Getting an iPhone out of the Recovery Mode Loop
12 Aug 2009 
16 Comments
Once an iPhone is put into Recovery Mode, it will be stuck in the Recovery Mode Loop (when the device restarts it’ll automatically go back into Recovery Mode).
To get an iPhone out of the Recovery Mode Loop, download the cross-platform iRecovery utility from ihackintosh.com. The instructions below are for using the command-line Macintosh version of iRecovery, but there’s also a Windows version included in the download.
Open a new Terminal window and navigate to the directory that the iRecovery for Mac utility was extracted to.
Connect the iPhone to your Mac with the USB cable, wait for iTunes to finish any synchronization, then enter the command below to open a Terminal interface to the device:
./irecovery -s
You will see output similar to this:
iRecovery - Recovery Utility by westbaer Thanks to pod2g, tom3q, planetbeing and geohot. ======================================= :: :: iBoot for m68ap, Copyright 2008, Apple Inc. :: :: BUILD_TAG: iBoot-385.49 :: :: BUILD_STYLE: RELEASE :: ======================================= [FTL:MSG] Apple NAND Driver (AND) RO [NAND] Device ID 0xb614d5ec [NAND] BANKS_TOTAL 4 [NAND] BLOCKS_PER_BANK 4096 [NAND] PAGES_PER_BANK 524288 [NAND]SECTORS_PER_PAGE 8 [NAND] BYTES_PER_SPARE 128 [FTL:MSG] FIL_Init [OK] [FTL:MSG] BUF_Init [OK] [FTL:MSG] FPart Init [OK] read old style signature 0x43303034 (line:286) [FTL:MSG] VFL Register [OK] [FTL:MSG] VFL Init [OK] [FTL:MSG] VFL_Open [OK] [FTL:MSG] FTL Register [OK] [FTL:MSG] FTL_Open [OK] Boot Failure Count: 2 Panic Fail Count: 0 Entering recovery mode, starting command prompt ]
Next, enter these commands in the device’s Terminal interface:
setenv auto-boot true saveenv /exit
… then reboot the iPhone by holding down the Sleep / Wake and Home buttons for 10 seconds.
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This worked for me perfectly. when you’re on windows make sure to not put the / before the irecovery -s
worked great. thank you!!
Thank you!
It didn’t work for me. Everything OK until the line “Boot failure Count: 2 Panic Fail Count: 0″ Next 2 lines displays “Radio Failed to respond.” and next “Pinging Radio Failed, 4″
and then “Entering recovery mode,…”
Any help on how to deal with it would be very much appreciated.
Marcos. I’m getting the exact same issue as you. I’ve got an official factory unlocked iPhone from Apple Hong Kong, and shortly after upgrading to firmware 1.1.2 yesterday, my iPhone went into recovery loop that isn’t letting me enter my system password, yet iTunes fails to operate on the iPhone because the password has not been entered.
Using iRecovery in DFU mode, I get:
Boot Failure Count: 0 Panic Fail Count: 0
Radio failed to respond.
Radio failed to respond.
Pinging Radio Failed, 4
Entering recovery mode, starting command prompt
-Ryan
hi guys imo stuck in recovery mode loop for about a month or so. i tried everything i could but i thing my main problem is my computer either mac or windows xp wont detect my iphone 2g which is in 3.1.2 firmware. guys please do help me. thank you so much in advance.
Hey Nin
If the computer doesn’t detect the iPhone, that might be because of a faulty cable or a fault with the iPhone’s dock connector.
Have you tried with a different cable on a different machine? I’d also suggest that you plug the device in and leave it like that for a while before you try, just to give the battery a bit of a charge.
Hi Nin
I got the same problem. To make it apear in the iTunes, make sure that the battery is charged as advised by Willem and put it in DFU mode. While connected and switched off, press both power and home and when the apple goes off (aprox. 10 seconds) release power button and keep pressing home button until you hear the connecting sound. The display will be black and iTunes will detect the iPhone.
I hope this can help and you don’t get 16xx errors as I got. If you do, you still can use “iReb” to solv the problem.
Hi Ryan
I think that the radio failure is really a hardware problem, but i’m not sure about it. My iphone, 2 weeks after JB and unlocking failed to log in the network for 2 days, having a strange behaviour, but kept on working and got network again. This time, after using a GPS aplication for a while, it informed me that couldn’t make calls and after rebooting I got stuck in recovery mode getting always 16xx errors in iTunes. (iReb can bypass those errors for iPhones other than the 3GS.)
I gess that only Apple can fix it. If yours are factory unlocked you have no problem to ask them to fix it under the guaranty.
hi guy.
yes i did try using different cable and different computer i even tried other iphone, other iphone was detected except mine. any suggestion guy?
thank you for taking your time helping me with this problem.
I have a similar problem with the difference that when I am restoring to the latest firmware, my iPhone says “waiting for NAND to appear” and after it finished their process, the screen goes black and nothing happened. So, to try to turn on again, I need to press the Power + Hold buttons (like in DFU mode), it tries to turn on and later it get blocked in the apple logo.
Any help could be great.
It was my first time stuck in the loop.
How do you get out?
Simple.
Power your iPhone down.
Know power it back on be holding both Home and Power.
Do not release them intill you see the iTunes symbol.
Know follow what iTunes tells you to and you should be on the way to recovery.
Thanks!
Worked perfectly well!
Thanks a lot!
You’re a lifesaver! I’ve been totally restoring my phone gazillion times before just to get out of that friggin loop. Thanks for your help!
Thank you soo much!!!