iPhone 4 recovery mode loop and error 21

[rsanta]

READ BEFORE YOU POST PLEASE

2 weeks ago my phone put itself into recovery mode and would not restore. A day later i took it to my verizon store and they said to take it to an apple store which i then did. At the apple store they looked at my phone for 2 minutes before saying buy a new one. Not liking the sketchiness of the situation i left the store with my unworking phone. I went home and attempted to restore and my phone worked and was fully functional for a few hours before it put itself into recovery mode again. I went through a process over and over of restoring it using it for minimal time only to see it go back into recovery mode. After a week i could not get my phone out of recovery mode and received an error code 21. I then put my phone away for a week to only to take it out yesterday, attempt to restore and have it work flawlessly and fully functional for 17 hours or so. Now my phone is back into recovery mode and i am getting error 21. I have tried numerous things from tinyumbrella to ifaith to ireb. I know that my phone is not a brick because i have seen it work flawlessly since it has been put into this loop of going into recovery. I am now again stuck with error 21 and cannot restore, i am having more than a headache of trouble trying to get this to work again and refuse to buy a new phone because this one can and has worked sicne ive been told it wont ever turn on again. Looking for some help, appreciate everyones input


EDIT: While attempting to restore regularly I get error 21. While restoring when it is in pwned dfu mode and an ISPW i receive error 1601.

 

[Thomasjtsi]

Prior to all this happening... were you running a stock iOS version, or a custom iOS version for Unlocking purposes?

 

[willerz2]

Make sure that iTunes is patching through to Apple rather than Cydia. Then restore your device using Pwned DFU mode instead of regular DFU.

On top of what Thomas said, you'll most likely need to go into pwned DFU if you're installing a custom IPSW

 

[rsanta]

stock ios

 

[rsanta]

Make sure that iTunes is patching through to Apple rather than Cydia. Then restore your device using Pwned DFU mode instead of regular DFU.

What do you mean patching through to apple rather than cydia?

 

[Thomasjtsi]

The reason I ask if it's on a stock or custom IPSW.... Error 21 almost always come from a Custom IPSW restoration fail.

 

[rsanta]

I haven't done any modification for it to have a custom IPSW, and honestly I do not know what an IPSW is.

 

[willerz2]

IPSW is the file extension for certain apple software, usually linked with the iOS files. Make sure you're downloading the proper iOS and that it's clean. Remove any apple related IPs from your host files and redownload the iOS through the iOS download sticky in this forum

 

[Thomasjtsi]

I haven't done any modification for it to have a custom IPSW, and honestly I do not know what an IPSW is.

Ok then... that's definitey not what's going on then. LOL!!!

 

[rsanta]

Any clue what it would be or how to attempt to solve the problem then?

 

[rsanta]

I would settle for an answer of "just get a new phone" if I hadn't have had this phone working multiple times after going into recovery on random. I know that theres some way to fix

 

[willerz2]

Try the pwned DFU method and restoring again and test it out

 

[rsanta]

Try the pwned DFU method and restoring again and test it out

Using which of the programs that i have would you suggest?

 

[Thomasjtsi]

Short of a fresh restore via iTunes... I have no idea of a different solution.

 

[Thomasjtsi]

And you know, of course, the only iOS version you'll be able to restore to is 6.0. That is unless you SHSH's saved... or have been Jailbroken over the past year.