Finally, OS3 for the iPhone is out — and against my better judgment, I decided I wanted copy-and-paste now. So I did the iPhone 3.0 upgrade, and now my phone is dead. Like many others, I’m getting the dreaded “unknown error” message. And looking to Apple for guidance, I come away feeling frustrated.
After my upgrade was done, my phone was left with an icon message to plug it into iTunes and only able to make emergency calls. As for iTunes, it gave the message screenshotted above, which says:
We could not complete your iTunes Store Request. An unknown error occurred (-4).
There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later.
Shortly after getting this, I saw Matt Cutts tweet that I wasn’t alone. Hundreds on Twitter — more like thousands at this point — were tweeting about similar problems. Try searches for itunes store request or unknown error, and you’ll see them.
You also see a lot of sad, frustrated and sometimes angry people getting no help. People are tweeting uncertain if they’ve “bricked” their phone and made it unusable. People are looking for help.
And Apple? It’s not helping. I tried a search on the iPhone support site for “unknown error occurred (-4)” and got nothing useful.
I checked the iPhone support page and found nothing alerting people that Apple’s aware of the problem.
I checked the iPhone discussion group and got an amazing “We’ll be back soon” message.
I’ve just gone back, and at least now there’s a thread on the topic. Supposedly it’s here, but if you try to read it, you get — yep — an error message and taken to this holding page.
Way to fail, Apple.
If you have news on how to solve the problem, please post below. I’ll also update as I learn more. For related discussion on the new software and the iPhone 3Gs launch, see Techmeme. Also see an upgrade cluster on Techmeme here.
Postscript: Flash Gordy suggested I try plugging directly into my computer rather than a hub. Did that, and problem solved. Or maybe whatever network issues with the iTunes store were happening got sorted out.
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After getting the error message for 30 minutes, my phone came back after rebooting laptop and starting up iTunes again. Hope this works for everyone else. Apple should have anticipated this issue and provided more support.
I just unplugged (after ejecting) and replugged my iPhone from the mac a couple of times until the phone got activated.
This appears to be due to apples activation servers being overloaded, it looks as if the server is getting slammed at time of activation your iphone fails the activation due to timeout error and then your iphone is not usable until the sim gets re-activated. Keep trying it should eventually work.
Hi
we got the same dreaded message “there was an error in Itunes” phone is now dead, rebooted laptop and phone still the same issue. Rang O2 and they have no fix for this tried to call Apple Support (apple – 1850946191) and they are closed. you would think that they would have kept there call centre open for issues. Terrible service.
same here…got the message several times. even tried reinstalling itunes. after some time staring at a white itunes screen that just said “iphone”, it seemed to have sync’d up…took about 30 minutes though. during this time, the phone kept asking me to plug it into itunes and it would show up on the menu bar, but only as a device, nothing under it.
be patient…oh, and don’t expect to MMS when it gets going…they’re delaying that (AT&T) until late summer
I had the same problem. Plugging it directly into my MBP did not solve the problem. I finally solved it by putting the phone into DFU mode and restoring to 3.0.
Ludde, What is DFU mode ?
Had to restore phone after attempts to update it gave it amnesia. Not happy. Thank God for backups.
I should have just given up and waited until later. Like, next week.
After reading countless error message posts and news of bricked phones, i tried it one more time and it actually worked. Now, though when i try to connect my phone to iTunes it gives me an unknown error message and says it can’t connect tomy phone so there are still risks even after it updates correctly.
Having the same problem. I had to restore the OS. I can’t load apps though. It just hangs and then gives an “unknown error” message.
I also got the “unknowne error” issue, at which point my iPhone was left with the aforementioned icon to connect it to iTunes, only iTunes would then complain that the phone was in “recovery mode” and thus had to be restored. I restored the phone thru iTunes to a backup from this afternoon, and when restored, it came back with the 3.0 OS. So… it appears that the OS installed fined, but for some reason or another was not able to complete on initial attempt. Restore from iTunes got my phone working again with 3.0 update.
Mark. I copied the following from:
http://crenk.com/downgrade-iphone-3g-30-back-to-221/
DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode.
You can follow these steps to put your iPhone in DFU mode (this is required only if iTunes does not recognize your iPhone):
* Connect your iPhone to your computer.
* Turn iPhone off.
* Hold power and home together for 10 seconds (exactly).
* Release power but keep holding home until the computers beeps (observed on a PC) as a USB device is recognized.
* A few seconds later iTunes should detect your iPhone.
Hope this helps. I’m having problems too and i desperately need my phone to work by morning. this could be an all nighter!! will post again if i resolve my probs.
I had the same problem. It looks as though the update is fine but the activation is stalled from server overload. I unplugged the iPhone, plugged it back in 5 minutes later and after a gut wrenching delay it came up in iTunes and was fully functional..
Mine is not working at all after trying to upgrade to OS 3.0. I mean I can’t even make phone call. The phone is left in restore mode. When connecting to iTunes, it tried to restore, towards the end, it gives error that says “The iPhone could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (2002)”. It appears the phone has OS 3.0 because that is the version it keeps trying to restore. It does not give me an option to restore to 2.2.1.
guys, if your phone is on recovery mode and itune asks you to restore to factory mode.(after trying to update to 3.0 and got unkown error)
use QuickPwn( my case window version)
instruction is in the zip file.
i could unlock my phone back to 2.2.1 etc right before the 3.0 version.
this software is used for jailbreak the phone but you don’t have to install their stuff to jail break. after 1st ( in the middle of 2nd step) my phone got freed up from recovery mode.
read instruction plz~~~~~~~~~`
I can go to bed now. My GF almost killed me for this.
YUP ME TO TO TRIED TO DOWNLOAD GOT AN ERROR THEN IT PUT MY PHONE INTO SAFE MODE WHERE IT SAYS CONNECT OT ITUNES.. NOW I TRY AND RESTORE IT GIVES ME AN ERROR MESSAGE!!!! THIS IS RIDICULOUS…THIS WAS ABOUT 5 HOURS AGO NO I GOTTA WAIT 6 MORE HOURS TILL THE APPLE STORE OPENS……BULLSHIT AND THEY WILL BE HEARING FROM ME WHEN I WALK IN THE STORE!!!!!!!
Success. Finally got iphone working after going into recovery mode and restorng to factory settings. Then rebooting laptop and then restoring to previous backup from 5 hours before.
But now all the apps I have bought have disappeared. Can I download them again without paying for them?
I got my phone working but have lost all my contacts. I’m sure I backed it all up before installing 3.0 software but can’t seem to find them. any ideas? am i being completely blind?
I got phone to restore to factory settings and update to 3.0 by creating another user account for my pc and then running itunes through this. when plugged iphone in, it downloaded a new file to restore the phone. It worked but has wiped my phone of all data. I am now going to try uninstalling itunes on my admin account and then reinstalling and then plug in phone. this may help sync all my contacts/apps etc back onto phone. this is what apple support says to try.
i have same problem and I just connect iphone to another computer with iTunes and it is OK, excelent!
I spent 7 hours following all of the suggestions from Apple as well as suggestions from various sites (plugged into a different USB, tried pulling the SIM Card, uninstalled and reinstalled Itunes 8.2, etc. etc…) and still nothing. Error message 1603 for me. I am now on a third different computer. My phone has never been so quiet. This really sucks. I wish I had just left this alone.
Im having a problem, my songs are all gone. shows there there on i tunes. but when i tru to remove a song from phone or add one it start sync. then i get a error message any one find this yet.
Lol always throught that Apple might get caught out playing in the telephony area – you know where 100% uptime and it just works are a design feature.
SUBS eh
and most old skool phone company types consider the Mobile side a bunch of light weights
Apple did an awful job with this upgrade. My phone was also locked out after the upgrade completed. The iphone kept requesting i plug it into the computer and start ITUNES. That did nothing, after four hours I went to the Apple store and lots of people in the store with the same problem,the Apple store they tried to blamed it on AT&T.
I called Apple, they told me to put it into ‘forced restore mode’. Even after setting my phone into a forced restore mode it took five attempts to restore the phone as the Apple servers I assume were too busy.
Once restored I had all my contacts but the vast majority of my apps were gone, great job Apple!!!!!
Apple had this same problem when 2.0 came out and the 3G phone went on sale.
I wish more news sites had covered this, Apple only seem to listen when
these issues are publicized by the media otherwise they do not care.
Hi,
You can see one person’s experience here :
http://tekblogs.com/tb/2009/06/18/iphone-3-0-upgrade-with-o2-error-messages-but-ultimate-success/
Somne error messages but ultimately ok
Hi all,
error 1604 for me. My Iphone is dead. The installation process failed, now it says I have to restore it but if I try I get the same error.
Good luck, Apple is not as good as people use to think.
David,
Have you called Apple technical support, after all these issues they my have a resolution.
Ajay
hi, ive been trying for ages…. i was wondering if anyone knows what
what the error code (-9808) is i keep getting this. if any one can help please
When I had called Apple they provided me with the following tip sheet, my advice call the Apple support line.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1275?viewlocale=en_US list of codes
thanks ajay… ive tried it but still isnt working! this is sooooo frustrating im going to have to go into the store tomorow!!!! after looking at the tip sheet the error i am getting is there soo.. atleast i no it exsist…. i so hope they can help me out…
Just in case this could serve to somebody….
After 24 hours of pure frustration finally, I was able to restore my iPhone, several times I went through the restore procedure and it was always the same.. stop after ‘Preparing iPhone’, the progress bar in the iPhone screen never showed any progress and then the famous message ‘Unknown error…. (1611)’ appeared.
Well… guess what!!!.. it was my USB cable!!! Since I tried everything I decide to call a friend to borrow his cable and Voila!!! it restored at once!, and with the new OS 3.0!!
After restoring the factory defaults, you can follow the instructions to restore from your backup all contacts, applications, music.. everything!
I’m back in the business.. thank God.
Pd: Luda’s note above ‘DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode’ was very useful since iTunes wasn’t recognizing my iPhone and those steps worked just fine.
MackBook Air. OS.X
Kavita, let us know how you get on. The Apple tech support via phone was pretty good, I am sure they must now have a good handle on what the problem is.
I am sorry to say this but Apple really messed this up yet again.
If you are in the US or Canada this is the place for a callback from Apple, I am responding to your post as I was pretty cut off when my phone died. Good luck.
http://www.apple.com/support/expert/
My iPhone is finally upgraded to OS 3.0 after having the phone connected to a Mac at Apple Store and went thru the restore. I did lose all the apps and data on the phone. Luckily, I got them back by re-syncing with Outlook and Google.
The person at Apple Store claimed it is a common problem on Windows platform. So if all failed by doing it yourself using Windows PC, take it to a Apple Store and have them do it for you or connect to your friends Mac.
After having the OS 3.0 loaded, I am happy to see that it syncs with Outlook Notes which I imported from my Palm. In addition, it also provides the landscape mode typing for texting and email. Lastly but not least is the search.
iv got the same problem but it says unknown error [2] i dont know what it means and i dont know how to fix it =[ help me please
It seems to be an issue with XP. I tried restoring on my laptop with XP and my work desktop with XP and I keep getting the 1604 error message. Yet, when I restore on a laptop with Vista, I don’t have any trouble. Apple has got to address this issue!
me again =þ….this time i tried changing itunes version,changing computer, changing usb, restarting computer, restarting iphone.
But its still stuck on recovery mode and when i try to recover it it says unknown error [2]
Hi Guys,
I was getting error 1604 when I was upgrading my iPhone to OS 3.0. and finally got around the error
First, I put the phone into DFU mode and started iTunes (if you get the message “waiting for iPOD”, then CTRL+ALT+DEL and terminate iTunes and then restart it again).
here are the instructions for putting your phone in DFU mode.
Proceed to update your iPhone using iTunes Hold down shift when you click on restore, and browse to the .ipsw file. On my PC this file was in “c:\documents and settings\\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes Software Updates”. This is presuming iTunes already updated the download for you.
This time you will get error 1601 but don’t worry!!! Your iPhone screen should now be white. Do not remove the USB cable at this point. Instead, click OK on the error message and then restart iTunes.
iTunes will again ask you if you want to restore. Once again, hold down shift when you click on restore and browse for .ipsw file again.
Now your iPhone screen should switch from white to show the Apple logo, and your iPhone will restore as normal.
I really hope this helps some of you guys.
Mac Users: If you use Little Snitch, try turning it off and restart your iTunes. Worked for me. Then turn LS back on.
Stephen McMaster, THANK YOU!! After bringing home my brand new phone, I eagerly plugged it into iTunes to download the update, and have a guess what, WTF!! AAARRGHH that 1604 error.
Fastrack 6 hours of google searches, countless phone resets, itune installs, new user logons (pc and iTunes), moments of dread, and expletives, etc………
By manually choosing the path to the 3.0 download, my hours of wanting to bash the LCD with an expensive toy 5 minutes old are over. However, I didn’t receive any other errors after this. After resetting the phone for the umpteenth time and restarting iTunes, I just chose the file as instructed and it went through the rest of the process without any problems. Thanks dude.
All, I couldnt get it working to save my life, tried all the above and still got the same error, rang Apple and they went through all the same stuff, it was like the were reading this website….. Anyway i called around to my wifes dad who has a Apple MAC plugged in the Iphone and it activated in less that 30seconds, same cable as before, didnt sync it with his itunes, came home plugged into mine and all back to normal with the new features.
So if you know anyone with a MAC and want to get back on Iphone asap, thats what to do.
Stephen McMaster – cheers for your resolution – worked a treat
error 1604 – it’s the USB timing
Just change your usb port, and it usually goes through and completes the restore just fine.
Stephen McMaster you are the man!
Many thanks
No problem guys…. Very frustrating when you are promised new functionality, download it, are eager to use it and it flippin’ dies (and the other half has a go for not responding to their text messages – that was me!)
Error 1604 = BSOD? Lol
Nice one Stephen,
Bunch of idiots at Apple should have realised this would happen.
Thanks again
Stephen McMaster I salute you….
Stephem McMaster, thank you very much for your help. I’m back in the iphone world again…!
Guys, after reading your problems, im thinking of not to upgrade anymore to OS 3.0…. Its very frightening… Do u think, today is already HASSLE-FREE to upgrade? My maim problem is i dont have a personal PC. So if something wrong happens, i need to borrow again my friend’s laptop after a week….
Do u think apple already fix it?
Guys, after reading your problems, im thinking of not to upgrade anymore to OS 3.0…. Its very frightening… Do u think, today is already HASSLE-FREE to upgrade? My main problem is i dont have a personal PC. So if something wrong happens, i need to borrow again my friend’s laptop after a week….
Do u think apple already fix it?
I had the same problem. I plugged my iPhone into a different USB port and VOILA it fixed the problem. It doesn’t make any sense to me why it works. I’m just glad my iPhone isn’t a brick anymore
My ‘keyboard’ seems to have vanished after upgrading my iPhone to 3.0. When I try to reply to or write a new message the keyboard doesn’t appear. Anyone know a solution? Thx
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