iPhone 3GS stuck in recovery mode

Rathnureman · 24-09-2011 8:43pm #1

Hello all,

Got the missus a jailbroken 3GS recently, all was going well until she decided to restore it. It's now stuck in recovery mode and I've tried tinyumbrella, iReb, and various other ways to get it back working but to no avail (I'm an absolute amateur at this, by the way); the most common error I was getting in iTunes when restoring was 1015, that changed to 3194 after a bit of tinkering around, now it can't connect with either the device or the apple server (I think). I don't know what firmware it was running beforehand.

I'm really at a loss as to what to do next, I'd settle for just getting it back working on the latest firmware and locked to vodafone, does anyone know how to fix this or perhaps someone I could pay to get it sorted?

Thanks in advance

shoxter · 24-09-2011 9:08pm

from the name im guessing your a fellow yellabelly. I had same problem this week, i tried the restore with the current firmware through itunes which threw up the 1015 error and the connect to itunes on the screen of iphone. After this i tried to jailbreak with redsnow 0.9.9b1. I tried it a few times until it would hang on the apple logo with loading bar underneath, when it did this i just did the "just boot tethered" option in redsnow which worked perfect. Its a tethered jailbreak but at least it means the phone is working!

celj · 24-09-2011 10:52pm

I'm having the same problem but my power button is broken which makes it ten times harder.
Getting nowhere fast.

kjl · 25-09-2011 5:08pm

if it was jailbroken, it's possible it has been unlocked with the iPad baseband, this means you need to restore it with a custom firmware in order to get it out of recovery mode.

connect it to you pc and use tinyumbrella to see what shsh blobs are stored on cydia for it. take the most resent and make a custom ipa using pwnage tool or sn0wbreeze.

Rathnureman · 26-09-2011 2:10pm

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll give those suggestions a try.

@shoxter - indeed I am a Wexford man; as important as it is to remain anonymous online, I sometimes find it nice to be able to associate posters with something from the real world.

lucyoga · 01-10-2011 12:40pm

I pressed the 'OK' button on my itunes without thinking it would cause me problems but I felt instantly sick when I saw that my iphone 3GS had the error code 1015 and was stuck in recovery. I have absolutely no knowledge of how jailbreaking or any of that jazz works. But I've had some experience of this because I bought an iphone from my son, second hand, on Amazon, and then my husband had it jailbroken in Scotland in the mistaken belief that this would make it work in Ireland (we know now, of course, that he didn't need to have it jailbroken at all...) My Mum got me this phone from ebay and I just stuck my sim in it and it worked. For three months... The long and the short is, I've watched countless YouTube videos and attempted to use Green Poison, Red Snow and quite a few other jailbreakers but all to no avail because... guess what? I don't know what I'm doing, and the instructions all assume some basic knowledge. Like how to extract files to desktop (and how to use a .dll file - I just don't know what to do with them...) So if there was a step by step guide for an idiot I would be so, so grateful... in the meantime, I'll attempt again to unravel the mysteries of downloading, unzipping, extracting, and so on but please, if there's a kind communicator out there, I would be so, so grateful.
Best wishes, and thanks in advance, from a sickened Apple user (I so wanted an iphone but they don't operate by normal market rules and that leaves people like me in a ****e situation).

whiterebel · 01-10-2011 12:58pm

lucyoga wrote: »

I pressed the 'OK' button on my itunes without thinking it would cause me problems but I felt instantly sick when I saw that my iphone 3GS had the error code 1015 and was stuck in recovery. I have absolutely no knowledge of how jailbreaking or any of that jazz works. But I've had some experience of this because I bought an iphone from my son, second hand, on Amazon, and then my husband had it jailbroken in Scotland in the mistaken belief that this would make it work in Ireland (we know now, of course, that he didn't need to have it jailbroken at all...) My Mum got me this phone from ebay and I just stuck my sim in it and it worked. For three months... The long and the short is, I've watched countless YouTube videos and attempted to use Green Poison, Red Snow and quite a few other jailbreakers but all to no avail because... guess what? I don't know what I'm doing, and the instructions all assume some basic knowledge. Like how to extract files to desktop (and how to use a .dll file - I just don't know what to do with them...) So if there was a step by step guide for an idiot I would be so, so grateful... in the meantime, I'll attempt again to unravel the mysteries of downloading, unzipping, extracting, and so on but please, if there's a kind communicator out there, I would be so, so grateful.
Best wishes, and thanks in advance, from a sickened Apple user (I so wanted an iphone but they don't operate by normal market rules and that leaves people like me in a ****e situation).

So its Apple's fault that you don't know what you're doing, while trying to do something they don't want you to do anyway........

Maybe you should just restore and not jailbreak it?

Nonoperational · 01-10-2011 1:02pm

lucyoga wrote: »

I pressed the 'OK' button on my itunes without thinking it would cause me problems but I felt instantly sick when I saw that my iphone 3GS had the error code 1015 and was stuck in recovery. I have absolutely no knowledge of how jailbreaking or any of that jazz works. But I've had some experience of this because I bought an iphone from my son, second hand, on Amazon, and then my husband had it jailbroken in Scotland in the mistaken belief that this would make it work in Ireland (we know now, of course, that he didn't need to have it jailbroken at all...) My Mum got me this phone from ebay and I just stuck my sim in it and it worked. For three months... The long and the short is, I've watched countless YouTube videos and attempted to use Green Poison, Red Snow and quite a few other jailbreakers but all to no avail because... guess what? I don't know what I'm doing, and the instructions all assume some basic knowledge. Like how to extract files to desktop (and how to use a .dll file - I just don't know what to do with them...) So if there was a step by step guide for an idiot I would be so, so grateful... in the meantime, I'll attempt again to unravel the mysteries of downloading, unzipping, extracting, and so on but please, if there's a kind communicator out there, I would be so, so grateful.
Best wishes, and thanks in advance, from a sickened Apple user (I so wanted an iphone but they don't operate by normal market rules and that leaves people like me in a ****e situation).

My God. If your too technically inept to operate a jailbroken phone just use one on the carrier it was intended for and you can click OK all day long and you won't do any damage.

lucyoga · 01-10-2011 1:35pm

I'm not proud of my technical ineptitude. I didn't think, however, that you had to have a degree in advanced computer programming in order to use a widely available piece of technology which is sold in part at least on the ticket that it's easy to use. I have done nothing illegal. I bought the phone for my son and my husband mistakenly had it jailbroken. I didn't. My own phone was bought for me by someone else.
Jeez, a little empathy and a little less smug prejudgment would be refreshing.
I await a kind response.
As to not jailbreaking: I'm not aware that it's possible to unjailbreak. I'm willing to be corrected but if it has already been done by someone else, I can hardly be held responsible for it, by you or Apple.
I could say more. I won't. This was a desperate plea for help, not a cruise for a bruising.

[Deleted User] · 01-10-2011 1:50pm

Have you tried using the Fix Recovery option in TinyUmbrella?

lucyoga wrote: »

Best wishes, and thanks in advance, from a sickened Apple user (I so wanted an iphone but they don't operate by normal market rules and that leaves people like me in a ****e situation).

It's not just Apple. Your problem boils down to using a locked phone on a network it was not intended for. SIM locking is a common practice among all manufacturers. While other phones can be unlocked easier, it's actually in Apple's interest to make the phones as hard as possible to unlock - if it weren't for this then I'm sure the networks wouldn't be willing to subsidise them so much, to the tune of 100% on some contracts.

No network wants to give a €600 phone for free and have it used on another network.

I do agree that the jailbreaking scene and other technological bits can be daunting for the average user, but I don't think they're intended to be used by the average user either. Built by hackers, for hackers.

lucyoga · 01-10-2011 2:08pm

Karsini wrote: »

Have you tried using the Fix Recovery option in TinyUmbrella?

Not yet, but I will. And thank you so much for this.

I agree absolutely that this kind of locking is legal and understandable, but I don't think it's entirely clear to those of us who are technophobes exactly how the mobile market operates. I think there's a subtly different ethos operating here from the way that other markets operate. That's another discussion, of course, but it means that you make certain assumptions which would be valid if you were buying, say, a second hand TV (which might have parts in it manufactured by unauthorised component makers), but which are rendered invalid by the mobile provider.

It's not just Apple. Your problem boils down to using a locked phone on a network it was not intended for. SIM locking is a common practice among all manufacturers. While other phones can be unlocked easier, it's actually in Apple's interest to make the phones as hard as possible to unlock - if it weren't for this then I'm sure the networks wouldn't be willing to subsidise them so much, to the tune of 100% on some contracts. No network wants to give a €600 phone for free and have it used on another network.

I do agree that the jailbreaking scene and other technological bits can be daunting for the average user, but I don't think they're intended to be used by the average user either. Built by hackers, for hackers.

Everything you say here is true and I'm well out of my comfort zone, which renders me, shall we say, a little defensive? Since the phone doesn't work at all now, I'll soldier on.

iPhone 3GS stuck in recovery mode

Comments