Have you bumped on a iPhone error message saying "please connect to iTunes"? Have you received an error number "1603" coming from the iPhone? If yes, you might want to read what Timothy, an iPhone owner, did to solve his problem:
"I allowed my iphone battery to fully discharge and upon
recharging got the error message with a large exclamation mark "please
connect to itunes". When I connected to itunes I was told that the
phone was in recovery mode and needed to be reloaded. Itunes went out
and downloaded the new firmware and began the install process after I
approved the input screen that said it would wipe out all my data. 1/3
of the way through the process I received a message box that told me
the process had failed to restore the iphone for an unknown error
(number 1603).
After looking online and calling ATT as well as Apple
the best solution I received was to send the iphone in for replacement
(i am 5 hours from an apple store). After fiddling around I have
managed to solve the problem on my own.
After trying everything else with no results, I pulled
the SIM card out of the iphone and plugged the iphone into my computer.
Itunes then reloaded the software and firmware successfully. I then put
the SIM card back in and synced it up with itunes and it asked me to
confirm the resync. Afterwards it just worked fine."
Was
Timothy just lucky? Possible but if you have the same problem and solve
it using this method, let us know. This error does not seem to be
documented on Apple’s iPhone support website.
July 11th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I had the same issue, but after my second try, it worked witout removing the SIM. Apparently second time is a charm.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:26 am
“I allowed my iphone battery to fully discharge”
That sounds nearly impossible. When the yellow triangle appears it automaticly shut the iPhone off after a minute or two. It’s not likely that this guy succeded to discharge the battery just to leave it be.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Oh, sorry. Now I realized I missed his point.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Didnt work for me. I have error 1012 as well.
October 1st, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I had the same problem, and your blog post is the ONLY thing I could find on the web that helped (after much searching). Like another commenter, I had to do this process twice, and it worked the second time. (The first time I’d left the SIM card tray out entirely. The second time I ran it with the empty tray in place.)
Phone seems to be working now. Thank goodness for you, Timothy, and Omar!
November 27th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I have tried this method and have repeated this and various other combinations including trying on three other computers, both 10.4 and 10.5, have spent hours on the phone with Apple and there last stab was to remove Itunes and reinstall it then run the restore again, which is downloading the Iphone update (for the fourth time now at their insistance, as if all the other downloads might be corrupt?).
So that is where I am now waiting for the 160Mb file to complete, a 45 minute process for me.
Will update this post later with the results.
November 27th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
So what finally worked was to uninstall Itunes and delete its prefs and then reinstall it and then I was able to successfully restore to 1.1.2.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I’ve tried to restore my iphone and everytime itunes gets stuck on “preparing iphone for restore” the phone also reboots itself every couple seconds. Need help
January 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I try to update my iPodTouch to 1.1.3 and get error 1603 and I doesn´t restore…
January 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
to solve this problem go to start menu. select control panel. go to administrative tools. go to services. go to apple mobile device on the right on the screen and than on the left side of the screen select stop the service. after that select restart the service. close everything and open itunes. connect your iphone and follow the instructions for reinstaling and update. it should be ok now. i try doing the same thing without the sim card and it didnt work, but when i insert the sim card it was yeahhhhh me. please note i have vista. i hope this will help. P.S i called a OFFICIAL apple iphone support and they didnt know how to fix it. maybe i should work for them and get paid the big $$$$.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I have WinXP and was trying to update my iPhone from version 1.1.1 to 1.1.3. I started getting error 1603, tried taking out the sim card and repeatedly trying to update but it wouldn’t work.
My solution:
1)Disconnected the iPhone
2) uninstalled iTunes
3) restarted the computer
4) disabled Norton (so annoying since it blocks the internet connection)
5)then reinstalled iTunes
6)reconnected the iPhone with the sim card in, and the update and restoring process worked seamlessly.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 am
Thank you very much, alex. It works like a charm for me !!! Thanks for solving the problem. By the way i’m using vista
February 1st, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Hi … I have the same problem but nothing worked from whatever u posted.
My Problem :
my iphone reboots every 30 second and it can’t be detected by the itunes or the pc itself coz it keeps booting and it gets disconnected. I tried eveything but nothing worked.
One more thing the phone doesn’t turn on if it is not plugged. WHAT DID GO WRONG WITH IT any way to SOVLE it
and I can not fully discharged my baterry goes it goes off when I unplug it
Thanks guys
February 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
IBRA TRY MY PROBLEM SOLVING TIP. DISCONNECT YOUR IPHONE FIRST AND THAT JUST FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTION. I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM.
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 am
Dear ALEX ….
I have tried that before and I tried it again but it didn’t work
the iphone just keeps rebooting every 30 second and it goes back to apple logo and even if it comes back to itunes logo with the core it still rebooting so it gets disconnected and the software itunes or ibrik start detecting it again and again …
any other solutions guys ..
NOKIA or SONY ERICSON are better I don’t know why we bother ourselves with iphone .. it doesn’t even have that money functions as other phones … wonder when apple will add these things to iphone
February 13th, 2008 at 4:49 am
I ended all apple processes restarted phone and then restarted itunes did the restore and it worked. this worked for me hope it works for you.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Naaah Jeff
this step wouldn’t work with me at all
February 29th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I had the same error. I just updated iTunes. It seems all I needed was a fresh install of iTunes to “kick it into gear” again and get rid of this error.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Hello!!!
I have to say that for me worked exactly as for Timothy, I tried three times before I found this page. So I can say it worked by taking out the SIM card.
I have another issue. My Iphone screen is broken, do you have any idea of how much does this costs??
Thank u, all your comments have been very helpfull.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:16 am
I downloaded an application“Saying:it was coming from untrusted source”as warning ,since i did it with one and succeeded,i think it could have been the same ,now my icons and screen is unstable,not easy to turn on or acceed to applications,sometimes little beasts appear on screen,what can i do to solve the this problem,is it a virus attack?;my phone is a brand new one,i beg you please i don’t want to loose it .
June 17th, 2008 at 1:18 am
I downloaded an application“Saying:it was coming from untrusted source”as warning ,since i did it with one and succeeded,i think it could have been the same ,now my icons and screen is unstable,not easy to turn on or acceed to applications,sometimes little beasts appear on screen,what can i do to solve this problem,is it a virus attack?;my phone is a brand new one,i beg you please i don’t want to loose it .