How to Put an iPhone Into Recovery Mode
Many problems with the iPhone can be resolved by restarting it, but some more complex problems require putting the iPhone into Recovery Mode. This shouldn’t be your first troubleshooting step, but sometimes it’s the only one that works. Recovery Mode is a last-resort troubleshooting step you can take with an iPhone having problems with its operating system. Putting a device into Recovery Mode allows the iPhone to run and connect to iTunes or a computer while not booting up the iOS. Doing this lets you update the OS to a new, working version or restore a working backup onto the device. It’s not hard to use, but it’s something you only use when other things don’t work. To put an iPhone into recovery mode, follow these steps:
How to Restore iPhone
You can choose to reset your iPhone to its factory state or restore your iPhone from a recent backup of your data.
If you have an iPhone 8 or newer, you can skip this step. On an iPhone 7 or earlier, begin by turning off your iPhone by holding down the Side button and the Volume Down button. Hold until the slider appears at the top, and then swipe the slider. If your phone doesn’t respond, hold the Side button and the iPhone Home button together until the screen goes dark (on the iPhone 7 series, hold Volume Down instead of the Home button).
If you have a Mac running macOS Catalina (10.15) or higher, open the Finder. If you have a Mac running an earlier version of the OS, or a PC running Windows, update iTunes to the latest version and open iTunes.
iPhone 8 and newer: Press and release the Volume Up button, and then do the same to the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Side button until the Recovery Mode screen appears.iPhone 7 series: Press and hold the Side and Volume Down buttons until the Recovery Mode screen appears. iPhone 6S series and earlier: Press and hold the Side and Home buttons until the Recovery Mode screen appears.
You’ll know your phone is in Recovery Mode when the recovery screen appears. It’s not common, but an error can sometimes stop you from restoring your iPhone or another iOS device. If you encounter this problem, learn how to fix iPhone error 4013. You can also encounter error 3194.
How to Get Out of iPhone Recovery Mode
If restoring the iPhone succeeds, your phone will automatically exit Recovery Mode when it restarts. You can also exit Recovery Mode without restoring your phone (if your device was working properly before. If not, Recovery Mode is still your best option). To do that:
If Recovery Mode Doesn’t Work
If putting your iPhone into Recovery Mode doesn’t solve your problem, the problem may be more severe than you can fix on your own. In that case, you should make an appointment at the Genius Bar of your nearest Apple Store to get help.
When to Use Recovery Mode
You should use iPhone Recovery Mode when you:
Install an iOS update, and your device gets stuck in a continuous restart loop. It happens if something goes wrong with the update or your battery is extremely low during the installation. Update the operating system or restore the device from a backup, but the process fails, and iTunes no longer sees the device when you connect it. Upgrade from a beta version of iOS, and there’s a bug. See the Apple logo or Connect to iTunes icon onscreen for a few minutes with no change.
Restoring your iPhone using Recovery Mode lets you either update the OS or delete all data on the device. Ideally, you’ve got a recent backup of your data in iCloud or iTunes. If not, you may end up losing any data added between your last backup and now.
