3GS stuck at Apple logo after Remote Wipe - How to fix?

[Decagon]

Hello,

My 3GS was stolen so I set up a Remote Wipe using Find My iPhone. Turns out a neighborhood kid stole it and, luckily, his parents brought it back to me. As soon as I turned it on, the Remote Wipe started. Now, it's stuck on the Apple logo and isn't responding (won't reboot, iTunes doesn't see it, won't go into DFU mode). The Remote Wipe didn't complete.

I am not a thief! This really happened. I have a good reputation on a couple other forums where I post more often and I can post a photo of my purchase receipt from June 2009 if someone tells me how. I hope you believe me and help me.

I am hoping that I can find a fix that preserve my ability to JB/unlock using Pwnage and UltraSn0w.

Q: Has anyone experienced this type or problem or heard about it?
Q: Any ideas on how to fix this problem?


I've searched everywhere and couldn't find any information, or even a mention, of this type of problem. I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Decagon


Phone Infos
3GS, 3.0.1, JB with RedSn0w, not unlocked

What happened
- remote wipe initiated
- screen went black
- 3 seconds later Apple logo appeared
- empty white progress bar box appeared under Apple logo, but no progress bar started or went across it
- white progress bar box disappeared
- spin wheel appeared superimposed over Apple logo, but did not spin
- after several minutes, the screen flashed to black again and these steps repeated

Current Status
- for the past 5 hours, the steps above keep repeating, minus the empty progress box
- every few minutes it starts over again with the black screen
- 3 seconds later, the Apple logo pops up
- about a minute later the spin wheel shows up on top of the Apple logo and doesn't spin
- after a while the screen flashes black again and this process repeats

[confucious]

You should be able to get it in DFU - it's just a matter of timing.
try holding power and home until it does a hard reset first.

[Decagon]

Hi Confucious! Thanks for replying.

I really did try to get it into DFU mode. I've done it many times before. This time, when the screen goes black, the Apple logo pops up within 3 seconds. There's no way to keep it black long enough for DFU mode.

But...since then...something else started happening which is even weirder! I hope this is a good sign.

Now, every few minutes, the Apple logo disappears and is replaced with the battery logo. But, the battery logo shows a very, very low level even though it's been plugged into my laptop all night. Within a couple minutes, the Apple logo is back. It's like a loop.

Also, now I can do a hard reset. I get the battery logo on the screen and then the Apple logo comes back in a minute.

Either the battery's not charging or something's burning so much energy that it's draining the battery. I never had battery problems before.

If the battery gets too low, the phone won't work until it's charged a bit. I'm now wondering whether this is why it's stuck in the loop.

[confucious]

Try plugging it in to the wall charger, USB might not be providing enough power. Can you turn it off?

[Decagon]

Thank you so much for helping me out with this.

I can't find the wall charger...which is driving me nuts. The Apple Store opens here in 2.5 hrs and I'll be at their front doors waiting for them to open.

Nope...can't turn it off. Any suggestions on what I could try to get it to shut off?

[confucious]

I'venever used the remote wipe feature but I'm guessing it's doing the same as an 'Erase all content and settings' and that once it's started it won't let you turn off until it's finished but your phone doesn't have enough power to let it complete and USB isn't providing enough so it dies then when it gets enough it fires up and tries again in a loop.
With a proper wall charger it should provide enough pwer to complete and you should be OK.

Let us know how it goes!

[Decagon]

That makes a lot of sense. I'm so relieved and I'm starting to cautiously think this may turn out all right. In the middle of the night when the rest of the world was asleep and my phone didn't respond at all to anything, I was getting really worried I'd have to turn it in for a new one and get stuck with that new iBoot version.

Thank you so much for helping me out!! I will definitely keep everyone posted. 1hr 54 min until my local Apple Store opens.

Wanna hear the irony? I was in the Apple Store for another reason until after closing last night. As I left I asked if they ever had lines at the door when they opened in the morning, and they said everyday. Now, I know why...and I'm going to be first in line today. Don't know who's getting the last laugh in this scenario...but, someone is. Probably jinxed my phone with that question last night.

[confucious]

Rule 1 - Don't Panic
Rule 2 - When in doubt, apply Rule 1

[Decagon]

Oh so true! Thanks for the laugh...I needed it.


Update:

Confucious: You were right. The wall charger worked. Thank you very much for your support and advice.

The Apple Store let me in an hour before opening and lent me a wall charger from the genius bar. After about 25 min, I could get the phone into recovery mode. I have to go to work now and I'll post the details of what I learned later. It was a combination of remote swipe and energy issues.

Thanks again for everything!

Update:

@ Confucious: I'm hoping you might have some further ideas that could help me through this next challenge. Or, if this isn't your area of expertise, maybe you know someone I could contact.

Thanks again for all your help. I hope I'm not asking too much of you. It's come a long way since last night, but I still have some challenges ahead that are beyond my experience.

Cheers,
Decagon



I let the phone charge off the wall all day, 8-9 hrs, and it didn't raise the battery level at all. The phone is not charging. A manager at the Apple Store this morning said this may be related to some nefarious side effect of Remote Wipe. It's been know to mess with batteries to make it hard for thieves to use stolen phones and since mine was already so low when Remote Wipe started, it might be in a vicious cycle now. Or...so he says.

Remote Wipe seems to still be on the phone because it will not shut off. The power off bar doesn't even come up. At least some of the Remote Wipe is finished. In iTunes, the phone name is just iPhone and all the parameters (capacity, etc.) say n/a.

I need to restore the phone to get rid of whatever remnants of Remote Wipe are still holding it hostage and causing functionality and battery problems.

I got it into Recovery Mode this evening. iTunes detected it, Pwnage did not (I was trying to build a custom ipsw for a non-pwned phone in case remote wipe erased my JB).

When it was in Recovery mode, a strange thing happened. Suddenly, RedSn0w launched itself on the phone and stared running. It was not open on my laptop. I was psyched because this would restore the phone getting rid of the Remote Wipe. But...no joy. 85% through Installing Activation Bundles, RedSn0w stalled and the spinning wheel started spinning. Then, RedSn0w crashed and the Apple logo popped up again.

Q: I have no clue why RedSn0w launched itself, but it was great that it did. Any idea why that happened?

I am assuming RedSn0w crashed because there wasn't enough energy via the USB laptop connection.

Q: Is there any way to restore using a wall connection?

Finally,

Q: Is my phone still Pwned after the Remote Wipe?

RedSn0w launched to JB the phone, so did Remote Wipe erase the JB? I want to be careful to use the correct custom 3.1.2 ipsw.

- I made one for an already pwned phone
- I can't make one for an unpwned phone because the phone won't go into DFU mode and Pwnage doesn't detect it's attached via USB at all (when I click NO to the question if it's been pwned before and have to put it into DFU mode).

I'm concerned that if I don't use the correct form of custom 3.1.2 ipsw, I start getting 16xx errors.

[confucious]

It seems like the remote wipe is trying to reload the FW hence the redSn0w on your phone - if you can get it to do that again can you plug it into the mains charger while it's doing it?

Or if you do not need UltraSn0w why not just try restoring to stock 3.12 when in recovery mode?

[Piazza331]

See if you can get the phone to stay completely off while you have it charging off the wall. You should be able to hold home/lock for 6 seconds to get the phone to power down. Do this after it's already in the wall, otherwise once you plug it in, it will try and start the phone up again.

From there, see if you can restore.

[Decagon]

I haz success!

Confucious, thank you very, very much. Your insight and help was invaluable.

Using a USB power hub, I finally got enough energy to the phone to get into Recovery mode plus, after a couple failed attempts because of low energy, get through restoring to my custom 3.1.2 ipsw. I'm now pwned on 3.1.2.

The phone had been stuck in a vicious cycle.
- Remote Wipe drained the battery so the phone didn't have enough energy to reset after Remote Wipe.
- This left Remote Wipe on the phone and the phone frozen at the Apple logo. RW blocks turning the phone off and charging the battery. I believe it also interferes with energy coming from USB sources to some extent.
- A drained battery puts the phone in black screen state, unable to properly function until charging starts.

So, it was a Catch 22. No energy meant no ability to get rid of RW which meant no way to get energy. Without energy, nothing works...plus RW blocks some basic functions in addition. That's why I couldn't do a hard reset or get it into DFU or Recovery mode until I found a way to get enough energy to it.

The moment the restore was finished, the battery started charging and all functionality returned to normal.

Now, I have one last challenge I was hoping to get some help with.

Q: How can I retreive Notes/Photos/Texts from a backup that was deleted...if it's at all possible?

When I restored to my custom 3.1.2 ipsw, I set it up as a new phone since that's what the Dev Team recommends for FW upgrades. I had a backup made just before the remote wipe. When I checked after setting up as a new phone, that backup was overwritten. I can't get a clear answer from Apple why that happened. One engineer said it always overwrites the old backup when set up as a new phone. I never heard of that before.

Anyway...I would really like to get my old Notes/Photos/Texts back. Is there any chance of retrieving them from a library somewhere?

Thanks again for any advice or experience you can share!
Decagon