There are times when things may go wrong with the phone or touch and you may need to restore the device to factory settings and start over. This guide explains how to restore the phone to factory settings using iTunes.
Note: You need itunes 7.4 or greater for FW versions 1.1.1 and 1.1.2. You need 7.5 or greater for 1.1.3 and 1.1.4.
Note: If you intend to jailbreak to install 3rd party apps, prior to restoring, be sure that the firmware version you are using can be hacked.
- Dock phone on PC and load iTunes.
- Once iTunes recognizes the phone, select the phone
- Click the restore button and agree to the prompts. iTunes will download the latest firmware and restore your device.
Note: if you need to restore a specific version of firmware onto your device, rather than click restore, hold shift (PC) or option (MAC) and click restore. This will bring up a browse box where you can select the firmware you wish to program.
Troubleshooting:
If you have any problems with the restore, try using DFU mode. This will often result in a working restore.
Error 1011, 1013, 1015 at the end of restore: This means that the modem firmware could not be updated. If you are performing a downgrade (1.1.4 to 1.1.3, for example), this is normal. You will need to use a tool like independence (MAC) or jailbreak 1.1.2 (PC) to boot the phone out of recovery mode then your downgrade should be completed. If your phone says “needs repair” and you tried to restore and got this error, you probably have a permanently damaged phone. You can try the DFU mode suggestion above and hope for the best.
Error 1602, 1603: This is somewhat of an unknown error. It usually means the PC lost communications with the phone. A reboot may fix it or restarting the apple mobile device service. You may need to reinstall iTunes. In some cases it can be more serious and may require Apple support. You may get lucky if you try to restore without a sim card inserted. (Remove simcard, reboot phone into restore mode, then try again).
Error 1600: On OSX, try mkdir ~/Library/iTunes/”Device Support”. If that directory is already there, try removing any files in it.
Error 1604: Apple wrote an article on this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1458
Error 1, 2, 3, 6 or some low number < 99: This means the phone could not be put into restore mode. Manually place the phone into DFU mode and try again.