Unbricking Your iPod Touch with the Manual DFU Procedure
March 19th, 2008If you are as curious as I am, you’ve probably managed to brick your iPod touch by now. I bricked mine within 24 hours of owning it. It happened sometime after I installed Apollo and changed the root password using SSH and the passwd command. After I did that, my SpringBoard process stopped working, and was continually getting restarted by launchd because it was crashing consistently (according to “ps -A”). Nice loop really! Anyhoo, I renamed the /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard binary to SpringBoard.bak (so launchd would quit trying to restart it), and ran it myself with ./SpringBoard.bak. I got a really funky error message like this:
ABORT: Unable to register "PurpleSystemEventPort" port, 1103 unknown error code
Now that is a cool error message! (note to self: Use random colors in future error messages).
At one point, I was able to run SpringBoard on the command line and it would stay up, and I could use the interface. Here’s a cool trick: Run SpringBoard from the command line over SSH, and then Ctrl+Z it to suspend it. Notice that your UI is totally frozen on the iPod. Cool stuff! Type “fg” and the UI comes back to life. This much fun should be illegal.
At this point, my Windows XP computer would no longer make the happy “ding dong” sound when I plugged the iPod into the USB port. And, of course, iTunes could no longer detect the iPod. D’oh! This is when I started to get a bit scared. I googled for an iPod touch reset utility like I had used on my 1st generation iPod Nano, but no luck.
After some googling and some help from the good folks on #iphone, I learned that I needed to get the iPod into “DFU mode”, which is a special mode that will indicate to iTunes that there is a bricked iPod that needs to be restored. Here’s the procedure to manually put the iPod Touch into DFU mode:
- Turn on your iPod (in my case it would only get as far as displaying the Apple logo
- Hold the power and home buttons down (the iPod will power off after 10 seconds, but keep holding those buttons down)
- After the iPod powers off, release the power button (but keep holding the home button down)
- After a couple more seconds, you should hear that magical “ding dong” that means the iPod is coming back alive, and that Windows has detected it. You may even see a little “New hardware” popup in Windows. It is now safe to release the home button, and your iPod is in DFU mode.
- Now iTunes will see it as a DFU’ed iPod and should ask you to automatically restore its firmware.
- iTunes has to download the new firmware, and it takes a while, so go make a sandwich.
In case you’re wondering, the “power button” is the one on top, and the “home button” is the one under the screen.
Happy iUnBricking!
March 19th, 2008 at 12:51 am
By the way, when I unbricked and reinstalled installer.app, it told me to not use the passwd program to change the password on firmware 1.1.3 because it’ll make SpringBoard (the main desktop launcher program) crash continually. Well, that’s what I did on 1.1.4 and had the same problem, so the advice probably stands for 1.1.4 as well.
April 7th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I was using 1.1.4 and looped in same problem.
Thanks for the information.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Thanks, you’re a lifesaver!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Thank you sooo much i thought it was broke and i did not have the insurance to turn mine in for a new ipod touch!
April 13th, 2008 at 6:06 am
*evil scientist voice on* Innnnterrrresting! *evil scientist voice off*
Thanks a lot for that! I’d just installed OpenSSH and changed the root password, only to have – I assume – Summerboard go nuts on me. Since the power and home buttons seem to operate via software rather than hardware, you have to use the command-line to save yourself (thank the Budda for *nix based OS’s).
April 13th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
THANK YOU for posting this. I found you via google, and i’m so glad I did. Now I know what caused it! That darn passwd app. That’s the problem with iPhone/iPod Touch tutorials, some of them are out of date, and you really have to be careful. No worries though, I was able to change the name of springboard like you did and AFP in to copy some data off. (ebooks, etc)
All will be well soon, I just wish I didn’t just cost myself over an hour of my life putting this thing back the way it was. Oh well, at least we have ijailbreak.com :)
April 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Could it work if you passwd change to the older password alpine ?
April 18th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
No, I tried changing the password back to “alpine” with the passwd program, but the problem persisted.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Dude, you saved my bacon. I can report that your button-fu works with a Mac as well as with Windows.
So what made this happen? Was it because I changed the root password? The security nerd in me insisted that I do this, blissfully unaware that there were system applications that are HARD-CODED to expect a particular password.
I can also report that, consistent with Dave’s experience, resetting the password back to its original value did NOT help.
So of course I’m going to try the whole thing again. I was too deliriously happy with my multiple HP calculators to go back to being in jail.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
[...] I found a blog post from a dude named Dave [...]
April 19th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Dave:
I have documented my little iPod freak-out (pretty much identical to yours) on my blog, and plagiarized your instructions blatantly (with attribution). I hope you don’t mind.
I kind of think that this is important. I didn’t find anything on the Apple support site that explains how to set an iPod Touch to I AM A BRICK PLEASE FIX ME mode.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Man, good thing i found this. I was having same problem. I changed the password via terminal on mac. And this went wonky.
So there’s no other way to change the password? I’m stuck with alpine?
April 29th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Jat,
To my knowledge, you cannot change the root password but you should be able to restrict ssh access by editing sshd_config to only allow people to connect using key-based authentication instead of password-based.
Good luck!
July 11th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Damn, thanks for this guide: 18 hours into ownership I bricked it as well, didn’t know I had to disable the lock code, itunes doesn’t initialize properly with it enabled apparently…
July 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I tried this but only get the “USB device not recognized” message on my computer, and the recovery screen on the iPod Touch. Any other tips?
July 20th, 2008 at 7:33 am
mate you are a life saver!! i have been searching the net for the past hour trying to find out how to stop my ipod, which was stuck in a DFU mode loop, untill i found you :)
thank you so much
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Thanks you so much, a friend of mine had her ipod touch bricked. And she just bought it, this saved her a trip to the store and possibly the warranty being voided.
Again, thanks a bunch!
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
thank you. i love you.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Your method was the only one that has worked for me. I think my iphone was stuck in a DFU loop and was not being recognized by iTunes. Thanks you are a lifesaver.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Life saver… thought my iphone was dead :P… all of this for trying to crack intelliscreen :S
September 1st, 2008 at 10:15 am
thanks so much…!!
September 4th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Thanks man, Really helped me…your The Man :)
September 11th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ive been searching for about a week – nothing worked but this!!!
September 20th, 2008 at 5:14 am
I cant seem to get mine in DFU mode….im doing it correct but my ipod wont turn back on after ive turned it off automatically. any help?
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thank you!!!! I was starting to believe that I can’t have nice Things!
…what can I say? I’m speechless! Thank you!
November 4th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Omg i was all most crying when mine bricked and when u stated wait for the ding dong noise i held the home button in and wallah it worked.
I ow you so much thank you so so so much.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Hey man… thanks a lot, I think it worked…
I was so desperate that I couldn’t even sleep well
Thanks again and right now I’ll go to the kitchen to
make a sandwich… hahaha
Blessings.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Omg I was so scared that I broke it loll.
Thank you so much it worked :]<3
November 26th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
i was so pissed whenmy ipod stopped, you are a life saver. Thank god for the internet. u da man. Thanks so so much
December 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Thats really cool, thanks! Although now my Itunes (which is the latest one) is saying Software for my ipod is not available? any ideas?
December 20th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Phoenix: I’ve never seen that error. Have you tried googling the exact phrase that iTunes gives you? Perhaps put quotes around the phrase in your google search?
January 16th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Man!!!! YOU ARE A GENIUS!!! Thank you!! Thank you soooooooooooooo much I suffered with this problem for like a month!! Thanks again!! ^^
January 16th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
windows will not recoginze my ipod after i tryed to put intno dfu for some reason it is stuck at the app;e boot logo and windows does not see my ipod at all for the odiest reason i have no ideal
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
my ipod is locked for a really long time and i dont have the original computer that it was synced to so does any body no wat i can do
March 7th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
DUDE thank you your a life saver.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
man, i thought i killed my ipod. thanks so much im so relieved!
March 29th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Not good! i did this to my ipod to fix it and when i went to restore it, i got this error message. “Software for the ipod not available. make sure you have the latest version of iTunes and try again”. i do have the latest version of iTunes and it still doesn’t work. Help
April 17th, 2009 at 7:55 am
saved my life
April 17th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I have the EXACT same problem as Adam! please help!
April 24th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Adam and Ryan: download firmware from http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/
Then do the procedure as explained by Dave but: don’t just click on restore but hold the shift button (Windows) or Option button (Mac). You’ll get a dialog box allowing you to choose the firmware to install.
This said, I have an iTouch which is stuck in DFU. Uploading firmware always breaks with several errors, like 1600, 6 and some more. Right now I’m trying to upload 1.1.1 and it’s taking ages, already an hour now. That’s something new.
April 25th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH! while jailbreakin’ in the past i have bricked it 4 times, and i had to send it off to apple. now my warranty is gone, so while installing the 3.0 software, it got bricked. yay! THx
May 8th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
thanks you from the bottom of my heart. Worked like a charm!!!!!!
Installed the 3.0 beta torrent and it worked fine for a week or 2 but today i was welcomed by a bright purple connect to itunes screen. When i connected to itunes it gave me a huge error!!!!
When i followed your instructions set me back to 2.2.1 with no problem. Once again thank you SO much!!!!
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 am
well if anyone can help me out, i tried jailbreakin mine and i messed up somewhere . so now my itouch 2g just goe’s into a REstore mode loop. it wont’ come out of it. i’ve tried restoring it in dfu mode but no luck same thing keeps happening. :(
July 6th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
THANK YOU!!!! YOU TURNED MY IBRICK BACK INTO A IPOD TOUCH!!!!
July 15th, 2009 at 5:21 am
For anyone who tries to click the restore button and bets the error message on windows do this 1.hold shift and click restore and a box should pop up. 2.go to the c: drive and go to the name of the computer. 3.click on roaming. 4.click on app data. 5.click on iTunes. 6.click on iPod software updates or restores (it is the first one at the top.) 7.click on the latest software you have which is the first one givin. Now you should have a bar saying extracting and let it do it’s thing and you should be set
July 15th, 2009 at 5:22 am
By the way the c: drive is the hard drive
July 15th, 2009 at 5:23 am
The c: is located on the my computer tab thing
July 19th, 2009 at 8:34 am
You are a life saver, thank you so much for this simple way to unbrick. . . I didn’t even know what bricked meant. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
August 9th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Thanks. This helped me out :)
August 28th, 2009 at 6:01 am
thanks mate, this helped me out a lot.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Many thanks – we thought it had died and we’d need to buy a new one!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:43 am
i haven’t been able to get out of DFU mode for nearly 2 days now!! AND i need to get out of it, but don’t know how to get out of it. plz help
September 14th, 2009 at 3:35 am
Lots of very interesting stuff herer and I am currently trying your methiod, Dave.
However, the little dialogue box which says ‘RESTORING IPOD SOFTWARE’ has now been running for an hour. The little empty bar below the Apple logo on my Ipod Touch hasn’t filled up at all, which makes me wonder whether anything is happening.
Should I just abandon?
My whole problem started when I went on to iTunes and it offered a software update for the Touch……..I accepted, then everything went pear-shaped.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:02 am
Thank you! I can’t tell you how many websites and support sites I visited and nothing worked until I read what you posted. The key to my trouble was holding both the power and home button – but NOT releasing the home button until it recognized my iPod Touch! None of the other sites informed me to keep holding the home key down. I updated my Touch with the new software, and the original computer I was using with my Touch crashed. I have since gotten a new computer and reinstalled iTunes twice – to no chagrin. So I’m hoping that restoring it will work.
December 18th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Thank you so very much! Two of my friends were having problems with their ipod touches and I couldn’t find out what to do. Then I came here did what you said and BOOM! They finaly showed up in itunes. Thanks a lot :)
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 31st, 2009 at 6:08 am
yessss this article was good but wasnt good for my solution
what happened to me was i was trying to jailbrake my ipod touch 3.1.2 and it all went wrong as i disconnected the ipod thinking it stopped
now i was stuck in recovery mode and it showed the usb cable and itunes logo
i coouldnt get out and i was so sad as ive only had the ipod for 1 day lol
now i just went to another computer and installed itunes on their and it succesfully restored my ipod to its factory settings
thanks for all these sites because without them i wouldnt have a clue what to do
January 6th, 2010 at 3:21 am
HEEEELP. Mine gets an error of 1601 when restoring. I have a 3GS bought in December 2009 3.1.2 latest iTunes, BB 5.11.07, jailbreaked before using blackra1n. It goes in DFU mode but not on Recovery Mode anymore… ever.
What can I do? I already tried 3 PC’s, using the back USB ports, tried every USB port, reinstalled iTunes, charged overnight through wall outlet, used iRecovery, used iREB but with no LUCK of waking it up.
HEEELP!
January 12th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I had the same problem using blackra1n. I installed some icon program which needed rebooting. after reboot, itunes ask the unit to be restored/upgraded which i did. the unit stopped restoring up to the firmware not restored error. after that, it never recovered from restore mode even if i did everything i read from the net (pressing power and home and leaving home button for a few seconds afterwards). I had the unit sent to apple service provider and they replaced the unit. I tried the same thing on the 2nd unit, hours after receiving it and the same thing happened. I now had my 2nd ipod touch bricked once more. any help??
February 21st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
thanks this was great saved me $200
February 25th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
TANKS MAN YOU REALLY HELP ME!!!
February 26th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Pal, your instructions worked to the ‘t’. I was this close to tracking down Steve Jobs so I could punch him for his rotten product that bricked after owning it for less than a week because I had the audacity to try downloading an Apple update directly from Apple. My morning has now been un-ruined, and you are my hero for the day.
March 12th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Man,TTTHHHHAAAANNNNKKKKSSSS a lot. You saved my life.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
heyy i have an ipod touch, im pretty sure its the newest virsion and its 8gb. my ipod wont turn on, ive tried holding the 2 buttons but it still wont do anything. when i plug it into my computer, nothing comes up. i havent droppe it or anything. would you be able to help me? thanks
March 24th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Same thing. LEDGEND!
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:32 am
I unbricked my ipod touch but when I try to restore I get the error msg ipod could not be restored an unknown error occured (6) Does anyone know how to fix that
April 5th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
+UJMMMMMM!!!!!!!! DUDDE! THANKS UR LIKEE UM
AMAZIINNG”
ILLUUVVUU!!!!!
:D
D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
D:
D:D:
April 5th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Thanks
This Worked
:D
June 13th, 2010 at 1:02 am
THIS REALY WORKED THANKS MAN
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:36 am
you saved my life!
June 26th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
omg. i thought it was dead forever. thanks a million!
June 28th, 2010 at 11:03 am
SUPER THANKS MAN! THIS IPOD WASNT EVEN MINE. I THOUGHT I HAVE TO SHED OUT SOME CASH TO PAY FOR IT. THANKS A LOT. GOD BLESS BRO!
July 17th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Thank you so much! I though something was wrong with the battery. Thank you! :)
August 21st, 2010 at 7:02 pm
My bricked Ipod touch is now working again, after being stuck on the apple logo for what seemed like forever.
I am truly grateful.
x