iPhone in endless reboot cycle

slylittlefox · 10 Nov 2009 at 01:35

Evening all,

It would seem that my iPhone's decided to break itself. After a pretty heavy night out, I found it switched off in my jeans pocket. Presuming the battery had just ran out, I've only just put it on to charge. When I turn it on the Apple logo flashes up, and then four seconds later the screen flashes white and then it turns itself off. It then repeats this process ad infinitum/nauseum.

If I hold the home button down for a couple of these cycles, it goes into restore mode. However - I don't want to do a full restore if at all possible because I'll lose a ton of photo's of what was probably the best weekend of my life in Dublin. Not to mention I'll lose all the apps I've paid £100+ for, and the music.

Has anybody had this same problem? Is there any way I can get on to the phone without wiping all the contents?

It's an (unhacked) 3GS, and I don't have any syncs/backups to fall back on (recently renewed the HDD in my MBP). It's not looking good

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

startrek2 · 10 Nov 2009 at 07:30

the apps will re install same as purchased music thats not a problem...

but re the photos yes that may be lost.

dayloon · 10 Nov 2009 at 07:34

I had the same problem last night. I tried everything for hours but ended up having to restore.

NickK · 10 Nov 2009 at 11:08

Question is - do you sync your photos with iPhoto (a tab under iTunes).

slylittlefox · 10 Nov 2009 at 13:59

startrek2 said:
the apps will re install same as purchased music thats not a problem...

but re the photos yes that may be lost.

Is that a definite regarding the purchased music and apps? I haven't synced my iTunes with the iPhone yet, following a format and reinstall of Windows, and so iTunes doesn't have any record of what I had installed etc. Though obviously my iTunes account will do - but I've purchased plenty of music in the past, and never seen an option to redownload it.

dayloon said:
I had the same problem last night. I tried everything for hours but ended up having to restore.

NickK said:
Question is - do you sync your photos with iPhoto (a tab under iTunes).

As above, unfortunately I've never had a sync with iTunes to fall back on.

This is ridiculous if there's no way of getting back the data that is still stored on there. Why the **** wouldn't the restore first try and make a backup of any media/data? So, so angry

randal · 10 Nov 2009 at 14:05

Why the **** wouldn't the restore first try and make a backup of any media/data?

Because it's a restore, not a recover option. iTunes presumes that you've sync'd your phone, making a periodic backup. Mail, music and apps are all going to be fine. However you're going to lose texts, photos etc..

I'd take the lesson from from this, setup your phone as new exactly how you want it then right click on the phone in iTunes and do a backup to give you a baseline.

It's a pain, but one I'm betting you won't endure again as you'll backup.

startrek2 · 10 Nov 2009 at 15:00

Is that a definite regarding the purchased music and apps? I haven't synced my iTunes with the iPhone yet, following a format and reinstall of Windows, and so iTunes doesn't have any record of what I had installed etc. Though obviously my iTunes account will do - but I've purchased plenty of music in the past, and never seen an option to redownload it. .

yes the apps will 100% be linked so any pc or mac authorised will reinstall it to your iphone music is the same assuming its purchased ive got few music bits and they allways appear in my purchase history.

i back up allmost daily as i synch outlook and such so i would suggest maybe backing up more often and keeping pictures etc.

slylittlefox · 10 Nov 2009 at 15:27

Believe me I do realise I should have backed up more frequently. However, Apple should be wise enough to design a system that allows for the iPhone's OS to be restored, without wiping everything else.

Anyway, it's a moot point now - after trying a restore, it failed, and now it looks like I have one completely goosed iPhone. Subsequent attempts at a restore result in the same error. It looks as if it tries to do the restore, but then restarts during the process, and hence fails.

Think it's time to take it into an Apple store

I was hoping to do a restore, and then use one of the recovery tools to pull the photo's off it - no such luck

slylittlefox · 11 Nov 2009 at 00:16

Well - managed finally to do a restore, and following that not working a DUF restore, and still no iPhone - exactly the same rebooting problem

I've heard people speak of the water sensors on the iPhone, and I'm beginning to worry that I may have dropped it in my pint or something stupid like that - are the 'green lights' visible when it's water damaged?

RobH · 11 Nov 2009 at 02:08

slylittlefox said:
I've heard people speak of the water sensors on the iPhone, and I'm beginning to worry that I may have dropped it in my pint or something stupid like that - are the 'green lights' visible when it's water damaged?

There are no water sensors in the electrical sense but Apple have markers on the phone that turn pink if water has been inside the phone. When they come to repair it they can check them and it won't be covered under warranty if they have been triggered. In regards to the 'green lights' being visible, who knows? Water damage can cause any number of components to fail.

I would attempt a DFU mode restore again if you can. I thought I bricked my phone several times in the past when jailbreaking it. When I was trying to jailbreak it on 3.1.2 it failed and I could not even get my phone to restore with the official 3.1.2 package through iTunes, it just threw up an error in iTunes. Eventually after a few more tries I got it to restore to 3.1.2. Don't give up, keep at it, it's nearly impossible to brick an iPhone through software (from trusted sources).

unknowndomain · 11 Nov 2009 at 02:23

In answer to the water indicators on a 3GS there are 4.

One at the bottom of the headphone jack, one in the dock connector under the protruding pins in the small gap between the non metallic side of the pins and the dock interior there is a small cutout square showing it.

The other two are under the LCD assembly.

The indicators are white when unaffected and pink/red/blackened when water has been an issue.

Unfortunately the white screen is a common sign of damage to the logic board and is often a sign that the phone has been liqud damaged.

I would suggest that you book an appointment at the Apple Store and getit seen to and I wanted to add a bit about what you said about the restore not being intelligent as I can completely sympathise in your situation its terrible to loose all your memories and you know you should have backed up but theres no going back now. All I would say is that the restore is designed to restore it to factory setting and I doubt the phone is in a state at that point that the data could be retrieved however I may be wrong.

Elrein · 11 Nov 2009 at 14:14

Hold down HOME and POWER until it switches off then quickly let go of both buttons

Wait for the screen to power down (ghosting etc thats left) and then power it back up.

If it works good if it continues to spin just pray its dry :/

slylittlefox · 11 Nov 2009 at 18:10

RobH said:
I would attempt a DFU mode restore again if you can. I thought I bricked my phone several times in the past when jailbreaking it. When I was trying to jailbreak it on 3.1.2 it failed and I could not even get my phone to restore with the official 3.1.2 package through iTunes, it just threw up an error in iTunes. Eventually after a few more tries I got it to restore to 3.1.2. Don't give up, keep at it, it's nearly impossible to brick an iPhone through software (from trusted sources).

Thanks for the advice and info - tried one normal restore, failed to work (Error 1611) - bombed out after 2-3mins. Spent 15 mins trying to get it into DFU restore mode with no luck. Tried another normal restore with a different USB cable, and it finally got to the progress bar screen. However, after 5 mins - it failed again.

However, I'm now stuck with the (empty) progress bar screen with the Apple logo, and no combination of key presses seems to be able to restart it

unknowndomain said:
In answer to the water indicators on a 3GS there are 4.

One at the bottom of the headphone jack, one in the dock connector under the protruding pins in the small gap between the non metallic side of the pins and the dock interior there is a small cutout square showing it.

The other two are under the LCD assembly.

The indicators are white when unaffected and pink/red/blackened when water has been an issue.

Unfortunately the white screen is a common sign of damage to the logic board and is often a sign that the phone has been liqud damaged.

I would suggest that you book an appointment at the Apple Store and getit seen to and I wanted to add a bit about what you said about the restore not being intelligent as I can completely sympathise in your situation its terrible to loose all your memories and you know you should have backed up but theres no going back now. All I would say is that the restore is designed to restore it to factory setting and I doubt the phone is in a state at that point that the data could be retrieved however I may be wrong.

Again, thanks for the advice and info, and many thanks for the sympathy - really am gutted. Going to book an appointment in the Apple store tomorrow.

I've had a look at the indicator in the headphone socket, and there is a tiny little speck of red, but the majority of the indicator is white. Surely that could be just brought about by me blowing down the headphone socket to remove dust?

Can't say I can see that other indicator in the dock connector, however :confused:

Thanks again for all your advice guys - it's appreciated.

RobH · 11 Nov 2009 at 18:37

The one in the dock connector is hard to see, you need an unused paint brush or something similar to brush any dust out of it first and then shine a torch into it, it's under the bottom contacts in a cut-out square. Once you know where it is it's easy to see. mine is bright white on both the dock connector and headphone socket.