Thanks to your advice, I'm out of recovery mode! Now I'm stuck in "emergency call" mode
To close the loop on that issue (and to provide help to anyone using this thread for future research), Crystal-RX (and others) kindly walked me through all the steps over in this thread to a complete recovery (sans data):
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How to resolve locked up jailbroken iPhone stuck in "recovery mode" (see pictures)
I spent an hour writing this up expressly so that others who have the same problem can follow easily the recovery sequence below (which took me very many days to decipher even with lots and lots of help) - but - if you follow it - you'll traverse the steps in just an hour or two!
WHAT TO GIVE A PERSISTENT KID WHO WANTS AN iPhone for voice/text WHOSE PARENTS WON'T PAY FOR A DATA PLAN
- Calling AT&T last summer to replace my kid's phone (which had a data block), I found out there is no way to put an iPhone on AT&T's network without being forced to pay for data (even with a data block).
- I complained to AT&T vice presidents by phone and I filed a complaint to the FCC while I explored options to change the IMEI of an iPhone to my old broken Motorola RAZR on AT&T, but gave up after almost everyone on this forum vehemently advised against it & when both AT&T & the FCC closed the issue without resolution:
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Why I want to learn how to spoof the IMIE of a USA Apple iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS
- However, my stubborn kid still wanted an iPhone for texting & games so I switched to T-Mobile & bought a jailbroken iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1 baseband 06.15.00 off of Craigslist (with data off of WiFi)
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Why I decided NOT to change the iPhone IMEI (I simply switched from AT&T to T-Mobile)
- This worked almost flawlessly since August & my headstrong kid was happy ... with some very minor exceptions.
- The first problem was how to remove a screen imperfection, which essentially met with stony silence:
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Request advice on what causes this odd-shaped bubble or space under iPhone 3G screen
- The more relevant (to this post) minor exception was that CyCorder wouldn't work on iOS 4.2.1
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Why would Cycorder simply flash black & blank out on a jailbroken Ios4.x iPhone 3G?
- Looking for an alternative free iPhone video recorder for the iPhone 3G came up relatively empty handed:
- What video recorder application works on the iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1?
- It is relevant (see below) to note the main answer to the app-support question above was to downgrade to the better supported iOS 3.1.3 (which I didn't know how to do at that time so I just gave up on video support on the iPhone 3G 4.2.1)
- Suddenly, without warning, the iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1 baseband 06.15.00 stuck in iTunes recovery mode over the weekend.
HOW TO SAVE DATA ON A JAILBROKEN iPhone 3G 4.2.1 BB 06.15.00 STUCK IN RECOVERY MODE:
- My problem now was to save the data (my kid doesn't use iTunes because of its horrendous bloat)
- Doing furious research, I found seemingly innumerable terms that I needed to learn just to understand what people were saying when I searched for solutions:
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One users' experience with the technical terms of iPhone 3G usage
- All attempts to exit recovery mode without iTunes failed, i.e., FixRecovery 4.2.1, Tiny Umbrella, RecBoot, iReb, etc.
- That initial problem of saving the data then morphed to the question of how to re-install the iOS (which would wipe out the data so that cause was already lost).
JAILBROKEN iPhone 3G 4.2.1 BB 06.15.00 STUCK IN RECOVERY MODE:
- After much research, I installed iTunes 10.5.0.142 on the main computer (which didn't have iTunes on it previously).
- I downloaded the iClarify iOS 3.1.3 ipsw for iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw)
- And, thankfully, I also downloaded Tiny umbrella v5.00.12
- Tethering the iPhone 3G 4.1.2 stuck in recovery mode to the WinXP PC, I opened iTunes
- The original danger was that iTunes would load an updated iOS & baseband onto the iPhone; but those worries thankfully vaporized because the latest signed iOS for an iPhone 3G was 4.2.1 already and the baseband was already 06.15.00 (unbeknownst to me at that time).
- In Itunes, to prevent iTunes from installing the latest 4.2.1 iOS, I held the keyboard shift key & then pressed the iTunes "Restore" button
- Itunes then asked for the ipsw file (I gave it the iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw from iClarify)
* I presume this ipsw contains a lower baseband than the one I had so the baseband apparently didn't load.
- After a while, Itunes gave me the expected 1015 error (apparently due to the iPad baseband)
- I first ran tiny umbrella and hit "exit recovery" to get past that error (which probably worked without me knowing it).
- Since some said to install the iOS twice to get past the expected 1015 error, I (probably unnecessarily) again ran the iTunes shift-restore install (and again got the 1015 error, which was surprising because doing it twice is supposed to work).
- Hoping it would help, I clicked the Tiny Umbrella TSS button without researching what it did; that seemed to work but who knows what really worked in this particular instance.
* I'm surprised I was able to downgrade the iOS from 4.2.1 to 3.1.3 without ever consciously skipping iBoot by putting the iPhone 3G into DFU mode!
iPhone 3G 3.1.3 BB 06.15.00 STUCK IN EMERGENCY MODE:
- At this milestone, the phone was stuck in "emergency-call only mode"
- Tiny Umbrella reported:
* Device Model = MB702LL/A - iPhone3G
* Installed Firmware Version = 3.1.3
* Installed Baseband Version = 06.15.00-5.9_M3S2
- My next step was to activate (either with an active or inactive AT&T SIM card or to hacktivate with Redsn0w & SAM)
- I still had my now-inactive AT&T SIM card so I chose to activate through iTunes which was the easiest method
- Now I had an iPod with the familiar home screen sea of icons; but no phone.
ACTIVATED iPhone 3G 3.1.3 BB 06.15.00 NEEDS JAILBREAKING:
- My three choices for jailbreaking were Spirit, Redsn0w, and Jailbreakme.com
- I chose the easiest which was Jailbreakme.com
- WiFi encryption, at this point, was easy to set up for my home network
- With Safari, I navigated to Jailbreakme.com & moved the slider to begin the process
- I eventually saw the message "Cydia has been added to the home screen"
- So now my iPhone was jailbroken!
ACTIVATED JAILBROKEN iPhone 3G 3.1.3 BB 06.15.00 NEEDS UNLOCKING:
- To unlock, I started Cydia & dutifully followed its prompts
- It asked "Who Are You?" (I said "Hacker" although that was being generous)
- Cydia started downloading packages & reloading data.
- Cydia requested one of 3 essential upgrades (Essential, Complete, Ignore).
- I let it do a complete upgrade & then it asked to "Close Cydia & Restart".
- Following instructions to click on "Manage", I first clicked on "Manage Account" but that was the wrong "Manage" button.
- I clicked on the open-book icon for "Manage" at the bottom of the Cydia screen (which was the right 'Manage' button) & pressed the "Sources" button in the center of the screen.
- I hit "repo666.ultrasn0w.com" & then "ultrasn0w" (which only then revealed itself to be version 1.2.4)
- When done, I had to hit the home button to "Reaload Springboard"
- Since the active T-Mobile SIM card was in the phone, zillions of text messages started arriving (it's my kid's iPhone)
- At the home screen, I pressed Settings, General, Network, and changed "Enable 3G" from "ON" to "OFF" (
not sure why)
ACTIVATED JAILBROKEN UNLOCKED iPhone 3G 3.1.3 BB 06.15.00 WORKS FINE:
- My kid lost all the data ... but now, thanks to your help and from others, we started with a Craigslist T-Mobile jailbroken/unlocked iOS 4.2.1 iPhone 3G (baseband 06.15.00) which was stuck in iTunes restore mode - and now ended with a working T-Mobile jailbroken/unlocked iOS 3.3.1 iPhone 3G (baseband stayed the same)!
Note: There was no need to save or load SHSH blobs! (whew!)
The only remaining questions:
Q: How did the iOS downgrade occur without going into DFU mode (i.e., the iBoot loader was still running AFAIK)? Maybe the TSS button in Tiny Umbrella allowed the downgrade without DFU mode???
Q: At no point did the baseband change but many articles I read warned against upgrading the baseband. Which step in the process above 'would' have updated the baseband without my knowledge? Is the baseband inside the ipsw?
Q: My kid transfers audio & video without iTunes; but I now realize we need a freeware tool to backup and sync data. What is the most recommended non-Apple tool for backup &/or sync?
