Fix Recovery Mode Loop iPhone iPod Touch

How to Fix iPhone Recovery Mode Loop

Sometime during jailbreak or restoring iPhone/iPod Touch using custom firmware your device won’t boot normally and stuck into recovery mode. Then every time you reboot your iPhone/iPod Touch it enters into recovery mode asking for restore. This is called recovery mode loop.

In this guide we are going to talk about how to fix recovery mode loop on iPhone and iPod Touch. To get out of recovery mode loop you can use iRecovery and iREB.

NOTE: We are talking about recovery mode loop resulted due to some error during jailbreak process. We are NOT discussing the recovery mode that all new iDevice users face whenever they reboot their iPhone 3GS or iTouch 2G (MC) & iTouch 3G. These devices are tethered jailbreak only (you lose jailbreak on reboot) that’s why get stuck into recovery mode on reboot. Just run the BlackRa1n/RedSn0w again to get out of recovery.

Disclaimer: This guide is for testing and educational purposes only. It’s a universal process and tested many times though we can NOT be held responsible if anything goes wrong.

How to Fix Recovery Mode Loop with iREB

You can use iREB to fix the recovery mode loop on iPhone/iPod Touch. You can find download links below.

Here’s a great video by DinoD7 on using iREB to get iPhone out of Recovery mode loop.

How to Fix Recovery Mode Loop with iRecovery

What is iRecovery?

iRecovery is a libusb-based commandline utility for Mac OS X and Linux (perhaps windows too but I’m not developing/testing under windows). It is able to talk to the iBoot/iBSS in Apple’s iPhone/iPod touch via USB.

It currently connects to 0x1281 (iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod touch, iPod touch 2G: Recovery Mode/iBSS), 0x1227 (iPhone,
iPhone 3G, iPod touch: WTF Mode; iPod touch 2G: DFU Mode).

  1. Download the iRecovery files linked below.
  2. (Mac users please skip to step 2, this step is for Windows users only)
    Install the libusb first. If you are on Windows 7 or Vista you need to run libUSB in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode: 

    • Right click on libusb exe file > Properties > Compatibility. Check mark the “Run this program in compatibility mode” box and select “Windows XP (Service Pack2)”from the drop down list.
    • Right click again and select “Run as “Administrator”. Install libUSB.
  3. Run the iRecovery in Terminal/Command Prompt with iRecovery -s. (make sure you change your directory in the command prompt to the directory where you have installed irecovery)
  4. Now run the following commands in the Terminal:
    • setenv auto-boot true
    • saveenv
    • /exit
  5. Now reboot your iPhone/iPod Touch by holding home + power/sleep for 10 seconds.

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73 comments… add one
master17 February 18, 2010, 3:11 am

does it work with 3GS?

555 February 18, 2010, 9:22 am

without 3GS?

DJCarbon February 18, 2010, 8:16 pm

Thanks… AWESOME… is there a mac equivalent of this program?

iPhoneHeat February 19, 2010, 12:12 am

iRecovery (second method)

Numb4Life June 28, 2011, 4:48 pm

hey, uhm, where are the download links. It says below but all i see is the iREB download link….please help!

vesh February 20, 2010, 9:24 pm

i accidently updated the new version from itunes 3.1.3(7E18) with baseband 05.12.01 on my 3gs iphone and i try to restore it again from itunes because my iphone was lock and i cannot use anymore. but now i have again another problem is that when i turn on my iphone i saw the usb connected with itunes. i dont know how to fix it please i need your help.

Monsterd February 8, 2011, 4:27 am

Hi my 3GS on 3.1.3 was stuck in recovery mode but it was jailbroke all I did was download blackra1n at that booted it up fine they I updated in iTunes
Good luck

bullet3869 February 24, 2010, 4:26 pm

wow, this one is great!,nice job!. hope u can release a mac equivalent for this one. will this work on other jailbreaking software around?…ie redsnow? blackrain?,

nickhexxar April 25, 2010, 3:10 am

I have an iPhone 3G with slight water damage. It is in the recovery loop but neither iRecovery or iREB could fix it.

I need help!
LOTS of important stuffz in there.

jlo hacks 2 November 10, 2010, 8:08 am

Does your iphone still used to work with water damage?

Abs May 5, 2010, 6:10 am

WOW!!!!! U ROCK!!!!! THANKS A HELL LOT MAN!!!!
shit..my heart stopped for about an hour! i dunno y..but i saw ur post only an hour after my Phone got stuck..!
Anyway…thanks a lot man!! 😀

Sofia May 8, 2010, 9:16 pm

Hi!
It doesn´t work for me.. I follow the instructions. But nothing happends when i click the Iphone 3G(s) button.

Help!

magnusdumar May 15, 2010, 2:39 am

Thank you SOOO much for your help with this. I spent an hour searching the internet for a fix after a stupid iTunes issue. (And, of course, this occurs while I’m waiting for a friend to tell me when to pick them up from the train station.) Your’s is the first solution that worked, so I’m greatly appreciative. Thank you again for a real solution.

ubaid June 2, 2010, 7:29 am

I did follow your instruction
Irecovery doesnt work on vista
It did worked on Xp though but didnt get out of recovery mode

iPhone 3GS recovery loop solved June 26, 2010, 4:21 am

I agree with DinoD7 that everyone fiddling an iDevice needs iREB.

The omission in content I see is that neither the video nor iREB’s GUI (which offers iPhones 2 & 3G and iPod Touches 1 & 2G but not iPhone 3GS) states that the ‘fix Restore loop’ button works on an iPhone 3GS. At first look, the fact that the iPhone 3GS is not pictured on the GUI might discourage those with a 3GS stuck in a loop, but perseverance is rewarded.

Being a *nix/OSX sort, the discussion of the several Windows variants largely went over me, and I found having to run a program to install a library and the fact that said library gets its own directory at the top of the C disk structure peculiar, but did stumble through OK. I note that the button inside iREB to acquire the necessary USB driver library didn’t work per the video on the token Win XP box I keep – sent me straight to a download dialog which grabbed a .exe which took care of itself.

This video tutorial was most useful. Will definitely come back to iPhoneHeat for more after fixing the phone I had bricked. Many thanks, DinoD7! Eagerly awaiting an OSX release as of 25 Jun 10.

Animesh Kumar July 29, 2010, 2:55 am

it works !!!!!

thanks

zetalady August 20, 2010, 2:39 am

You are awesome! This worked exactly how you said it would. Excellent directions and THANKS!!!

Gamblers August 26, 2010, 5:36 pm

WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE FILES U STUPID MOTHER FUCKERS WOW GO DIE U STUPID FUCKS. DUMB BITCHES

11mprice November 29, 2010, 1:30 pm

Whoa dude calm down, just explain what the problem is and maybe we can figure this out

Thisisme August 28, 2010, 2:03 am

It not help me (iPhone 3G)! Not iREB, not iRecovery! My iPhone still in Recovery Mode Loop. 🙁 If I tried restore it iTunes gave me unknown error(2)… What to do? Help mmeee guys…

shaun September 10, 2010, 7:13 am

can any1 send me the i recovery program to me??pls…send to [email protected] or post where can i find the file!

B K September 17, 2010, 1:46 pm

Thank You SO much Dude it worked for me 🙂

umer khalid butt October 23, 2010, 12:55 pm

WOHO it worked!!!!!
but there is a little catch in the post…you dont need to set the working directory of your command prompt where you have installed the iRecovery….infact you need to set the directory to the folder iRecovery_SVN (which would be located inside the folder where you have downloaded and extracted your iRecovery software)

naeem October 31, 2010, 9:03 pm

Can u please help me i was trying to jailbreak my iphone4 4.1 but it went in recovery mode i m trying to do but i cant can u please help me

Daz November 15, 2010, 9:29 pm

Finally got my iPod Touch G3 out of recovery mode!! iRecovery worked well in VMware… Thanx!!!

EvilGenius November 18, 2010, 8:04 am

never fear the darkside of the force, no really i found a solution for all devices and its really simple too.
first go here and download this: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9PX5N2UN it’s ios 4.2

then plug you iphone 3gs/3g/ wich is stuck in restore mode to your computer when prompted by itnes to restore the phone hold the shift key on your keyboard and click restore you will now have to browse for the file that yo want to restore got to the file that you donloaded and voila your phone will be restored

jtrim11 December 1, 2010, 3:13 am

could you please send the link to my email @ [email protected]

iphone3g December 26, 2010, 1:23 am

Hi everyone! does anyone know how to get a jailbroken iphone out of recovery loop, i jailbreaked my iphone 3g and it was working fine with cydia and then i trid to jailbreak it with limra1n and it got stuck in recovery mode, i have tried a lot of mtethods trid to rstore with ituns but it still didn’t work, anyone can help me plz.
my email is [email protected]

Thanks in advance

don812owens December 30, 2010, 11:33 pm

i watched 1000000 vids to get it out of this mode and it jusy keeps going back to it i need helllp!!!!!!!!!!1

don812owens December 30, 2010, 11:34 pm

i watched 1000000 vids to get it out of this mode and it jusy keeps going back to it i need helllp!!!!!!
its rele anoyying

pentexd January 11, 2011, 7:05 am

I was getting the recover/restore loop with my iPod touch, and ultimately found that the problem was with my ZoneAlarm free firewall. Disable ZoneAlarm before you connect to Itunes, and you’ll find that the recovery loop problem is fixed. Obviously this isn’t the problem if you don’t have ZoneAlarm, but you should check any firewall before giving up on the problem.

Davidson January 23, 2011, 7:44 pm

Thanks bro, that worked.

Trying to find a solution to configure ZA so this problem doesn’t happen again? Any clues?

jennifer February 14, 2011, 7:49 am

HI MY IPHONE 3GS WAS UNLOCKED I ACCIDENTALLY RESTORED IT ON ITUNES NOW IT IS LOCKED IN RECOVERY MODE I TRYED TO RECOVER IT BUT ITUNES SAYS IT CAN’R BE RESTORED ? HOW CAN I GET IT OUT OF RECOVERY MODE SO I CAN USE IT AGAIN ?

gsingh February 28, 2011, 8:41 pm

Hi brother
Please help me. I unlocked my Iphone 3G 4.2.1 changing the bb to 6 and found GPS was not working. I tried to restore my iphone from itunes and it got in the recovery mode now. I have been trying from 1 day with different options. It is not coming out of the recovery loop.
I tried you solution it does not work….please help me.
Thanks

iPhoneHeat February 28, 2011, 11:10 pm

it’s because of iOS 4.2.1 baseband dependency.. try custom firmware..

laxman March 16, 2011, 11:26 pm

I tried the custom too.but no help. so stuck in the damn recovery mode :d
first installed original 4.2.1, then put the phone in DFU and installed custom 4.2.1 then unplugged and restarted but no help.still in recovery!
i have a 3G with BB 6.15

thesaipankid March 23, 2011, 8:28 am

Hi, Will this work on iPhone 3GS 4.2.1 Baseband 6.15.00. I’m stuck in a recovery mode loop. If I restore it to itunes the after doing the restore itunes says my iphone is recovery mode. I did 3 to 4 time and it’s still stuck on the loop. I even used redsn0w but it still goes back to the recovery loop.

Please Help!!

laxu April 9, 2011, 8:19 pm

Hi guys. To all the guys who are unable to restore their 3gS or 3G with BB 6.15 with Customs FWs , the problem is the selection of custom firmwares. If u r already on a baseband of 6.15 u shld use a fwq with no baseband update.and those with baseband less than 6.15 can use the custom fw with updated baseband. hope this helps

AkashLadkani April 1, 2011, 11:30 pm

iPod 2G – 8GB
ios 4.2.1
I Was Jailbreaking it via redsnow and one of my friends just plugged it out…. and now i’m stuck real bad !!
PS. My iPod Power Button Does Not Work As Well 🙁
Please I’m In Real Bad Trouble…

Trishyness May 19, 2011, 6:53 am

HELP!! SO I’m trying to follow the instructions but when I type in the command setenv auto-boot true it doesn’t recognize it – are there other letters I need to put in front of or after it??

rensim_3112 May 25, 2011, 12:03 pm

While i was playing a game my screen went blue then went black. then no apple logo. when i plugged it to itunes, it says itunes has detected an i phone in recovery mode. please help. Before, i was able to solve it by just clicking the home and sleep button for about 20 seconds for several times and now it’s not working anymore. 🙁

Trishyness May 25, 2011, 7:22 pm

Mine went into recovery mode last week and I was freaking out. For hours I tried a bunch of nonsense that people recommended online. Then I found a posting for this program called Tiny Umbrella. This guy is my hero. I plugged in the phone and then under one of the top menu options there’s an option that says “exit recovery mode.” You push that and voile! The phone starts to load up as if it was just updated. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to find this after hours of just nonsense. Amazing program!!!

rensim_3112 May 26, 2011, 3:42 pm

Thanks for replying! But i downloaded the tiny umbrella already and the only thing i can click is fix recovery. I can’t click the enter and exit recovery. 🙁

Trishyness May 26, 2011, 6:25 pm

I thought the same thing when i first used it because I thought the exit recovery option was only that button which for me was grayed out – I forget what tab it was at the top – ya know how you have file, edit, view, etc… go under those tabs and the option for exit recovery is under one of those and you can select it there, even though it seems grayed out in the program itself.

rensim_3112 May 27, 2011, 11:32 am

still no exit recovery option under file, edit, view. 🙁 the only choice is delete device

iphonedeathhascomeintomyhouse July 2, 2011, 6:58 am

this doesn’t wotk either!!! i’m tireeeeeeeeeddd!!!! fuck

tploenges July 12, 2011, 9:50 am

ggggrrrrr my phone froze and then I accidently hit restore now my iphone 3g is in rcovery mode! I got this jailbrokenphone on ebay in january and now Im stuck please help me! P.S idon’t use computers wellso please explain in dummies terms!

BlackScorpio August 7, 2011, 11:04 pm

I have a 3GS. I can update to custom 4.3.3 with no itunes error. Device still stays stuck in DFU mode. Tried to kick it out manually, tinyu, fixrecovery, and ireb & nothing works. The only thing that works is puttin the 3GS on 4.1 & using ireb to fix the 1015 loop.

Micollo August 23, 2011, 12:20 am

delete any apple related ip address on your host file, reboot your computer, use iREB4 to pawn DFU state, use itunes and downgrade to official 4.1, after that you’ll get an error 10XX, your iphone should be on itunes restore state with the itunes cable on the screen. Use TU to exit recovery, jailbreak with redsn0w and run cydia. Use TU and save SHSH by downloading from cydia server. After saving SHSH, use sn0wbreeze 2.7.3 to cook up your custom 4.3.3 firmware. Run IREB again for DFU pawn state, Run TU TSS server, open itunes and restore using your cooked up 4.3.3 custom firmware… I hope it works for you because it worked for me after days of being stuck in DFU due to iFaith.

blobo August 20, 2011, 7:22 pm

sais no ipod iphone foun pls help someone

sjaak August 20, 2011, 7:23 pm

sais no ipod iphone foun pls help someone!

loool August 23, 2011, 9:29 pm

Hello, My iPhone is in recovery mode. I followed all the instructions up untill number 3 (Run the iRecovery in Terminal/Command Prompt with iRecovery -s. (make sure you change your directory in the command prompt to the directory where you have installed irecovery)
Anyway, I open the Terminal, but all of a sudden it says PROHIBITED. Im actually 13 so its not like i know that much about these things. Im using a mac. Can somebody explain exactly what I have to do next? thanks

Hellorange January 10, 2012, 9:19 am

Go to the administrator account

Saahil ;) August 26, 2011, 11:56 pm

Hey Guys,
Well,ive been looking around hell lot to get out of recovery mode ive tried ireb and irecovery ,neither of them work 🙁
In irecovery i do the required steps and then the screen goes black and tadaaaa itz back in recovery mode again
pls guyz ii reallie need some help with this
hope u can help me 🙂

youness September 12, 2011, 9:17 am

Cant leave Black screen/DFU mode after 4.3.3 update

My iphone 3gs was at fw 4.1 . I made a custom 4.3.3 ipsw with snowbreeze 2.7.3 , updated it(added 6.15.00 baseband) and unlocked with ultrasn0w. After some minutes working fine,even made some calls , my iphone entered DFU mode.
I used redsn0w 0.9.6rc16 with ipsw 4.3.3 and selected “Just boot thetered right now”. The iphone restarted and worked for some minutes, Then again got into DFU in black screen,and each time I restarted it goas to a black screen and I think its in dfu mode and itunes each time ask for restore……I use ultrasn0w “Just boot thetered right now” to start….how I get out of dfu mode and even it doasnt show the apple logo.
ps:I’ve tried to update 4.2.1 and 4.3.3 and 4.3.5 using iREB-r4 and tinyumbrella-5.00.10 but all the time works fine when it restart it goas to black screen and stuck on it.
need help…I appreciate in advance..thx

abacus October 8, 2011, 6:35 am

i was fooling around with openssh and after that i rebooted my iDevice, now it won’t get out of its recovery mode, just shows the apple logo. i tried recboot and even irecovery but to no avail. pls HELP!!! is there any solution other than restoring my device again??

Wombat November 9, 2011, 7:36 am

Congrats!! This is the twentieth different piece of software I’ve downloaded in a vain attempt to unlock my ipod touch from the damn “stuck in recovery mode” problem that looks to be plagueing many thousands of frustrated owners. This one doesn’t work either. A more conspiracy-minded person would suspect that Apple does this on purpose to make you buy a new one…

sam January 7, 2012, 2:10 am

hi there and Happy New Year. i need your help in bringing my iphone 3g back to life would really appreciate if u could spare some time in doing that.well here is the history.

i had bought a refurbished iphone 3g from hong kong last year with ios 3.x (cant remember) and i used it for a year and then after updating my ipad to ios i thought of making updates to ipdates to iphone aswell. i updated it to 4.2.1 and still it worked fine even after jailbreaking it with redsnow.

well the problem is i dropped the phone few weeks back and got sound problems and went to an expert , he put a new flex cable(headphone jack,volume control , on-off control) and made a restore with itunes and jailbreak with updating the baseband to 6.15.00.

from then it had real problems.’

signal dropped and message popped “restore needed connect to itunes cannot make or recieve calls”

i brought the phone home and for few weeks kept working on it by studing the internet.

i have tried almost everything viewwd almost every video on this on youtube and downloaded every software like redsnow,snowbreeze,tinyumbrella,ireb,iphuc,limera1n,recboot etc.

tried many methods to get the phone working.

by all these methods i am now stuck on recovery mode on ios 4.1(to which i was able to downgrade to fix in some method) with baseband 6.15.00.

i have tried to restore to all firmwires i have downloaded in the process , none of them would work.

some would not work with message— not compatible, some would bring error23 with my iphone screen on white screen.

i have also read somewhere that its baseband issue and cannot be fixed, some say open up battery and reinsert it after full drain and restore to 4.2.1

after having practised so many method with different softwares i thought of asking the experts so kindly help.

thanks

sam

nazy1234 May 3, 2012, 11:53 am

hey guys , can this method can be apply on ipad 2 5.0.1 ? cuz my ipad had the same problems. 🙁 Pls help need help a.s.a.p

alyssaxo September 22, 2012, 12:38 pm

i tried this or atleast i think i did and it didnt work.. is there any video tutorials for this?

iphone 5 photo recovery October 11, 2012, 11:48 am

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trooper009 October 20, 2012, 8:26 am

uh guys, please tell me if this works on your iphone: after many tries of updating (and restoring) it, i finally got my phone to pick up the ispw file, then the errors 3014 and 3194 shows up in each of those tries, then on my last try, when it got on recovery mode, my PC can’t detect the rec. mode, so i disconnected it from the PC, but it got stuck in recovery mode after that, iTunes said that my iphone was on recovery mode and had to restore it, after processing the update file, my iphone is now updating

funngurrl February 25, 2013, 6:29 pm

I have an iphone 3 gs and it has the boot loop!!! I don’t have itunes or internet to fix it….I’m trying to put wifi on my laptop but don’t know how! Can u tell me how to do the wifi so I can download itunes

bimeh iran January 16, 2014, 10:34 pm

I test it but couln’t remove error.
when i can download Irecovery.exe?
Thanks
Hakimi

jamie November 3, 2014, 1:43 pm

my iPhone 3 will not come out of recovery mode

Rowan July 17, 2017, 12:45 pm

When I press Shift+ Restore, a box pops up asking for a file name. where is the iReb file?

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