Safety net - How to put your iPhone in DFU mode
So.. you did something wrong and your iPhone won’t work anymore. Perhaps, like me, you wanted to change the root ssh password and as a result you got the SpringBoard (the iPhone window manager ) restarting every 10 seconds and a popup telling you to edit home items. Or perhaps you installed a buggy app that crashed your system. Or, maybe, an upgrade went wrong.
Don’t despair. There may still be hope. It’s called the iPhone DFU mode.
I’m not sure what DFU stands for, but what it does is simple - it puts your iPhone in the “out of the factory” clean state; sort of like having a clean hard drive to your computer, without Windows, Linux or anything else. DFU mode is a security mode that lets iTunes see once again the iPhone and install the latest firmware on.
So, how to get to DFU?
Watch the following video, or keep in mind 7, 2, 10: for 7 seconds keep the “power/lock” and “home” buttons pressed simultaneously, until the iPhone’s screen goes black; keep them both pressed an extra 2 seconds, then release the “power” button and continue holding the “home” button pressed. At the end of 10 seconds, iTunes(which was opened already) should see the iPhone; you can let go, the toy is in DFU mode, you can now “reformat” it to the latest firmware (agree with whatever iTunes is saying related to “Restore”) so that you can jailbreak and unlock it afterwards.
Sure, you lost all your apps, music and videos, but that’s a pretty small price to pay for getting your iPhone back up and running, right?
Dude, you saved my life! or at least my ipod. Thanks for the vid.
john
29 Mar 08 at 8:00 am
glad i could help, i went through a similar fright as well so i know how u feel
Alex
29 Mar 08 at 8:36 pm
You also saved my iPhone w/ the DFU thing… who knew changing the root password would screw so many things up?
Thanks!
S
24 May 08 at 4:54 am
i have a problem…when i try to restore my iphone itunes says ” could not restore iphone”…if anyone knows how to solve this problem plz tell me….
Dennis
24 Jun 08 at 12:19 am
i had the same one, this is why the DFU tutorial. try and rerun the DFU procedure again, eventually it must work(it did for me).
Alex
24 Jun 08 at 8:42 am
Reply to:
i have a problem…when i try to restore my iphone itunes says ” could not restore iphone”…if anyone knows how to solve this problem plz tell me….
answer it is a good chence that you are using a 1.0 USB Port, Try Using a 2.0. at least that’s how it worked for me
Sombra67
3 Sep 08 at 9:05 pm
dude, you are heaven-sent! i owe u big time!!! thanks a million man!!! whew!!
John Rey
11 Sep 08 at 2:40 pm
Just a heads up, DFU stands for Device Firmware Upgrade.
DFU
22 Oct 08 at 2:33 pm
Just to clarify for people who are having difficulty… If you have ANYTHING on your screen you are not in DFU mode. It is not the same as ‘recovery mode’.
Vancouver
1 Nov 08 at 5:25 am
aargh! ..once i’m in DFU mode iTunes recognizes my Iphone only as an Ipod (..an iPod has been detected.. bla bla error 2001 ) and doesn’t let me restore.
I’m keen to jailbrake, ony this step seems to stop it.
Anyone? anyone? Thanks
Ollie
13 Dec 08 at 2:55 pm
i think you’re in trouble indeed, seems it’s a problem with the latest OSX Leopard upgrade.
Alex
16 Dec 08 at 7:34 pm
see here more details
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/16/iphone-3g-now-unlocked-dev-team-speaks-about-dfu-problems/
Alex
16 Dec 08 at 7:36 pm
my phone will not go into DFU mode…i will show the attach to itunes thing everytime i try and i tried to jailbreak my phone but it say erroe 2004…am i screwed?
jazz
10 May 09 at 2:18 am
My screen is all white. I can here that the functions still work when I pusher the screen but nothing. I tried DFU and hard reboot and still nothing…..is there anyone who can help?
Rob
16 Jun 09 at 8:36 pm
Thank you so much for the video. Worked perfectly!!! Thank you
Aadil
29 Jul 09 at 8:07 am