It’s the moment that you’d secretly feared but never thought would actually happen. Whilst updating your iPhone the installer crashed and now, no matter how many times you try, your phone won’t even restore to it’s former self. iTunes isn’t much help; only offering to send updates to Apple telling them that you’re phone is now a brick and giving you a handy error number. You go to the support page and are presented with the ever helpful advice:

The alert message in iTunes may also include one of the following numbers (but is not limited to): 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, -18, 19, 20, 21, 23, -48, -50, 1002, 1011, 1013, 1015, 1601, 1602, 1603, 1604, 1608, 1609, 1611, 1612, 1639, 2003, 2005, 2006,  3004, 3013, 3014, 3015, 9807, -9808.

I know your pain, I was there myself recently and was just beginning to think it was time to welcome another iPhone when I stumbled accross this helpful little trick. It turns out that the iPhone had just created a broken restore point, so all I had to do was remove the old corrupt file and start again. Simple!

Solution for Windows XP (Your experience may vary…)

1. Open up My Computer
2. Select Tools>Folder Otions>View
3. Scroll down until you see a button that says ‘Show Hidden Files & Folders’
4. Select the option and then hit OK
5. Navigate your way to the following path (C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates) whilst making sure that you replace the two areas in bold with the appropriate settings for your computer.
6. Delete everything in this folder.
7. Open up iTunes.
8. Restart the Restore/Update Process
9. Watch with Giddy Excitement as the iPhone Restores itself.

NOTE: If you haven’t backed up recently and even if you have, it’s possible that this mehod could lead to you losing some of the data that was originally on the phone. I am not a qualified Apple Technician or related to Apple in any way, so all information here is presented for informational purposes only and is undertaken at your own risk. Always consult a professional…

And with a bit of luck your phone is now back to it’s former glory, the sun is shining, you’re feeling great and everyone in the world is happy… If not all of these have been fulfilled, then hopefully you’ll hit on a couple at least and can spread your slightly geeky iPhone love with the world.

This article was written by Daniel McClure, a web developer and entrepreneur, originally from the UK. He currently keeps a blog about Internet Marketing & Lifestyle Design and can be found online working on various other exciting projects. Click Here to Develop Your Online Presence With a Business Blog

STEAL THIS ARTICLE:
Want to share or reprint this article? Feel free. Just make the author box stays in tact so that you’ve given full attribution. You can copy the HTML for the entire article here.

Share the Love Tweet

Get Free Updates