I recently applied a firmware update to my iPhone and it broke. The phone wasn’t jailbroken and there was nothing shady about the dealing whatsoever. However, when I applied the 2.2.1 firmware, iTunes announced failure and my phone went into the revovery mode where it just shows the screen below.
I let iTunes attempt to recover my phone to no avail. I finally did some frantic Googling and came across a site called TheBigBoss.org, where I found a post about DFU Mode. I did what The Big Boss said and used the very strange shift+click* on the restore button in iTunes to allow me to choose what backup file went to my iPhone and finally was able to recover my phone.
* Note: Also from The Big Boss, “If you need to restore a specific version of firmware onto your device, rather than click restore, hold shift (PC) or option (MAC) and click restore. This will bring up a browse box where you can select the firmware you wish to program.”
I can’t believe that this had to be such a convoluted process, but I’m thankful to TheBigBoss.org website for all of the wealth of information it contained. Maybe if this blog can help one person deal with this problem just a little quicker than they would have otherwise, it is all worth it.