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.
{ 125 comments… read them below or add one }
Ctrl-Alt-Del trick works a charm. Why couldnt apple post that trick on their website. Yes it makes them look stupid that they cant do their jobs right, but at least they would be admitting a mistake rather than wasting hours doing what they suggested this trick took me half hour to get my phone back working again.
Thanks again
Thank you so much Stephen McMaster.
I was spending all night trying to get this to work.
Works great with 3.0.1 restore as well.
I think the problem was caused by error during restore.
For instance, I ran out of diskspace while restoring, and restore just crashed.
Afterwards I kept getting 1604
Amazing – the CTRL + ALT + DEL trick works! Error 1604 was an absolute nightmare to resolve until this…
I basically used control/alt/delete to shut down itunes while in it’s “preparing to restore” state, when the screen on the iphone goes black. Restarting Itunes then meant it could get past that “preparing” stage fairly quickly and into the actual restore step.
*HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF* Thank you so much to those of you posting about this! The internet & Apple Iphone users need to know!
Echoing the HUGE THANK YOU of the other posts!! I am a brand new IPhone user; just got it 2 weeks ago (my first IPhone ever). It worked great for 2 weeks, and then last night ITunes asked me if I wanted to upgrade from 3.0 to 3.0.1 and of course I figured why not? Huge mistake! I had error 1604 and stayed up til 3am trying every fix possible. In trying some recommended DFU methods, that only switched it to error 1601! Very frustrating that downloading the 3.0.1 update into Itunes kept taking over 50 minutes! I tried switching USBs, creating another Username (I use Windows XP), rebooting, re-installing Itunes…everything. Nothing worked, until I found this post with the CTRL – ALT – DEL fix. THANK YOU!!!!!
Awesome, thanks! This is the second time Apple has screwed my iphone with an update. Spent and hour Googling and found this post. Ctrl-Alt-Del was the solution. Not sure how you figured that one out but that was the secrete sauce.
Thanks again!
sorry i don understand what u guys talk about ctr+alt+del.can someone explain please.cause i going to upgrade but scare same problem occure.
to stephen mcmaster………a billion of thanks for u….cheers!!
You’re very welcome
hi.
i was reading all this comments and succesfull thing about the control\alt\delete.. but somebody can explain to me how this works, beause i tried doing this when my iphone was trying to restore , but the only thing it do was ask me if i want to lock my computer, or switch users.. I thought that would help me to restore my iphone but it didn’t!:(
Please some body help with this.. i tried to restore and the only thing it show in the iphone is the usb cord with the itunes logo. It said error 14.. Im frustrated.. i dont know what to do!
Try to hold the power button down until your PC shuts off. Or control alt delete several times in a row.
that didn’t work either!
someone else please..??
Try post 29 or 48 (mine).
You should start from square 1, which is putting your iphone into DFU mode and restoring it completely. I’m assuming you have a 3G and that 2.x was working fine. Go back to 2.x using my instructions in post 48. Then try to upgrade again. Don’t forget to clean out the apple software download folder before you start. Read back through the older comments in this post and McMaster tells you how to do it.
Ctrl-Alt-Del was the solution!!
Hugh Thanks to Stephen !
spent several hours to restore it until i found this post!!
Thumbs up!!!
Thanks ..!
Ctrl-Alt-Del trick worked for me too!! Reset ITunes when 1604 error showed, iTunes and phone then loaded/worked corecctly! Error 1604 was a nightmare to resolve… nothing worked until this
I have a problem!!! please help…
when i was restoring my iphone with 3.0 upgrade, my computer shut down suddenly, it caused the stop of upgrading, only “back-up my phone” was successful(mean it failed to upgrade and nothing inside, is it?), my phone was showing an apple logo there(i think it just hung here, as it was preparing restore), and computer could not detect it anymore.
In other hand, the control/del/alt seemed not working…anyone know how to solve it? please…
I plugged my iPhone into my computer trying to upgrade to 3.1 and after iTunes opened there were some “gleek gleek” and”doink” noises that seemed to cease after I plugged into another USB port. But sometime during the upgrade the phone froze, so I tried to do a restore, but got an error message that said “no can do”. From there the phone had a picture on the screen of the USB plugging into iTunes, and
that was all. Someone in an earlier post said they got a new USB cable and that solved the problem. So I got one too. A big beefy MF from Belkin. Plugged in the new cable, the phone connected to iTunes, did what it was supposed to do, installed 3.1, restored my photos, contacts, etc., and I’m good to go. Worth a try.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 3 hours wasted on code 1640 until I found this. half hour and it is restored synced and running again.
Stephen Mcmaster! What a man! I have sent my phone to o2, had them replace a part because apparently it was a “hardware error”. Came back still not working!
Just followed your instructions and now working perfectly.
Cheers mate
Got the same message today I just kept going to itunes and ran the software again and my phone was restored.
i have error 2002 help.
My phone is completly wiped. GRR
SHIT I HATE APPLE
Error 1604: This error is often related to USB timing. Try changing USB ports, uninstalling and reinstalling USB ports, and other available USB troubleshooting steps (troubleshooting USB connections, device not recognized properly, computer won’t recognize a FireWire or USB device). If you are using a dock, bypass it and connect directly to the USB 30-pin dock-connector cable. If the issue persists on a known-good computer, the device may need service.
If the issue is not resolved by USB isolation troubleshooting, and another computer is not available, try these steps to resolve the issue:
Connect the device to iTunes, confirm that the device is in Recovery Mode. If it’s not in Recovery Mode, put it into Recovery Mode.
Restore and wait for error 1604.
When prompted, click OK.
Close and re-open iTunes while iPhone remains connected.
iPhone should now be recognized in Recovery Mode again.
Try to restore again.
If the steps above do not resolve the issue, try restoring using a known-good USB cable, computer, and network connection.
Error 2000-2009: If you experience this issue on a Mac, disconnect third-party devices, hubs, spare cables, reset the SMC, and then try to restore. Learn how to reset the SMC. If you are using a Windows computer, remove all USB devices and spare cables other than your keyboard, mouse, and the device, restart the computer, and try to restore. If that does not resolve, try the USB issue-resolution steps and articles listed for Error 1604 above. If the issue continues, it may be related to conflicting security software.
TO: Got-It !!! June 18, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Thank you!!! I was starting to get desperate, but just a simple exchange of a cable helped! I could never imagine this could be a solution, but you saved me! Thanx!
Dudes i figured it out. When u start restoring, ur phone gets a blank screen right and it fails, now just shut it down, turn it on and try again, but dont unplug it, keep it plugged, worked for me
I’ve tried all the ideas that you all have posted, and nothing seems to gives life to my iphone, pls help me. I have all of my work on this …….