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Dear Lifehacker,
I decided to give jailbreaking a try and it didn't go so well. My iPhone is stuck on a black screen and I've bricked it. Is there anything I can do?
Sincerely,
Jailbricked
Dear Jailbricked,
Chances are your iPhone isn't bricked at all. Unless you've managed to interrupt a firmware update, it can be pretty tough to actually brick any iDevice. Sometimes the solution is very simple, and sometimes you actually have some reason to panic. Regardless of how things may look, however, you should be able to resolve the problem fairly easily. Just try the following.
Note: With all of these steps, be sure your device is connected to power. Sometimes when it's having a problem it may run down the battery and you won't be aware of it because it appears to be off or frozen. You might think something is wrong because it won't power on, but the battery may just be dead. When troubleshooting, connect your device to power to eliminate that possibility. In some cases you may want to let it charge for 15 minutes before doing anything so you can be sure it has enough of a charge to operate.
Most of the time it's as simple as resetting your device. Hold down the power button and the home button simultaneously for 5-10 seconds (it can vary depending on the state of your device). Eventually you should see the Apple logo and iDevice will boot as normal. If not, try releasing both buttons and turning on your device as normal. As a precaution, plug your device into your computer and do a full restore in iTunes.
How to Restore
If you've never restored an iDevice before it's pretty easy. Just click on its name in the lefthand column in iTunes, go to the Summary section (if it's not already selected by default), and click the Restore button. This will download the latest available version of iOS from iTunes and install it on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. iTunes will know what type of device you have and download the appropriate version. When it finishes, you'll be asked to restore from a previous backup (assuming you made one—something you should be doing regularly) or set up your device as new. Assuming you have a backup, restore from it, then sync your device with iTunes when it finishes. Because a restore wipes out all data and an iTunes backup only retains settings, preferences, and other basic information, this sync can take quite awhile—especially if you have a lot of music and movies. Be prepared to let your phone sync for as long as an hour. When it's done you should be back to normal again.
When resetting doesn't do the trick, you need to tell your iDevice to go into DFU mode. This method should seem familiar if you've tried to jailbreak as DFU mode is generally necessary in the jailbreaking process as it's usually used for recovery purposes. You're going to need to disconnect it from power/your computer temporarily in order to do this, so be sure to let your device charge for 10-15 minutes beforehand.
When you're ready, here's what to do:
That's one way to enter DFU mode that you can do while your device is still connected to your computer. You'll need a clock to help you count (don't count in your head!). Here are the steps:
Make sure your device is off.Hold the power and home buttons for 10 seconds.Release the power button but continue holding the home button for 10 more seconds.Release the home buttonRestore your iDevice with iTunes using the restore instructions in the previous section.Hopefully one of these ways should make it possible to restore your device, but if not then move on to the next step.
When restoring your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad fails on your computer, try another. For reasons not entirely known to us, we've been able to fix our iDevices by simply connecting them to another copy of iTunes running on a machine that's never seen these devices before. Creating new user accounts on our own computers would, in theory, work, but when we've done this it hasn't. Simply attempting to restore the devices on someone else's machine seems to do the trick when all else fails. If you're stuck, try the previously mentioned steps on a different machine. It may take care of the problem.
If your iDevice is still in limbo and you can't bring it back on your own, you're probably going to need some assistance. Take your device to an Apple Store or an Apple-authorized repair shop and tell them it stopped turning on. They won't fix your phone under warranty if you mention you tried to jailbreak, so leave that detail out. In many cases they'll be able to get things back up and running for you in a few minutes and everything will be fine. It's very unlikely your phone will have to be replaced. Asking Apple to replace it when you broke it isn't necessarily the most ethical option, so you may want to own up to bricking it if it is, indeed, bricked and your fault. Chances are things will be fine, though, and you'll have a fully operational device when you leave. The Apple employee who fixes it will probably know you were trying to jailbreak but there seems to be a sort of "don't ask don't tell" policy at the Genius Bar for these types of situations. Keep your mouth shut and you should be able to get things fixed pretty quickly.
Love,
Lifehacker
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