iphone 5c can not restore down to 8.4 from 9... did not follow guided steps. help??? please!

Error message: The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occured (1). [More Information] [ OK ]

Hi Alex,

If you haven't already, you're going to have to update back to iOS 9 Beta 3 because iOS 8.4.1 doesn't know about iOS 9 - from its perspective, the update format isn't recognised and is deemed corrupt.

Are you trying to backup from an iTunes backup or a iCloud bcakup?

Max.

Actually, re-reading your question, I need clarification - you're still on iOS 9 Beta 3, or back on 8.4.1?

It's necessary to know if it's an iTunes backup or a iCloud backup you're trying to restore but, even more importantly, if you are hoping to revert back to 8.4.1 then you either need to have backed up the 8.4 backup before updating to 9.0 in the first place, or be 100% sure that you never backed up while on 9.0.

If you're trying to restore to a backup you made while running 9.0, then you'll need to be back on 9.0 as explained above.

If this has nothing to do with backups at all and you're just trying to restore your phone fresh to a the latest stable version of iOS (8.4.1) then I think I know what's happening - There is a timeout feature (15 mins) in iTunes that keeps the phone from getting the image burned in as well as being forgotten about in that mode - so if your network is slow, it won't download 8.4.1 quickly enough.

The good news is that iTunes will have continued downloading the iOS 8.4.1 .ipsw file to the following folder:

Mac: (you can press shift+cmd+G from Finder and copy-paste the following into it):

~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/

Windows: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates

Copy or move the .ipsw file in there to your desktop and open iTunes again with your phone in Recovery Mode.

Windows: Holding the shift key, click the "Restore" option and select the .ipsw file that you moved to the desktop.

Mac: Holding the alt/option key, click the "Restore" option and select the .ipsw file that you moved to the desktop.

Let me know how you get on 🙂

EDITED the above .ipsw locations for iPhone.

thanks max, and at this point I'm just trying to get it at least working, I don't mind losing data I have it all on icloud

Fair enough 🙂

Following these steps will get you back onto 8.4.1:

1. Make sure that you're using the latest version of iTunes.
2. Turn off your iPhone and leave it off.
3. Plug in your iPhone's USB cable to a computer with iTunes.
4. Hold down the Home button on your iPhone as you connect the USB cable. Keep holding down the Home button until you see the Connect to iTunes screen.
5. When you see this screen, release the Home button. If you don't try steps 2 through 4 again.
6. When your iPhone is connected, iTunes will open. You'll see a message saying that iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.
7. Accept iTunes's prompts to restore. Restoring in recovery mode will erase your iPhone, but it will now be back on iOS 8.4.1

• If the download hasn't completed within 15 minutes because of a slow connection, then refer to my long post above.
• As for restoring to a 8.4 backup, see my second reply.

hey man followed your steps, same message appeared, but 8.4 was downloaded to iTunes cause the little accept terms box appeared

So the download is completing quicker than 15 mins by the sound of it, yes?

You should check the filename and filesize of the .ipsw by finding it as described above. Are you on OS X or Windows?

Yes it is, only takes 3-4 min

Running current stable build of OSX Yosemite

filename:

iPhone5,3_8.4.1_12H321_Restore.ipsw

It should be 1.55GB and if you type md5 followed by a space into a terminal window, then drag the iPhone5,3_8.4.1_12H321_Restore.ipsw file into the Terminal window and press return, you should see the following checksum output:

609614738c8bf489cd632420fae9bc16

Given that your phone is now stuck with a partial install of iOS and throwing that error message, you will have to resort to DFU mode again. However, there is more than one way to put an iPhone into DFU mode and the method you use can make the difference between success and failiure (I agree that this is somewhat odd, but the experience has been borne out by many in your situation). Method 1 is the most frequently successful, but sometimes it's 2 or 3 that does the trick.

Method 1)

• Attach the phone to the pc
• Turn the phone off
• Hold power and home together for *exactly* 10 seconds
• Release power but keep holding home until the computer beeps as a USB device is recognized.
• At no point will the display come on. Now your restore should work.

Having problems? Try adjusting the 10 seconds to be slightly less like 9 seconds, then 8, then 7. It’s a tricky timing but you will eventually get it.

Method 2)

• Hook up the phone powered on to the PC with the phone on
• Now hold home / power until the phone turns off and keep holding for 10 seconds. If the phone ever turns on during this phase,start over and hold for less time.
• Now release power and continue holding home until the PC recognizes the phone.

Method 3)

• Attach the phone to the pc
• Turn the phone off
• Press and hold power. Keep holding power. As soon as you see display on the screen of any sort press and hold home.
• Hold power and home together for *exactly* 10 seconds
• Release power but keep holding home until the pc beeps as a USB device is recognized.
• At no point will the display come on. Now your restore should work.

max. I managed to get it into DFU Mode and attempted to restore it, same error message, I'm trying it with the manual way.

The manual way resulted in a new error

The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (4005) [ More Information ] [ OK ]

Did the md5 hash I posted above check out?

I appreciate that you've already tried DFU mode and got the error - you mention it in your original message. I suggested alternative methods of DFU because people have found that switching method (unaccountably) did the trick. Restoring from DFU is the most "profound" method and will work where other methods won't because it is completely independant of what was installed on the phone previously - if no DFU method works, it's generally because there is a hardware failure 😐