Corrupt iPhone 3GS. iTunes recognises, but can't restore it.
Greetings all,
im posting on behalf of my father because his 3GS has just failed.
Apparently, he was about to make a call when it froze or turned off or something. Then, when he went to turn it back on, it showed the activation 'connect to itunes' thing.
Connecting it to iTunes showed no joy as it said it needed to wipe and restore it. Downloading the 3.1.2 update again (new computer, iPhone already on 3.1.2)
the installation started but then failed with error 23.
I also have an iPhone 1g that I've jailbroken etc and know my way around that. The 3GS however is not jailbroken and is exactly as supplied from the mobile carrier.
Has anyone come across this before? Any help would be great.
Unfortunately, the only way to get the iPhone working again from the "Connect to iTunes" screen is to restore it, consequently wiping it in the process. However, if you have your iPhone backed-up and all of your iTunes content resides on the computer, it will be synced back to your iPhone after the restore is completed. If your father has ever synced his iPhone with the new computer, you can restore it from the iPhone back up created when it was last synced. If it has not been synced with the new computer, and you still have the old computer, use the old computer to restore the iPhone.
Since iTunes cannot restore it, you must force the iPhone into recovery mode and restore it from there. To do this, turn the iPhone off, and hold down the home button. Keeping it held, attach the iPhone to the computer via the USB cable. Keep the home button held until the "Connect to iTunes" screen appears. iTunes should then recognize the iPhone in recovery mode and you can restore it from there.
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