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5S Infinite Boot w/ Blue Screen (restored)

mightygitis

mightygitis

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 3, 2011
271
0
Hampton Roads
*face palm*

I have never started a thread here. Mainly because its always so busy and there's often current threads already about topics I would post about. But I'm in the middle of restoring my week old Silver 32gig 5S because it got stuck in a boot loop after installing an app.

I've never had a spinning load loop I couldn't hard reset my way out of. But all a hard reset did was initiate the loop again. Apple logo. A couple minutes of the spinning wheel. Then a disturbing blue glitchy looking screen before it starts over.

Got out of bed (work in 6 hours and counting, gonna be tired tomorrow). I was supposed to have been asleep already but was browsing for new apps. Plugged my phone still looping into the computer. iTunes recognized it but shows all the data as "other". Tried to restore from my back up from just 6 hours ago and am told I can't because the phone is locked with a pass code.

Gonna be awfully had to unlock the code on a phone that can't load the lock or fingerprint scan.

So then I remember recovery mode! So I do the hard reset for the umpteenth time and hold the home button and plug it back in.

Success! It enters recovery mode and shows the linked to iTunes screen (pictured). A message pops on the computer saying the phone is in recovery mode and to restore it to use it!

Won't let me recover to my recovery spot though. Wants me to RESTORE it and first it is making me download the current version of iOS to iTunes.

So I'm currently waiting *checks* 32 more minutes for iTunes to download 7.0.2 so I can attempt a restore and then I can recover my backup from iCloud.

I hope.

hy4eva4y.jpg


(PS I'm using my 4 on wifi while I'm doing this and it feels archaic after a week on 5S. But this phone never did THIS to me)
 
Last edited:
You should be fine. If you got it to mount in into recovery mode and iTunes recognized it, it was some sort of software bug.

In before using the word "bricked" flame war.

Bummer about the restore.
 
Bricked 5S (working on restore)

What word should I use I will change it?

13 minutes till download complete. Phone dropped out of recovery mode and back into the loop after a few minutes. So I'm going to wait till the download is complete and then link it back in recovery mode for restore. Caught a pic of the blue screen. Sometimes it has red splotches or is half blue and half black.

ygy2yryt.jpg
 
justiny said:
Check out this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1641666/

I don't know if this would help you in your situation, but what you described sounds similar to what a few others are experiencing.
Click to expand...

Ah so others have glimpsed the blue screen. Looks like I'm the only one getting the stuck rebooting loop though.

Restored all content and setting using recovery mode on iTunes. Went through set up again and it's now restoring from the icloud back up I made before updating earlier (loss of 6 hours of data, so just some texts maybe and recent calls).

This has been stressful but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
 
And I have my phone back. Still downloading some of the apps. But all my personal stuff is there. And I'm posting this from it.

u3etygu2.jpg
 
Reflections the morning after:

I'm feeling much relieved this morning. Last night I set my phone to sync to iTunes so it could transfer back the pictures, music, and tones from my PC and woke up this morning to a fully restored and working 5S.

Now, though, I would really like to know what triggered it. I don't THINK it was the app that was downloading because I haven't seen anyone else have the same experience. I checked the reviews and everything.

I'm worried it will happen again and I guess until enough time passes I stop really worrying I will just be the most back-up happy iPhone user ever.
 
mightygitis said:
Oh no! Are you doing okay with it? I panicked for like 30 minutes before pulling myself together and starting to fix it.
Click to expand...

Learned about DFU restore (never had to do it before) and am in the middle of trying that. It's downloading 7.0.2 with 5 minutes to go on my hotel wifi. Fourth attempt. If this doesn't do the trick, I'm going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow at work as my phone is crucial and time is extra precious when on the road.
 
iArch said:
Learned about DFU restore (never had to do it before) and am in the middle of trying that. It's downloading 7.0.2 with 5 minutes to go on my hotel wifi. Fourth attempt. If this doesn't do the trick, I'm going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow at work as my phone is crucial and time is extra precious when on the road.
Click to expand...

This was the only thing that worked for me. And I was so happy to see that welcome splash screen that meant my brick was a phone again.

What were you doing just before the loop started?
 
mightygitis said:
This was the only thing that worked for me. And I was so happy to see that welcome splash screen that meant my brick was a phone again.

What were you doing just before the loop started?
Click to expand...

Nothing. It was charging on the nightstand. Woke up in the middle of the night remembering something I needed to do, grabbed it, tapped the home button and instead of coming to life, it started into the endless loop you describe above. The firmware finally downloaded and the phone is currently restoring. I hope it works, but as much as I rely on a phone on the road, I have to admit that my confidence is wounded.
 
iArch said:
Nothing. It was charging on the nightstand. Woke up in the middle of the night remembering something I needed to do, grabbed it, tapped the home button and instead of coming to life, it started into the endless loop you describe above. The firmware finally downloaded and the phone is currently restoring. I hope it works, but as much as I rely on a phone on the road, I have to admit that my confidence is wounded.
Click to expand...

Mine was charging too when it happened but I was awake and in it. Apple cord or third party?

My confidence too is rattled. As I said I shall be back up happy for a long time.
 
mightygitis said:
What word should I use I will change it?

13 minutes till download complete. Phone dropped out of recovery mode and back into the loop after a few minutes. So I'm going to wait till the download is complete and then link it back in recovery mode for restore. Caught a pic of the blue screen. Sometimes it has red splotches or is half blue and half black.

Image
Click to expand...

Reading ur post and glimpsing the picture, I thought I had stumbled into an Android
Forum.#. I'm glad this situation is rare for Apple.
 
I had this happen a few nights ago while downloading a app also. No blue screen but a constant reboot for two hours. Talked to Apple support which was great and stayed on the phone with me for a additional hour or so and got it working again. Man I was worried for a bit because I was taking my kids to disney the next day and rally wanted to use the camera. He recommend to not restore from a backup so that's what I did. So far so good. Seems like a software glitch.

My post. https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18005340#post18005340
 
mightygitis said:
Mine was charging too when it happened but I was awake and in it. Apple cord or third party?

My confidence too is rattled. As I said I shall be back up happy for a long time.
Click to expand...

Apple charging cable. All the same charging equip I've used reliably with my iPhone 5 and iPad 4. Fortunately I've long been a backup happy old guy. :D

Restore is plugging along. Copying apps now. Fingers crossed.
 
mightygitis said:
Crossing mine for you too.
Click to expand...

Thanks! So far so good. It eventually restored fine last night and ran reliably all day today. Stopped by the Apple Store in Santa Clara at lunch. Had to return something else anyway, so I mentioned what the phone did overnight to the nice folks helping me and one of the employees said he's seen what we're describing. Of course the phone was working fine in the store, so I'm just gonna keep an eye on it and the forums for the time being. Hopefully it was just a software glitch from the first restore as a new phone.
 
Just thought I'd post an update to say that the phone's been perfect since the restore a couple of days ago, and it's been used plenty. So unless anything changes, I'm chalking this up to a software glitch from the first restore from backup when new.
 
mightygitis said:
Ah so others have glimpsed the blue screen. Looks like I'm the only one getting the stuck rebooting loop though.

Restored all content and setting using recovery mode on iTunes. Went through set up again and it's now restoring from the icloud back up I made before updating earlier (loss of 6 hours of data, so just some texts maybe and recent calls).

This has been stressful but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Click to expand...

I had the same reboot loop happen to me this morning. I had to put into DFU and kept getting error after error, until it finally restored on 7.0.2. As I never had this problem on 7.0, I then did an option restore to go to 7.0 (I had an actually copy of it downloaded from the apple mirrors) until this gets resolved. Hopefully, 7.0.3 helps to fix this. For now, I'm staying on 7.0.

I should note, I am using AT&T iPhone 5.
 
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^ My boot loop did occur after the update to 7.0.2 but since restoring I've been on 7.0.2 and haven't seen the blue screen since. *knocks on wood*
 
After dropping back on 7.0 for most of the day today, I have to say that everything seems to be working fine. It seems like its a software bug, and that it (for me anyways) was prevalent in the 7.0.2 software. I'll update on any changes in a couple of days. (Luckily it seems Apple was still signing 7.0 for now)
 
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