Restore Your Non-Booting iDevice Back to iHealth

By putting your iPhone or iPod touch in DFU mode, you can often solve major problems like lock-ups.

One day—and it’ll be one of those terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days—your iPhone or iPod touch may stop booting. Or on the brighter side, perhaps you’ll just need to downgrade its firmware or jailbreak your device. When either of those days come, you’ll need the power of DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode.

1. A Few Simple Button Presses

If possible, sync and backup your device to restore your data later. But if it’s bricked, go straight into DFU mode. To do so, start with your device turned off and plugged into your computer running iTunes. Hold the device’s Sleep/Wake and Home buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds, then release Sleep/Wake and continue holding the Home button until iTunes detects your device in recovery mode. 

When you see this message, you know your device has successfully entered DFU mode.

2. Restore Your Device

Click the Restore button in iTunes to download and install the newest firmware for your device. When the process is complete, you can restore your backed-up personal data.

Restoring takes a while, so go get a sandwich...or something frostier.

However, if you have older or custom firmware you wish to install, hold down the Option key while clicking the Restore button. This lets you select the firmware version you want (called an ISPW file) on your Mac and apply it to your device. 

3. Exit DFU Mode

If you accidentally entered DFU mode or changed your mind about restoring your iOS device, that’s no problem. Before you install new firmware, hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons until your device restarts normally, which exits your device from DFU mode.