[antwire]

Hi, Really hoping someone can help as im from the uk and apple support over here is now closed, i started to update my iphone 4 to ios5 and it said it was unable to restore then the phone reset and has continued to do so since, ive tried the power and hold button together to no avail and my pc and itunes wont recognise it but will recognise my other devices.

[zackawee27]

You can try this:

[antwire]

thanks for that but its never been jailbroken and my pc wont recognise the phone

[busydallas]

Did you unplug it from the USB and then plug it in again? Mine finally restored after being erased for about 3 hours. A lot of the other instructions here can help you - like shutting down your firewall temporarily, check which USB port you are using, etc. Good luck!

[pgood4]

If you're on a mac clearing the cache from the terminal worked for me. The actual command is in one of the other problem threads. Mine kept bombing out on trying to connect to the servers for validation and this trick worked first time. Now back up and running.

[dginc]

Hey everyone,

I just "attempted" to upgrade to iOs5. Mistake # 1!

After downloading all the software, having the new OS backup my phone etc... I ended up in no mans land.
My phone is stuck in Recovery mode with the "Plug to iTunes" icon on the screen.

First Error was "The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occured (3194)"

Second Error was ""The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occured (3194)"

Third and current Error "The iPhone "iPhone" cannot be restored at this time because the oPhone software update server could not be contacted or is temporarily unavailable."

I honestly don't know what to do....If someone can shed some light on the situation, I would really love to use my phone again... Right now it's looking like it's never going to come back.
I am in Costa Rica, It's an american phone unlocked brand new from apple 4 days ago. If I had to visit an apple store, this would mean I have to take a flight to Miami. There are no apple stored in Costa Rica.

[Just_Me_D]

Don't worry about that. iPhone stuck in recovery mode always happens when you update the iOS on your iPhone. There are two ways to solve it.
1.Press down the Home and Power buttons on your iPhone until it shuts off.
2.Connect it to your computer with the USB cable.
3.Press and hold down the Home button.
4.Hold it down until iTunes says your device is entering recovery mode.
5.Now you should be able to Restore using iTunes.

Please be mindful of the date of the post you are responding to. In this case, the date of the thread is October 12, 2011.

[plgulermovich]

My computer says that itunes is not on my phone but i have used it before, Now what?

[Just_Me_D]

My computer says that itunes is not on my phone but i have used it before, Now what?

I honestly do not know what to say. I mean, I don't know what kind of "phone" you have. If it's not an iPhone then it wouldn't have iTunes on it. If you have an iPhone, especially an iPhone 4S or newer, you should be able to at least do a spotlight search on the device for "iTunes". Also know that if you're running iOS 8 or newer, you can use Music for your music listening pleasure.