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When I connect my iPhone 5 to iTunes, it gets stuck at the iTunes logo. When I try to restore or recover, it goes fine till around 60%. Then it tells me, “iPhone could not be restored unknown error 1.” My phone has never been jailbroken. Also, I couldn’t get it into DFU mode. Please help.

Hello! I was tried more than 10 times to restore, in recovery mode and DFU mode but no success! Error 1 My phone was not under warranty and i have nothing to lose… I opened it, cleaned the motherboard with isopropyl and heating with hairdryer for 5-6 minutes, especially over the baseband (near the sim card slot). After that I tried to restore, and its working!!! Sometimes it has problems with memory (out of memory alert) but after one month still working properly. If your iphone 5s isn’t under warranty, try this method, maybe will work….!!!

hi guy it is good news for those who having problem with their iPhone while restore or update and getting constantly errors like on windows (-1 ) and mac you will get error 3 and while device is connected to your computer the progressive bar will freeze at 60 to 75 percent and the respective message will pop up on windows and Mac. I am very much exhausted trying to get rid of this errors but no luck, even I have applied all method of apple websites as well as try from you tube help but no chance. I am a engineer myself of different trade but I very fond of these latest electronic gadgets. Now let me tell you how I have over come this errors and got successful with this method I have applied with very much interest . lets start the work .1 first make sure your device is on and apple logo or ITunes player connected appear on the device screen , take you device and put in plastic bag and please make sure no water enter inside the device through bag, it might damaged your hardware. Than place the device in the freezer for 45 to 60 minutes, Meantime keep your computer ready to connect your device with good USB cable. Removed the iPhone and connect immediately to the computer and massage begin to display extracting software it will progress slowly wait till end .Even you device might get disconnected while in progress don’t worry ,let the progressive bar get end and message comes your device is not found .than you unplug it from computer and plug it again than procedure will continue till your phone is restore and new latest firmware is installed ,during the progress your phone will shows progressive bar on screen wait till further message you get successful Good luck note : the real problem is that the firmware not extracting properly that is why phone can not be restore or update that is why hardware need to be frozen ,it need certain temperature ,because software is not responding to the hardware to get extract and install. It will not install room temperature or atmospheric ambient temperature. S Diniz

Any1 that ever had error 1 iv never heard of them fixing this as it’s a hardware problem

If your device can get into recovery mode than you should be able to boot into DFU mode. Just to reiterate proper DFU instructions: Plug Device into Computer and Open iTunes.Turn Device off completely.Hold Power and Home for 10 seconds (Display will turn off, hold for ~2 more seconds after this)Release Power and continue holding until the device registers in iTunes. If the device registers in iTunes it is DFU and should be able to be fully restored. I realize you state you could not get into DFU, I am just asking to try once more and report back. Update @Con I have fixed it with a DFU restore before. I usually had that error when the IPSW wasn’t being signed anymore by apple. I had to download the latest IPSW from a third party site, one that didn’t have my SHSH blobs attached to the IPSW before it would work. Although that was an error -1 if I remember correctly. Good call on the hardware failure. Look at the other topics posted, it sounds like water damage or possible hardware failure altogether. Althought this seems to state: http://www.letskis.com/how-bypass-error-… Which is my thought. If a proper DFU can be achieved than it should repair it.

I’d say from reading all this that error 1 is a hardware problem caused by dry solder joints somewhere in the phone. Heating up the phone will basically improve the solder joints. This is risky though as you could also make other joints worse. By putting the phone in the freezer and cooling it down you are decreasing the resistance of the poor joints, probably just by enough to get a good enough connection to finish the update. Just a theory from applying a bit of logic. Now all we need is someone to identify exactly which solder joints are poor.

Ok guys, error -1 is an error where your baseband can’t connect to the cpu. For those who don’t know, there is a big brain (cpu) for the majority of the phone and a little brain (baseband cpu) just for the cell network. Typically the problem is caused by a cracked solder joint somewhere due to a drop or jolt. When you heat or cool anything on this earth, it changes in size ever so slightly. Heat expands the object and cooling shrinks it. So either way you go you are shifting the chip ever so slightly and the micro crack touches again and you get a working device. However once it returns to normal temp the crack will reappear. The most obvious spot to crack is under the baseband cpu or the big cpu. This is because the solder contacts are the smallest on the phone here and have very little yield strength to resist a jolt or drop. If Apple didn’t use underfill (a water proofing black tar) on the chips you could just throw it in a reflow oven to fix, but they do. The only correct fix therefore is to remove and reball the baseband cpu! This is the hardest thing to do next to reballing the main cpu and only a handful of techs can accomplish it. If you do use the oven, you will prob lose network eventually and the next restore will be a repeat. If the baseband cpu went bad then you have to pull the trinity from a broken phone and put it on yours. If you don’t know what that is, then you will never be able to do it anyways ;) If you are a tech and do decide to reball it, clean the tar around the contacts with a needle. The board contacts rip off easy because they are so small.

the problem error 1 or error -1 is a hard wear problem it may be the battery its not orginal

I had the same problem which is unknown error occurred (1), simply you have to remove the SIM card and try to restore again, it will work :) Mohamed Hussein Elmahy Mohamed_elmahy91@hotmail.com

heating with hairdryer the hole time its under updating , especially over the baseband (near the sim card slot). , do not exagerate with heat 70-80 celsius ist enought

This is baseband ic problem you have to repair ic first then you able to restore…

In order to check if you have the latest version of iTunes, launch iTunes and check for updates. Windows: Choose Help > Check for Updates Mac: Choose iTunes > Check for Updates Simply donwload and install any available iTunes updates. Just be sure that you have an active internet connection. Solution 2: Check that your computer’s operating system is fully patched and up-to-date On a Mac, click Software Update from the Apple menu and install all available updates. On a Windows PC, go to the Microsoft Windows Update page. Solution 3: Disconnect other USB devices that are currently connected on your computer USB devices can sometimes mess up data communication between iTunes and your iPhone. Do the following: Disconnect any devices connected to your computer such as printers, scanners, dangling cords, card readers, cameras, and so on. Connect only your keyboard and mouse. Connect your iPhone directly with its cable. Restart your computer. Launch iTunes again and try to do a full restore. Read more: http://www.beijingiphonerepair.com/fix/h…

Here’s an article about “how to restore iPhone 5c without using iTunes”.

I had this problem: smashed screen, connect to itunes screen, recovery fails error 1 right at the end. I also cleared the DNS cache and hosts file, but I do not believe these contributed to the success. I fixed it by hinging up the screen and disconnecting the battery for a few minutes reconnecting the battery, then trying to restore again. It took several attempts before it worked. Note that you should not be using shift-restore in itunes to restore using a specified IPSW, rather, you should allow iTunes to pick the IPSW. (or as I already had the same IPSW iTunes would have downloaded, I copied it to the folder where itunes keeps IPSWs (look up the location specific to your OS).

It is my understanding that error 1 is a baseband failure. If that is the case, you’re crawling down a rabbit hole you’ll not come out of with that phone. Reflowing baseband chip might temporarily fix the problem, freezing it might get you through the reset, but the problem still exists, I don’t believe you can replace the baseband, given its nature associated to the device. Essentially, without baseband you’ve got an ipod, if you can ever get past the update/restore. I’ve never seen baseband problems get better.

Hey folks! Had the same problem and that was kinda easy fix! Just connect your iPhone to iTunes but on Mac not PC and just perform restore, worked well for me! Maybe new update 8.4.1 has addressed this issue, too… Good luck!

I had an iPhone 4S with the error 1 while i was trying to recover it. Cool it down in the Freezer did the job for me. But you should remove the battery before. It may wont work if its cooled down.

I had the same problem after Backing Up my iPhone 5c and trying to update to the latest iOS, after trying hard resets and the other suggestions in these answers but didn’t work. After taking to Apple they offered to replace my phone free of replacement charge (it was out of warranty) because it is a known issue and it was the update that caused it. Hope this helps anyone in a similar situation. AP.

I also had the same error when trying to restore my iPhone 4S. I tried all the different suggestions on this forum but it did not work. In the end what worked for me was to put my iPhone in the oven at 100C for 2 hrs. This softens the hardware so that the ipsw iOS is able to update the base 1 chip. My friend also had the same problem on his iPhone 5C. He also tried putting his iPhone in the oven and it worked!

I had this problem to, the solution for me was to check my computer which it was connected to was running on the latest update. it wasn’t so i installed the latest update restarted the computer, the went through the process of restoring the iPhone via iTunes and this time it worked!

Could be as simple as the cable you used try changing that

  1. Check that your security software and settings aren’t blocking your device from communicating with the Apple update server.
  2. Try to restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod two more times while connected with a cable, computer, and network you know are good.
  3. Make sure that your security software and settings are allowing communication between your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and update servers.
  4. If you still see the error message when you update or restore, contact Apple support. If you still see the error message, check for outdated or modified software.

Error 1 is usually caused due to a problem in hardware, if your phone worked fine before the update process heating the phone is the only permanent solution. In some rare cases BGA soldering dries up or cracks if your device had survived a fall. To do this you need to open up the phone, remove the motherboard and heat it up using a rework station, this is a very risky process, you should heat it to an extent where you don’t melt the BGA completely but enough to reattach the connection to the board. If you heat it too much you you will melt the BGA completely and will have a dead device. I have tried this and resurrected many iPhones with error 1. Its best you don’t do this your self instead take it to technician.

I have run into this when the backup I was trying to restore from was from a phone with a newer version of iOS than what was running on the phone I was restoring to. Try setting it up as a new phone first, then update iOS to the latest version. Once the phone has been updated, you should then be able to restore it from the backup.

Claeen the youar mother board first put the surgical spirit an clean. after 2minit hairdryer low heat drying now ok try

Error 1 / -1 could be about network, connection or hardware.

@C00lb0y1231 Please perform a DFU reboot. I would also think about trying the old “device in rice” trick to pull anymore water out of the device. Shut off the the device, and put the device in a container of rice overnight. Of course you could get some dry bags which pull all moisture out. Once this is complete, please hook the device into your computer and launch iTunes. Ignore all the messages for now. Turn the Device on holding the home button and power button for 10 seconds. Count this out as it has to be 10 seconds or it will boot back into recovery. After 10 seconds release the Power button BUT DO NOT RELEASE the home button. Continue holding the home button until iTunes registers the device. Note; the device screen will remain black so do not be alarmed. Restore the device.