the restore button. nothing happens!

                                                                    • At 2012.08.07 05:05, Kristyn said:

                                                                      Mine is doing the same thing do youknow or remember how to do it?? HELP

                                                                      • At 2012.08.13 06:25, claudia said:

                                                                        I found an iPhone 4 but the person had a verizon account. I tried to erase all the data and selected de erase all data and setting option and when I tried to used it but it said that it couldnt because the server was not available. I asked a friend what I could do to make it work and recommended me de dfu restore mode, I did it but have the same result, what do I do now?

                                                                        • At 2012.08.21 20:58, Vinicius said:

                                                                          Hi Claudia,

                                                                          You can’t do much things…

                                                                          Unfortunately if your device is the iPhone Verizon version it does not have a SIM tray which makes impossible to use others SIM cards or activate using another wireless carrier.

                                                                          You will probably need to contact the wireless carrier and create an account to use the phone feature.

                                                                        • At 2012.09.19 04:55, Kamal Preet said:

                                                                          thanxx

                                                                          • At 2012.10.08 08:33, Djh said:

                                                                            Thanks, my Iphone 3G is new again!

                                                                            • At 2012.10.11 06:26, scott said:

                                                                              I tried to restore my iphone useeing the dfu recovery method and when I tried to restore I got an error message “3194 cannot restore iphone unknown error”

                                                                              • At 2012.10.19 15:37, colorblind said:

                                                                                hi, I reset my iphone to sell it to a guy, so as I did it in front of him to erase all content, the phone was asking to connect to itunes or internet, none of it was available, so the guy told me it wasnt a problem he would do it home. 2 days later he calls me that the phone cannot work without being plugged, so he wants the money back. he brings me the phone and i plugged it in the car and it shows like the battery empty but charging, after a few seconds there comes the apple, and than again battery, apple, and so on. it never turns on. i did the dfu recovery, everything fine, after 3h of working it finishes, and the same thing again.
                                                                                the guy obviously lied about the phone being on on cable cause it isnt. it just keeps showing the low battery charging, the apple and after 5 secs again battery… it never turns on.

                                                                                • At 2012.11.11 04:10, dust said:

                                                                                  he probably just gave you back a non working iphone cause he probably does that for a living………
                                                                                  or he tried to jailbreak it , and it’s a tethered jailbreak and you might need redsnow to boot the phone

                                                                                  • At 2013.02.28 21:11, patty said:

                                                                                    i have an iphone4 and one day it just stopped working on me.. i was on a phone call while my phone was being charged at the same time.. then all of a sudden my phone was dead and could not get it to turn back on.. so once i plug it into the wall charger it powers and it shows the connect to iTunes screen but when i unplug usb to plug into my pc it don’t recognize it.. and also my iphone4 now says IMEI: unknown ICCID: unknown.. i have tried everything i could think of.. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON THIS PHONE IS MY NEW BORN’S PICTURES @ THE HOSPITAL.. i never did back it up or anything so i am so freaking out cause i DO NOT want to lose my precious pics.. i have only kept this iphone for that reason.. its been since 2010 now its 2013 lol, when i get the EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY screen i can see the pic of my 2 yr old as a new born and i want to share these memories with him but now it seems impossible.. :( someone please HELP…….. I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING….

                                                                                    • At 2013.03.01 14:19, Umair Latif said:

                                                                                      hey um my ipod 4 is in recovery mode and i put it in in dfu mode and when i plug it into itunes it downloads the lasted firmware for the ipod and then it says it can’t restore
                                                                                      Please Help

                                                                                      • At 2013.03.01 14:20, Umair Latif said:

                                                                                        to my last comment would having an old itunes be the promblem

                                                                                        • At 2013.03.04 01:23, abbiie said:

                                                                                          hello, i need to restore my i phone because it keeps shutting down and will not be recognized in the computer but my home button is broken how can i restore it??????

                                                                                          • At 2013.03.22 08:43, roman said:

                                                                                            We’re sorry, we are unable to continue with your activation at this time.
                                                                                            Please try again later, or contact customer care. how can i fix it .. i update my iphone 3gs 4.1 to 6 and it turns to that .. i stuck on activating my iphone .. please help me

                                                                                            • At 2013.03.22 09:53, roman said:

                                                                                              i try to run DFU METHOD and i didnt download any firmare and run it .. but i all comes to We’re sorry, we are unable to continue with your activation at this time.
                                                                                              Please try again later, or contact customer care .. can anyone help me fix this problem please !!

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