iOS9 beta 2 stuck in reboot cycle

[RadicalxEdward]

Before we start, I have NO BACKUP of my phone. I had a recent hard drive failure and was already locked out of my old account. I can't backup my phone because I can't backup my paid apps under my old account.

My phone kept bugging me about updating, and I've never had a problem with updates before even with betas (despite knowing the risk involved) so i did. It restarted as part of the normal process, but now never gets past the apple logo. iTunes says the connection times out several times before the phone restarts again. When it restarts, the logo fades as a red horizontal line flashes across a random part of the screen (like old CRT tv's)

Is there any way to fix this without completely wiping my phone? Even a way to just get the physical data off in case I can ever put the apps back on.

I'm attempting to "update" to iOS 9.2.1 fingers VERY crossed.

iTunes: 12.3.2.25
iPhone: 4S
iOS: 9.3b2 (from 9.3b1)

 

[RadicalxEdward]

I updated to 9.2.1 because iTunes said it would leave my apps/content alone on my phone unless the update failed and the phone had to be restored. The update got stuck at one point (for hours) and I had to restart my phone. But after doing so the update finished. I have no (through various apple update/website f ups) lost ALL PAID CONTENT regardless of whether I have physical backups of the files. I can no longer access the account they were bought with, and both devices (iPhone 4S and Macbook Pro) have died and had to be restored. So now I'm just out several hundred dollars. Of which I won't be able to replace for probably a few years with my financial situation. Thanks apple.

I love apple stuff when it works. But when it doesn't, it really doesn't. I think this might be the last straw to push me to drop apple stuff. If i have to rebuy everything I've ever owned anyway.

 

[stooovie]

Why can't you no longer access the account?

 

[blindside217]

I had a similar problem updating from 9.3b1 to 9.3b2 OTA. I had never got around to updating to 9.3b1.1 which may have been part of the problem. This is on a 6s Plus. It got to a boot loop and did the same thing you mentioned with the random horizontal lines for a second. I put it in to Recovery Mode and tried to (Option key)update to 9.3b2 with the IPSW and it seemed to complete on the iTunes side but the iPhone went back to the boot loop. I then did the (Option key)update to the 9.3b1.1 IPSW and that brought it back to life with all of my data intact still. I later tried the 9.3b2 OTA again from b1.1 this time and it did the exact same thing with the boot loop. I Option Updated back to b1.1 and it is fine again. I think I will wait for b3 before I try again.

 

[Armen]

I think this might be the last straw to push me to drop apple stuff.

Let me get this straight:

- You had a hard drive failure and do not have any backups (which is your responsibility)
- You no longer have access to your old Apple ID (which is your responsibility)
- You have beta versions of iOS installed (which is your responsibility)

You're irresponsible when it comes to technology. You should work on that a little before just blaming Apple. If you had backups and had access to your old accounts you wouldn't be in this situation. Just saying

 

[RadicalxEdward]

Let me get this straight:

- You had a hard drive failure and do not have any backups (which is your responsibility)
- You no longer have access to your old Apple ID (which is your responsibility)
- You have beta versions of iOS installed (which is your responsibility)

You're irresponsible when it comes to technology. You should work on that a little before just blaming Apple. If you had backups and had access to your old accounts you wouldn't be in this situation. Just saying

- You had a hard drive failure and do not have any backups (which is your responsibility)
I didn't say I lost my hard drive data. I still had the data itself, but that didn't do me any good. It was a faulty OS update (which apple eventually corrected) which led to the drive failure. Once that happened, despite being able to restore my system, I couldn't restore my computer being authorized by my old iTunes account. The weak link here was Apple's update, not anything I did.

- You no longer have access to your old Apple ID (which is your responsibility)
I no longer have access to it because of a malfunction of Apple's two-step verification sign-up process. I signed up soon after they started offering two-step verification. I was never shown my recovery key (i'm aware they don't email it, they show it to you and you're supposed to write it down) and despite requesting my iPhone be set as a trusted device, it failed to be set as such (by apple) so therefor i could never regain entry to my account. I still had my password. But without a trusted device and/or my recovery key (that again, i was never given to begin with) that was impossible.

For a while, it wasn't a huge deal. It only locked me out of iCloud.com. But then once I had the drive failure from the OS update, my computer was no longer authorized. So even though I still have all the apps sitting in my Mobile Applications folder, I can't sync them because my iTunes isn't authorized with the old account anymore. Again, not my fault and there's nothing i could have done to prevent it aside from not trying to turn on two-factor authentication.

And last but not least...
- You have beta versions of iOS installed (which is your responsibility)
Yes, I did have a beta installed. But the issue wasn't a big deal because of it being a beta. It could have been a normal release and the same thing could have happened and it still would have been a big deal because of the fact that once I had to reinstall iOS, my phone would no longer be authorized with my old account either, meaning I'd completely lost access to my old apps despite having all the data sitting on my computer.

And before you go blaming me for anything, this exact sort of issue happens to hundreds of people who either have to set up new accounts for whatever reason (account hacking, fires, meteors, whatever) and anyone who moves from one country to another. When trying to fix this I found tons of people complaining about how they moved from one country to another, had to change their account to the new country and lost access to all their old apps. Apple has set up a system in which it's not all that difficult to need a new account or to make a major change to an existing account that locks you out of your previous purchases, with no way to restore them under a new country or new account. If you ask me, that's kinda f'ed up for paid content. Especially digital content, where it wouldn't make any difference to them if they let you redownload an app under the new account.

 

[Armen]

- You had a hard drive failure and do not have any backups (which is your responsibility)
I didn't say I lost my hard drive data. I still had the data itself, but that didn't do me any good. It was a faulty OS update (which apple eventually corrected) which led to the drive failure. Once that happened, despite being able to restore my system, I couldn't restore my computer being authorized by my old iTunes account. The weak link here was Apple's update, not anything I did.

- You no longer have access to your old Apple ID (which is your responsibility)
I no longer have access to it because of a malfunction of Apple's two-step verification sign-up process. I signed up soon after they started offering two-step verification. I was never shown my recovery key (i'm aware they don't email it, they show it to you and you're supposed to write it down) and despite requesting my iPhone be set as a trusted device, it failed to be set as such (by apple) so therefor i could never regain entry to my account. I still had my password. But without a trusted device and/or my recovery key (that again, i was never given to begin with) that was impossible.

For a while, it wasn't a huge deal. It only locked me out of iCloud.com. But then once I had the drive failure from the OS update, my computer was no longer authorized. So even though I still have all the apps sitting in my Mobile Applications folder, I can't sync them because my iTunes isn't authorized with the old account anymore. Again, not my fault and there's nothing i could have done to prevent it aside from not trying to turn on two-factor authentication.

And last but not least...
- You have beta versions of iOS installed (which is your responsibility)
Yes, I did have a beta installed. But the issue wasn't a big deal because of it being a beta. It could have been a normal release and the same thing could have happened and it still would have been a big deal because of the fact that once I had to reinstall iOS, my phone would no longer be authorized with my old account either, meaning I'd completely lost access to my old apps despite having all the data sitting on my computer.

And before you go blaming me for anything, this exact sort of issue happens to hundreds of people who either have to set up new accounts for whatever reason (account hacking, fires, meteors, whatever) and anyone who moves from one country to another. When trying to fix this I found tons of people complaining about how they moved from one country to another, had to change their account to the new country and lost access to all their old apps. Apple has set up a system in which it's not all that difficult to need a new account or to make a major change to an existing account that locks you out of your previous purchases, with no way to restore them under a new country or new account. If you ask me, that's kinda f'ed up for paid content. Especially digital content, where it wouldn't make any difference to them if they let you redownload an app under the new account.

I understand the complexity of the situation but you are not taking any responsibility for any of it an just blaming Apple's software update.

Why didn't you fix the iTunes account access problem prior to doing the update? If you had you wouldn't have been in this situation. you'd have access to your backups and would have been able to restore.

The License agreement on Beta updates even say to make sure you have backups.

 

[RadicalxEdward]

I understand the complexity of the situation but you are not taking any responsibility for any of it an just blaming Apple's software update.

Why didn't you fix the iTunes account access problem prior to doing the update? If you had you wouldn't have been in this situation. you'd have access to your backups and would have been able to restore.

The License agreement on Beta updates even say to make sure you have backups.

You don't seem to understand why i blame apple and I don't understand why you insist on blaming me. I did try to fix the account access problem the moment my iphone wasn't set as a trusted device when i setup two-factor authentication. But once you set it up, you can't log in to your account again without the trusted device or recovery key. So from then on I was locked out. I've tried since then to find ways to regain access. I had iphone backups, but that didn't give me access to the account. I get a popup asking me for the recovery key. I didn't fix it before the update because it's not possible to fix.

If you know a way to get back in to my account i would absolutely love to hear it and I will admit full responsibility for everything that happened. But considering I did what I could to solve and prevent the problems (aside from turning on two-factor authentication in the first place) I don't feel I did anything wrong or could have done anything better.

 

[Armen]

You don't seem to understand why i blame apple and I don't understand why you insist on blaming me. I did try to fix the account access problem the moment my iphone wasn't set as a trusted device when i setup two-factor authentication. But once you set it up, you can't log in to your account again without the trusted device or recovery key. So from then on I was locked out. I've tried since then to find ways to regain access. I had iphone backups, but that didn't give me access to the account. I get a popup asking me for the recovery key. I didn't fix it before the update because it's not possible to fix.

If you know a way to get back in to my account i would absolutely love to hear it and I will admit full responsibility for everything that happened. But considering I did what I could to solve and prevent the problems (aside from turning on two-factor authentication in the first place) I don't feel I did anything wrong or could have done anything better.

I don't use 2 step verification but from what I gathered searching is that Apple needs a SMS enabled trusted device to send a code to. Since your iPhone is down can't you pop your SIM card into another phone get the code there since the phone number hasn't changed?

All you need to do is get access to ITunes and put your iPhone into DFU mode and restore.

 

[RadicalxEdward]

I don't use 2 step verification but from what I gathered searching is that Apple needs a SMS enabled trusted device to send a code to. Since your iPhone is down can't you pop your SIM card into another phone get the code there since the phone number hasn't changed?

All you need to do is get access to ITunes and put your iPhone into DFU mode and restore.

This is probably why my phone was never set as a trusted device. Back when I signed up it never said anything about a trusted device needing to be able to receive SMS's. I haven't had a cellular plan on my iPhone for a long time. I use a dumb phone for my once in a blue moon SMS texting/calling which while it can receive sms, isn't an apple device and my iPhone wouldn't be able to receive SMSs. But considering iPads, iPods and macs can't receive SMS's either, you'd think there would be another method with which they could send a verification code or something.

But either way, once i setup 2-step I was locked out of the account. So I can't go back and add a new trusted device whether or not i can receive SMSs on my iphone now. In order to add a new trusted device I'd have to be able to log into my apple account, which i can't do without a recovery key. It always goes back to needing that key. And unless i can find some way to brute force crack it (doubt it) I'll never have it. They do use a specific number of characters (12 I think, can't remember), all of which are alpha-numeric (no symbols) and are all caps and to my knowledge no more than 2 characters repeat in a row. So theoretically it could be cracked without taking a billion years, but i don't have the skills to automate that.