Jesus I really could do with some expert advice on restoring!

[Crossy]

Hi all

I've just had an absolute nightmare with my iPhone4. It was jailbroken tethered at 4.3.5 with redsn0w, I tried to go to iOS5, fail with error 3149, I tried restoring back to 4.3.5 using the *shift* restore method... that restored the firmware, but on the very last step it failed, it wiped my device, failed to complete the restore, left me with unknown error (1) and a brick of an iPhone stuck in a loop, and me stressed to hell. Luckily, I found a post on here from a genius who advised on way to exit the loop, this got my phone back online... albeit wiped, iTunes then restored my backup from yesterday and sync'd successfully. I thought I was home and dry...

HOWEVER!

Thinking my phone was now back to factory defaults with no trace of jailbreak, I tried a normal iTunes update to iOS5, but I'm still getting the 3149 error. I tried the hosts redirect but still no joy. And bizarrely, even though it doesn't work or do anything, I still have a Cydia icon. My Safari won't open either.

Anyway, I have no intention or desire to jailbreak my phone ever again, I want all trace of it gone. But I still can't upgrade to iOS5. My question is...

Bearing in mind the last time I restored the firmware it failed at the last step and left me knackered, how on gods green earth do I get back to factory settings like it's just come out the box? I have 2 options I think:

1) In iTunes, click Restore "This will restore your device to factory settings and upgrade to the latest firmware". If I do this, I'm terrified it'll fail again at the last hurdle.
2) Do the *shift* restore and manually select a firmware IPSW. Again, terrified it'll start restoring, fail at the last step and leave me with an unbootable phone.

A proper dilemna. I'm so confused as to why I still have the cydia icon, this morning my phone was on a tethered only jailbreak but now I can reboot safely so it definately isn't currently jailbroken. I'm proper baffled!! Can anyone make any sense out of all this and advise me on whether it'd be safe or not to go through with the restore? I sort of kind of have no choice to be honest, it's either try it and quivver in fear or stay stuck on 4.3.5 for the rest of the phones life!

Any help GREATLY appreciated! Neil.

*EDIT* - Not sure if anyone will respond or even read this, but I took a punt and went for option 1, it failed with error 3200, tried again and subsequently I'm getting "an unknown error occurred (3173)". Unbelievably, there is absolutely NO internet hits for that exact error. I'm shocked, and indeed stunned.

*Further Edit* - It's all sorted now, I think. I took about 15-20 punts at a 'Restore' through iTunes and eventually it worked. Given that I've spent all my time since 6pm (its now 12:30am) trying to fix this, I'm too tired to be excited. But hopefully someone else with the same problem will read this and find it helpful.

 

[perrysrc]

Glad it worked most users been hours purely because of the number of people downloading so your not on your own being tired lol

 

[tritch24]

I've had the same exact problem. Jailbroke 4.3.5 with it directed to 4.3.4. All went well with jailbreak. I later tried to restore back to original stock 4.3.5. That's where it started. Unable to do that at all. Error after error. Would get a little over half way on the restore everytime then stop and error would pop up. Then it would go into a reboot cycle and I was stuck. I was able to get out using reb00t me. Yesterday I went to update to iOS 5 and it said that my device is not eligible for requested build. I'm in the same boat as you. What exactly have you done to get out of this? Please help.

 

[Crossy]

Hi mate. If you're in the same position as I was, you'll be un-jail broken at 4.3.5 with a working phone but when you update through iTunes you'll get the 3149 error? Before doing this I was able to restore my settings from a backup and sync with iTunes. But upgrade the OS wouldn't work.
Basically there was no choice for me, it was either take a punt or stay at 4.3.5 forever. I got out of it by using the 'restore' option in iTunes. This is the one where it says it's will return your device to factory settings then update with the latest firmware. It failed at the time dozens of times with the common 3200 and 3173 errors, but then it successfully went through after that. It wiped the device, upgraded the firmware, I had to then restore settings from a backup again an sync once ios5 was on. I didn't do this in DFU mode either, that didn't work. It was just plugged in with te cable and then 'restore'. Good luck mate.