Many visitors are telling me that their iPhone goes into DFU loop/Blank screen after restoring. Last week I myself faced the same while restoring. I spent my whole week trying to get help and possible reasons of why this happens. After failing to get a proper answer from different websites and jailbreak question-answer community at www.jailbreakqa.com, I got my answer on my own. As promised, here I am writing this article to show the possible methods by using which, you can get rid of the blank screen/DFU loop issue after restore.
Why the hell my iPhone goes into DFU after restore?
I really don't know why. Trust me. If can be a hardware issue which may be preventing iPhone from being successfully restored. I don't think so though. I can't accept so many people have some hardware issues at the same time. It may be possible that Apple is doing some nasty stuff with you and me. Yes, don't take it lightly, Apple can possibly do this kind of stuff. Reason for believing so is that each time I restored, it gave me different kind of errors I never came across before. I may be out of my mind at this moment but it might be possible. Whatever the reason is, let me show you how to get rid of the DFU loop/Blank screen.
Here I'm going to tell you what you should if your iPhone goes into DFU loop/Blank Screen after restore. Below are the possible methods by using which, you can get rid of the DFU Loop/Blank Screen after restoring.
A) Try booting up your iPhone using Sleep and Home button.
First of all, you should try booting up your iPhone by pressing and holding Sleep/Power button and Home button together until Apple logo is shown. If it does not shows up and your iphone still have the blank screen even after holding them for 10 seconds or more, then consider using other methods below.
B) Try different tools to kick your device of of DFU.
There are many tools available which can kick your device of of DFU and recovery mode. So first thing you should try if your device don't boot up by pressing and holding Sleep and Home buttons, is to use every tool available. Try the "Recovery Mode Loop Fixer" tool built into iREB. Download the latest version of iREB from www.ih8sn0w.com. Run iREB and select "Recovery Mode Loop Fixer" tab and click "Set Auto-boot True". It will try rebooting your iPhone. If it does not work, then download lastest TinyUmbrella from www.thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com. It also has the built in function to kick your device out of recovery. So run TinyUmbrella and see if it detects your device. If so, the Fix Recovery button will become available. Press the button and click Yes. If this also don't work then download RecBoot (Search for it) and run it. It will detect your device. Click "Exit Recovery Mode" button and see if your device boots up. If none of the tools work, try other methods mentioned below.
C) Try restoring your iPhone again.
You should try to restore your iPhone again to the same or different iOS version. You should try by upgrading and downgrading your iOS. For example if you just restored your iphone to iOS 4.2.1 and got stuck in DFU, then try restoring to iOS 4.3.X (upgrading) or iOS 4.0.1 (downgrading). Don't forget to use custom IPSW only while restoring. To do so, just run iREB and choose your device and it should put your device in Pwned DFU. (Because it is already in DFU)
D) Try restoring to Stock IPSW.
In this case, stock IPSW will be the iOS, of which you have the baseband currently. In simple words, if you have baseband 5.13.04, then try restoring to iOS 4.0.1 or iOS 4.0.2, Baseband 5.13.04 is the baseband of iOS 4.0.1 and 4.0.2. Or if you have baseband 5.12.01 for example, then try restoring to iOS 3.1.3. Don't use custom IPSW in this case. Use the IPSW you downloaded directly from Apple. If you don't have the stock IPSW, search for it and you'll find it. If you don't know which iOS you have baseband of, then go to this wiki page and look for your device and current baseband. Remember that each device have different baseband for the same iOS.
E) Edit the host file/Use TinyUmbrella.
Browse to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and create a new text document in this folder, open it. Now drag the file "hosts" into the new text document and scroll down. Do you see any of the below lines there?
#74.208.105.171 gs.apple.comIf so, then remove those lines and save the file.
#127.0.0.1 gs.apple.com
74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com
Now download this old version of Umbrella and run it. Click "Start TSS Server".
Now open iTunes and hit the "restore" button while pressing "Shift" button and browse to a custom IPSW and restore. If this fails, then close iTunes, click "Stop TSS server" in Umbrella and then press "Start TSS Server" again. Now open iTunes again and try to restore to a stock firmware as mentioned in method D above.
F) Uninstall iTunes and reinstall.
This might seem a bit silly, but it may work. Uninstall iTunes and all other related components from your computer and reboot. After rebooting, install iTunes again and reboot. Now try restoring again. You can also try former version of iTunes which supports the iOS you want to restore to.
G) Try another computer.
If any of the above methods don't work for you, try all these methods on a different computer. It may just work.
H) Upgrade To iOS > 5.0
Yes, you should try upgrading to iOS > 5.0. As far as I have tested, iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5 have solved this DFU loop problem, and it works while upgrading and downgrading both. I know iOS 5 jailbreak is still tethered jailbreak meaning you need to connect to your computer each time yo need to reboot your device. But your priority is to get rid of that black seen so you should consider every possible way to do so. So try upgrading to iOS 5. First of all, uninstall current version of iTunes and grab a new version which should be > 10.5. Now use this guide to upgrade to iOS 5.0.1, while preserving baseband. You can still jailbreak and unlock after upgrading, so you're not going to lose your unlock.
H) What if none of these methods work?
Don't get depressed and bang your hand on the table. You should keep trying. Try restoring to any other iOS using custom firmware. If you get your device working again, then congratulations, if not, keep trying. It will work.
If you have face the same problem and you have any different method, please let me know.
Update : I have moved support section for this topic on official blogonerd forum at - http://forum.blogonerd.me/topic/9195429/1/
Please note that all further queries on this topic should be posted and responded on the forum only
Thanks
