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iPhone Could Not Be Restored (Error 14)

lordofthereef

lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Original poster
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,721
Boston, MA
I realize there are a handful of error 14 threads, however my situation may be unique (to the threads I found).

My wife's phone randomly crashed. Completely. We managed to get it into DFU (plug into iTunes) mode. Every time I try and restore we get error 14.

Phone is/was NOT jailbroken.

Any thoughts?
 
try to take the battery out for 5-10 min then try again if you can't get the screw drivers at radio shack or pep boys for the t-4 torx then sorry can't help you anymore.
 
Chris7811 said:
try to take the battery out for 5-10 min then try again if you can't get the screw drivers at radio shack or pep boys for the t-4 torx then sorry can't help you anymore.
Click to expand...

Never taken one of these apart before but I guess there can be a first time for everything LOL.

The phone is insured, ironically just aded insurance to it two days ago... we get to decide if we want to drop $200 on it or just call it a loss and use the iPhone 5S she hasn't been using. THATS IS, OF COURSE, IF IT DOESN;T WORK.
 
A couple of weeks ago my daughter's iPhone 4 stopped charging from any source then went into a reboot loop. I put it into DFU then experienced the same 'error 14' message.

I established that it wasn't a USB bus/cable problem. My next step was to remove the battery (last known charge around 6%, so I guessed it was running on fumes after spending half an hour cycling through reboots) and replace it with another I had to hand.

This solved the problem and allowed me to restore. I subsequently swapped batteries again and the iPhone charged up normally. What I don't know is whether simply disconnecting and reconnecting the battery would have achieved the same result.

You don't mention the model of iPhone (or it's warranty status!) but my suggestion would be...
a) leave it plugged into an outlet overnight using your most trusted plug/cable combo, then try the restore again and if that doesn't work...
b) disconnect/reconnect the battery and try again

Feel free to skip to 'b' if you've got the tools to hand...

EDIT: not updated to reflect further info :)
 
It's an iPhone 5 and was just out of warranty this past Decemeber (well, Apple).

It's a Verizon phone; she has a concessions line through Best Buy (that she pays for I think $45 per month for unlimited talk/text/2gb data). We swapped her over to AT&T three days ago (myself and my mother had been on a 21% fan through my wife's work for many years now) because the new data share plan meant that we saved about $45 per month overall this way. She had to buy her phones outright (or pick from a limited selection of phones to upgrade from, none of which were iPhones), so it didn't make sense to keep the concessions line any longer; the line USED to be amazing giving unlimited EVERYTHING, including data, for $15/month. :eek:

I mention all of this because AT&T was also offering open enrollment for insurance, and she decided to take it. Here we are three days later and... phone is dead (potentially). It's $200 to have it replaced through them. Not sure if it's worth the $200 or if we just want to go with the Next program. The latter will be a different of about $190 over one year...

I believe I have all the tools to take it apart, as far as screw drivers. Just slightly worried about doing obvious damage to it. What about removing the glass? Is the battery soldered? I guess I could just look up a video haha!
 
Last edited:
Taking it apart look pretty easy. Unfortunately I don't have a suction cup or a case removal tool. Would wing it, but don't want to irreparably destroy the thing.

Any stores that would have this (namely the plastic prying tools)?
 
Well, it as fun taking my first 5 apart. Left it while I went to the gym (I know you mentioned 15 minutes but I didn't want to wait around). Just put it back together and it goes right to the iTunes screen.

I will leave it charging overnight and see if that changes anything. Not too hopeful currently.

----------

By the way, is there a way to read the serial number to check for things like warranty? iTunes just says "n/a"
 
T5BRICK said:
That may have been true in the past, but I don't believe it is true for the 5. I do not have a serial number on the sim tray of my 5s.
Click to expand...

Yep, no serial/imei number on the sim tray (iPhone 5). Of course the IMEI is on the back of the phone.
 
Applejuiced said:
That's correct.
I guess the changed it on newer iPhones.
My i5 has the serial on the back plate. Does the 5S do too?
Click to expand...

My 5s doesn't have a serial number on the back, but it does have the IMEI number. If you enter that number into the warranty check on the Apple site(even though the field is labeled "hardware serial number:"), it'll bring up your warranty status.
 
Warranty expired.

Popped the phone open. Didn't seem to help. I let the battery sit "unplugged" for a while, plugged it back in, restore error 14. I also figured I would try retiring without the battery plugged in at all. Error 2001

eclipse01 said:
was it jailbroken?

is it pointing to apple servers?
Click to expand...

It wasn't ever jailbroken. It should be pointing to Apple servers, yes.

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Ajones330 said:
Try using a USB hub for the restore. I've seen that work...
Click to expand...

no dice
 
Someone snapped it up within an hour of me listing it for $250. Met on my lunch break and got it over with.

I did promise to extend the courtesy of meeting up with him again, should he get it fixed and should the phone require an Apple ID to run a full restore.

He seemed very happy with the price, even despite the fact the phone had a small crack in the pup right glass (mind you a clean crack from edge to edge in the very corner, but still).

Wife is now back on the Gold 5S she "had to have" on launch day. Babying that thing like it's nobody's business lol.

----------
Applejuiced said:
Its actually going to cost $269 for a replacement from Apple. But its an i5 so I'd get it either fixed or sell it as is on ebay or CL.
Click to expand...

I was referring to Asurion replacing it.

A handful of people had luck getting their phones replaced with a 5S on Asurion. Part of me thought about just taking the gamble, but being that we had a better replacement phone already, didn't really want to take the gamble of dropping $200 and likely getting a 5 back.

We threw insurance onto my wife's 5S, so I am happy with that I guess.
 
Applejuiced said:
Cool.
Looks like it worked out great.
Click to expand...

Eh. Maybe lol. He was able to fix it. I had to meet again after work to get the iCloud lock off (as I promised). I asked him what he did. He said he added it to a work line and Verizon was just able to restore it for him. Seems strange, but whatever. Wish I knew what he did so I could at least share here. Oh well.
 
Applejuiced said:
Weird.
How could he add it to a work line if its activation locked with icloud? Verizon restored for him?
Click to expand...

He hadn't added it yet. He needed me to meet him and unlock it (which I could obviously do since I had the info). He said Verizon was able to restore it, but that they didn't do anything special to his knowledge. How I was unable to restore it on two different machines after even disassembling it once remains a mystery.

I feel like he had more info and just wasn't saying; he was obviously happy to drop $250 on the phone. Why he didn't want to tell me is beyond me.
 
lordofthereef said:
Someone snapped it up within an hour of me listing it for $250.
Click to expand...
Not a bad outcome; at least you didn't destroy it on my advice :)

I find it strange that there's no proven troubleshoot/fix information out there for iPhone error codes, just lots of vague, half-baked theories which work for some but not for others. I don't think there's a single Macintosh computer Apple Service Manual that hasn't escaped Infinity Loop, which makes me wonder if The Bumper Book Of iPhones even exists...
 
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