Can't get my 3GS out of Recovery Mode After Motorcycle Wreck...I'll Pay $50 to Fix

[mclaren686]

If anyone can please help me, I will paypal $50 to whoever can solve my problem.

I wrecked my motorcycle yesterday and landed on my phone, which has 11 years of pictures, texts, contacts, and notes. They are invaluable to me. My phone charges and starts up. I can get it into DFU mode, I can get it into emergency call mode, and I *think* I can get it into recovery mode although I'm confused as to the difference between that and emergency call mode.

It's a iPhone 3GS running 4.1. I tried tinyumbrella, fixrecovery, and recboot last night. Tinyumbrella had no effect whatsoever. I hit "exit recovery" after unchecking that one box and nothing happened at all. Fixrecovery brought up a black window and started working but then the window simply disappeared right before the step where it's supposed to say "Uploading IBSS payload" or something similar (I've seen a screenshot of it working properly, so I know this was coming next). Recboot didn't work because I didn't have NET 4.0 installed. Recboot was also an older version I think, maybe 1.0.2 or something. So I installed NET 4.0 but I didn't restart my comp yet. At this point, Itunes still recognized my phone, the version of its operating system, that it was in recovery mode and needed a restore, etc. Today I downloaded the current version of recboot (1.3 I think, the one that tells you whether or not it detects a phone in recovery mode) and before I tried using it, I restarted my computer. Once I restarted, Itunes no longer recognized my phone. My computer thought it was a camera, and Itunes displayed my phone's name but just said "waiting for iphone..." and then nothing. So I downloaded Itunes again, which I'm assuming deleted the old Itunes and updated the files. I'm still having the same problem, though. Recboot does not recognize any phones in recovery mode connected to the computer.

I don't care about my phone or its features, I'm just going to buy a new one. I just want my data off of there so I can transfer it to the new phone. It's priceless. Please help.

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Also I am running WinXP 32bit

[Feed Me]

Hey there, sorry to hear about your accident - hope you're okay.

Did you ever sync your iPhone to iTunes? If so, you'll have backups of your phone on your computer.
These backups can be opened, and photos and files pulled out of them easily. T do this, you'll need iPhone backup extractor.
http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com/


If you didn't keep any backups, try this.
You said your computer recognised the iPhone as a camera?
Can you browse the iPhone when it's plugged in?
My Computer > Attatched Drives
Is the iPhone listed there? If it is, you can easily browse the photo folders and App folders on your iPhone from your computer, as if it was a USB memory stick.

Good luck

[Cingular]

Copy all the files from the iphone to your computer using ifunbox

[mclaren686]

Thank you, I'm fine. Just some cuts and scrapes, no big deal. Insurance is going to take care of the bike. So the part I'm most upset about is the phone. I rarely ever backed up or synced my phone, so I think I'll lose a ton of stuff if I do that. Is there a way to tell when I last backed it up/ synced it?

I haven't tried "browsing" the phone yet, I didn't know that was even possible. If so, that's great. It seems to me like I might be able to pull pictures this way? But contacts and notes and stuff like that, can I pull those too? I will try this when I get home.

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If I use ifunbox, how will I get the files onto my new phone? Do I have to jailbreak it or something crazy? I'm really not a hacker, my phone is not jailbroken or messed with in any way...I'm just desperate.

[Feed Me]

As far as I remember, iPhone backup extractor shows you the date of your backups in a list, and you can select which one you want to open.

An alternative way is to open up iTunes preferences, click "Devices" (I think), and see the backups and their dates there.
The stuff you pull from the backup - even if outdated - will be better than nothing I suppose.

With regards to pulling photos and other data from the phone via USB - you will only be able to access Photos and AppStore app data. Contacts and other stuff is all protected under the root directory, which is not accessible unless you're jailbroken, sadly.
As another poster mentioned, a good way to browse your iPhone via USB is via iFunbox - http://www.i-funbox.com/ - which may provide a more user friendly way to get around your iPhone's files than the Windows explorer.


You will be able to recover contact data, etc from your extracted backups. I'm not sure how you would go about putting that contact data onto a new iPhone, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

[mclaren686]

So basically all of this stuff I'm fooling around with (tinyumbrella, recboot, etc.) is unnecessary and pointless?

[Feed Me]

Originally Posted by mclaren686

So basically all of this stuff I'm fooling around with (tinyumbrella, recboot, etc.) is unnecessary and pointless?

Nope, but now that you've tried them and they haven't worked, it's time to explore alternate avenues for rescuing your data. If you hadn't tried them, I would have advised you to use them in my first post.

[labman]

Wirelessly posted

People are trying to help you but your to scared to try there ideas. However if you would have done regular backups like you should have spared yourself the entire probmem. Am i missing something. I think funbox is a logical choice. Oh and who keeps 11 years of history on a 2 year old device. Backups are your friends.

[mclaren686]

Originally Posted by labman

Wirelessly posted

People are trying to help you but your to scared to try there ideas. However if you would have done regular backups like you should have spared yourself the entire probmem. Am i missing something. I think funbox is a logical choice. Oh and who keeps 11 years of history on a 2 year old device. Backups are your friends.

Actually, I'm at work for another hour so it's physically impossible for me to try their ideas at the moment. However, I'll be doing that when I get home. Yes I realize I would have fixed my "probmem" if I did backups. But here's the thing: I didn't. 11 Years is the sum of all the various phones I've had...I've transferred the data over to each new one, so it's very possible. Thanks for your super constructive and relevant advice anyway guy!

[ideal.dreams]

You can view the date of your last backup by opening iTunes, pressing CTRL+, if on Windows or CMD + , if on Mac. Go to the "Devices" tab at the top. It will list the backups of any device you've synced with iTunes. If it's recent, you're in luck .

Cheers.

[mclaren686]

iFunbox pulled my pictures, so I seriously can't thank you enough for that advice. Notes and contacts appear to be gone, but apparently I backed up in October '11. Before that, there was like a 2 year gap. Now when I get the new phone, can I use this backup file to restore my phone to its October '11 state? Does my new phone have to be a 3GS or can it be a 4 of some kind?

[Feed Me]

Hmmm in practice you're supposed to be able to stick backups from any device onto any other device - but since your 3GS was on 4.1 and your new phone will likely be running 5.1, iTunes will probably say the backup is incompatible.

There may be a way to get around this (I doubt the backups will physically be incompatible, iTunes spits the error out even when the backup is 0.0.1 versions old) - but again, I don't know a way around it off the top of my head, we'll just have to see what happens.

EDIT: Yeah I'm completely wrong

[biohead]

You SHOULD be alright to restore your backup, as your new device will almost certainly be higher than 4.1 It's when you try to restore a backup FROM a higher firmware that you get headaches.

[Feed Me]

Originally Posted by biohead

You SHOULD be alright to restore your backup, as your new device will almost certainly be higher than 4.1 It's when you try to restore a backup FROM a higher firmware that you get headaches.

Aw jeez, you're completely right.
I've been using iOS 5.1 betas and tried to restore down to 5.0.1, which gave me the error, and I've just confused myself.