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Try using redsn0w to kick the device out of recovery mode.

Awesome, thanks! Is there a certain version/link I need to use for redsn0w? I haven't done any jailbreaking in a couple of years but did use redsn0w for one of my jailbreaks a few years back. Doubt I still have the software though or if so if it would even still be current.
 
8.0.2 bricked iPhone 5

iTunes is a well thought out and well tested app. I love it dearly. Especially how it catches errors and plays well with MP3 files.
 
James the original downloads of iOS8 took 12 hours, its not your connection speed that's the issue its the overload on Apple servers.

In my opinion you should always have a computer with iTunes if you buy an iPhone/iPad. I really don't understand the iTunes hatred, I'ce been using it for years (7?) and it works well. You need iTunes for backup and to be honest it makes the most sense to update software/apps via it. It's not uncommon for something to go wrong with the download over WiFi and that causes the problems with the phone.

BTW bricked means you cannot restore it at all. Your brothers phone isn't bricked it needs to be restored.
 
James the original downloads of iOS8 took 12 hours, its not your connection speed that's the issue its the overload on Apple servers.

In my opinion you should always have a computer with iTunes if you buy an iPhone/iPad. I really don't understand the iTunes hatred, I'ce been using it for years (7?) and it works well. You need iTunes for backup and to be honest it makes the most sense to update software/apps via it. It's not uncommon for something to go wrong with the download over WiFi and that causes the problems with the phone.

BTW bricked means you cannot restore it at all. Your brothers phone isn't bricked it needs to be restored.

I'm glad to hear evidence of other people having such profoundly long download issues rather than just ignorant "OMG itz y3r crApPY cOmputAHHzzzz fault!!11one" statements.

I have always disliked iTunes (at least on PC - I've never owned a Mac) and have stated as much on this forum several times in the past with previous issues with it. Perhaps I have just never totally understood its quirks but it has ALWAYS given me problems. Whether it's randomly erasing crap, randomly putting crap back on my phone that I don't want, randomly sticking my brother's crap on my phone, randomly erroring out, etc. I was overjoyed about the OTA updates Apple started doing a few years back. For a company like Apple that everything "just works", iTunes (at least on the PC) has always seemed to me to be, at best, a cumbersome nuisance.

Just imagine the millions who own iPhones now and don't even have a computer, let alone iTunes. IMO there should never be a situation in 2014 which requires you to physically hook your phone up to a computer to fix an error like this.

And yes I realize it's not truly bricked. Almost no iPhones are truly bricked. Just like all the 8.0.1 issues weren't truly bricked. But it's the figure of speech all too commonly used now to indicate "unusable in its current state". :p
 
Join the frustrated crowd!

My brother's iTunes saga just finished "extracting" and now of course it's saying "The iPhone could not be restored. The device cannot be found."

I'll have to screw with it tonight with DFU and whatnot. Though I'm nearly positive we put it into DFU mode prior to starting the iTunes saga.

2 people is not a crowd.
 
2 people is not a crowd.

And likewise, the recognition that a figure of speech need not be literal is apparently not a universal human trait. Who knew!

If an Apple store is reasonably close, make an appointment with the Genius Bar. That way, you won't have to put up with this continuing saga.

We'll head to the Apple store if we must but try to avoid that madhouse at all costs.

I'll report back later tonight about how the redsn0w trick works out.
 
With all due respect anyone who refuses to use iTunes shouldn't be owning and using iOS devices in the first place. As for iTunes itself it's far from rubbish. I've been using it since 2007 and have never had any major problems or issues with it. It works great and makes owning, using and managing iOS devices so much easier.
 
With all due respect anyone who refuses to use iTunes shouldn't be owning and using iOS devices in the first place. As for iTunes itself it's far from rubbish. I've been using it since 2007 and have never had any major problems or issues with it. It works great and makes owning, using and managing iOS devices so much easier.

iTunes works well on a Mac. But, when it comes to Windows, the experience (for many, many people) is not as robust.
 
2 hours to download the software update? Man. It's been downloading for nearly an hour now and still has 75 minutes remaining. This is on a 30mbps connection too.

Most alarming of all is that every 15 minutes or so iTunes pops back up with the "iTunes has detected a phone in recovery mode" message and says to click restore even though it's already in the middle of the process.

The Yosemite Dev Preview 7 + iTunes 12 issue gave me the same problem when I went to update my 5s to the GM build. Just keep clicking okay until the download is done. It might pop up a few more times.
 
Not sure about Windows, but on my Mac, I was able to disconnect the phone while the download was taking place. I connected only when it was needed.

BTW their servers are slow today as well. I was trying to access the Apple Store for an iPad case and it took so long that it almost timed out.
 
Does anybody know if we disconnect the phone and/or play around with the DFU settings on it to try to get iTunes to recognize the phone, would iTunes for any reason attempt to RE-DOWNLOAD and/or extract the software again (thus setting the stage for another multi-hour endeavor) once the phone is re-connected?
 
Was his phone jail broken?

No it wasn't jailbroken

To update this thread I got home from work and tried to download redsn0w. Couldn't find a seemingly legit download anywhere. Downloaded something from redsn0w.us which tried to install some browser and made my virus protection flip the F out so I nixed that. Tried to download stuff from iClarified and the dev blog deal and neither of those were good so I gave up.

Kept screwing with DFU mode and closing iTunes and trying different USB ports and all would "extract" for 5 or 10 minutes and then at the end give the "The iPhone could not be restored.." message. Thankfully it never had to re-download the actual firmware again. Interesting that it extracted all night last night but tonight the extractions were only taking 5-10 minutes. We kept doing it over and over and miraculously it eventually finally went through and restored just fine. Go figure.

And in keeping with my iTunes hate it promptly named HIS phone MY phone name and tried to sync his phone to my iTunes account - even though this was a brand new clean install of iTunes and I have ZERO phone data on that computer. That computer has been totally reformatted and wiped since the last time my iPhone has physically been connected to iTunes. That's the exact kind of iTunes BS that makes no sense to me.

But thankfully all is well now.
 
2 hours to download the software update? Man. It's been downloading for nearly an hour now and still has 75 minutes remaining. This is on a 30mbps connection too.

Most alarming of all is that every 15 minutes or so iTunes pops back up with the "iTunes has detected a phone in recovery mode" message and says to click restore even though it's already in the middle of the process.

I had this same issue and the guys at Apple Support tell me whatever you do, do NOT click OK. Just ignore the message. Otherwise it confuses itself. Supposedly if your internet connection is fast enough, it will eventually finish 'processing file' and the progress bar will disappear and you will see just the Apple logo; at this point click OK and restore and it should begin to extract the software.

The downside is that if there are error messages that are going to appear, like that you've lost connection to the server, they will appear UNDER the iPhone in recovery mode message. I gave up a few times, clicked OK and that's what I found.

In the end I'd had enough so even though it still said processing file, after about 90 minutes of that I clicked OK and when I hit restore again to start the download, it seems it had finished processing as the extraction started. Still had a few more glitches to iron out but the point is, don't be tempted to click OK every time that recovery message appears- other than the first time when you've first plugged you phone into the computer.

Took me 40 hours and about 15 attempts to restore my phone after iOS 8 refused to install and dumped it into recovery mode. Never again will I try to update via iTunes.
 
Took me 40 hours and about 15 attempts to restore my phone after iOS 8 refused to install and dumped it into recovery mode. Never again will I try to update via iTunes.

Wow! 40 hours! And I thought we had it rough. I still maintain iTunes at least on PC is trash despite a lot of people here having zero issues with it and swearing by it. Not to mention the ones here trying to blame POS iTunes on the computers themselves. Glad you finally got it to work!
 
Just adding to the thread....

8.0.2 broke cellular service on my iPhone 5. Plugging into iTunes, a message appeared saying the phone was in recovery mode. After jumping through hoops for about 40 minutes, the end result was just completely erasing and restoring my phone.

I feel for those w/out a computer that run into this. I'm 3 hours from the nearest Apple Store. The thought of a 6 hour round-trip drive just to get a functioning phone is disappointing. This process should not be this difficult.
 
Took me 40 hours and about 15 attempts to restore my phone after iOS 8 refused to install and dumped it into recovery mode. Never again will I try to update via iTunes.
Glad you got this sorted int he end, in my opinion it is better to upgrade via iTunes - the OTA is more troublesome.

James glad you got yours sorted too. I think Apple underestimated the download volumes and/or their servers are not able to cope with the huge demand. I think one lesson here is that upgrading immediately/soon after the release is more risky than waiting a week or so. My girlfriend updated her iPad ok but the iPhone 5 required a restore, this has certainly not been the smoothest release.
 
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