Restore Needed message

[von]

My phone was working fine this morning, no bumps or drops, and then an hour later it's giving me a "restore needed" message. It's not bringing up the passcode screen to allow me to log in, only the emergency dial option. When I press the "i" icon for information it says this:

IMEI: Unknown
ICCID: Unknown

I just looked on Apple's site and it explains what I need to do but not WHY this happened. I've charged it and turned it on/off but the message is still there.

Does anyone know what has happened? I did a back up last week so I plan to restore that backup but I would like to research this first to figure out what may have happened to my phone.

Also, what happens when I restore? Does it restore to the factory settings and I then lose everything? After I do that restore, can then restore my previous backup and have all my data back on my phone? It's mostly the photos and my address book I'm concerned about.

UPDATE: I just tethered to my Macbook Pro to restore but I'm getting a message in itunes on the laptop saying I need to input my passcode on the phone in order to proceed. Problem is I can't access the passcode keyboard on the phone. Suggestions?


Cheers,
von

 

[reahn5678]

Reatore and set up as new. Because a restore from backup can bring back problems

 

[reahn5678]

Reatore and set up as new. Because a restore from backup can bring back problems

Restore*

 

[von]

I would love to restore - in any capacity - except itunes requires me to input my passcode, which I can't do because I can't access the passcode keyboard. Essentially, I am locked out of my phone. The only thing I can access is the emergency call function.

 

[bab2010]

I would love to restore - in any capacity - except itunes requires me to input my passcode, which I can't do because I can't access the passcode keyboard. Essentially, I am locked out of my phone. The only thing I can access is the emergency call function.

Put your iPhone in dfu mode and perform the restore.

 

[von]

just found that info after writing last message and it's in the process of doing that as I write this, thanks bab2010. Crossing my fingers it's not a hardware issue....

 

[von]

How long should a restore take? It's been at the very end of the firmware restoration stage for 30 minutes now....I had some apps but not a ton.

 

[bab2010]

How long should a restore take? It's been at the very end of the firmware restoration stage for 30 minutes now....I had some apps but not a ton.

It shouldn't take that much of time to factory restore the iOS, unless the factory restore is already done and now you are restoring your backup files.
If the factory restore is taking time then it could indicate an error, you might try to restart it over again. Make sure that your iTunes is up to date and that your computer is not running out of disk space and ram memory.