Do you know what a bricked iPhone means? Can you unbrick it if iPhone bricked? If you don’t know the answers, you are in the right place. Here you will learn almost everything related to a bricked phone and how to unbrick iPhone yourself easily and quickly, even an iPhone bricked after updating to iOS 17 is covered.
What Does a Bricked Phone Look Like?
Before diving into troubleshooting, it is imperative to understand how to know if your phone is bricked because many people misunderstand a bricked iPhone. Well! Your iPhone shows some symptoms that indicate that it has been bricked. You can know that your iPhone is bricked when:
- It fails to turn on. This is the most important symptom.
- If you attempted to put it into recovery mode but it never came out of it.
- It is stuck in recovery mode during an update or restore.
- It is stuck on the black screen.
- It is stuck on the black screen with a spinning wheel.
- It is powering on but stuck on the Apple logo screen.
- It is stuck on Apple logo with a progress bar.
- And so on…
In any of the above conditions, the first thing that you must do is, try to force restart your iPhone. When you force reboot your device, the glitches that prevent iPhone from restarting will be eliminated.
If your iPhone starts working normally after the force restart, it means that the phone was not bricked and was merely stuck at some point due to some glitch in any app or the iOS itself. However, if force restart doesn’t work, you can follow the solutions in the next section to unbrick your iPhone.
The method of force restarting may vary depending on the model of the iPhone you have. Therefore, for everyone’s convenience, the procedures for all the variants are explained below:
For iPhone 8 or Later and iPhone SE – 2nd Generation
- Press and let go of the Volume Up button.
- Immediately press and let go of the Volume Down button.
- Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button.
- Wait until the Apple logo appears.
- Let go of the Sleep/Wake button as well.
- Check if the phone restarts normally.
For iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
- Press and hold down the Volume Down and Sleep/Wake buttons together.
- Wait until the Apple logo shows up.
- Let go of both buttons.
- See if your iPhone boots normally.
For iPhone 6s or Earlier and iPhone SE – 1s Generation
- Press and hold down the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons together.
- Wait until the Apple logo comes up.
- Let go of both buttons.
- Confirm if the phone restarts normally.
What Can You Do If iPhone Bricked?
Because of the different causes that get your iPhone bricked, the solutions may vary. However, because it’s a bit challenging to pinpoint the exact reason behind the issue, all you are left with is the hit-and-trial method.
Here are a couple of solutions, and if you follow them correctly, you can eliminate the problem within no time. Some proven fixes are explained below.
1. Use Recovery Mode via iTunes
Recovery Mode allows iTunes to update iOS if a newer version is available, and if not, you can restore the operating system, which usually helps when iPhone bricked. When iTunes updates iPhone, it downloads a fresh copy of iOS to the PC and installs it on your iPhone without affecting your data on the device. iTunes performs a clean installation when it restores iOS. All the data from your device is erased and the settings revert to factory defaults.
The process of putting an iPhone into Recovery Mode is almost identical to that of force rebooting, with the only difference in the former being that you must keep the buttons pressed until you see the recovery mode screen. If your iPhone is stuck in recovery mode, just follow the steps after iPhone enters recovery mode. For your convenience, the method is given below.
- Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to the computer.
- Launch iTunes.
- According to your iPhone model, press and hold the relevant button(s) as explained in the previous section.
- Keep the buttons pressed until you see the cable and PC or iTunes symbols on the mobile screen.
- Release the buttons when the icons appear and iTunes notifies you that there’s a problem with your iPhone.
- Click Update on the notification box.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to update the iOS.
If updating iOS doesn’t work, try again until you see the pop-up saying there is a problem with your iPhone.
- Click Restore this time.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to allow iTunes to download and install a fresh instance of iOS on your iPhone.
- Wait while the iOS is successfully installed and your iPhone reboots normally.
2. Use DFU Mode via iTunes
Device Firmware Update or DFU Mode bypasses all the glitches that make your iPhone bricked and allows iTunes to download a fresh instance of iOS and install it on your device. This eliminates all the issues related to the operating system, bad apps, or misconfigured settings on your iDevice by erasing all the data and putting everything to factory defaults. This further allows you to set up your iPhone afresh. If you want to know the differences between DFU Mode and Recovery Mode, check this post.
Below is the guide to using DFU Mode to restore iPhone via iTunes.
Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to the computer. Launch iTunes. The method to put an iPhone into DFU Mode depends on its model, and therefore all the procedures are explained below.
For iPhone 8 or Later
- Press and let go of the Volume Up button.
- Quickly Press and let go of the Volume Down button.
- Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button.
- As the screen goes black, while keeping the Sleep/Wake button pressed, press and hold down the Volume Down button for 5 seconds.
- Let go of the Sleep/Wake button after the said 5 seconds while keeping the Volume Down button pressed.
- Wait until iTunes displays a notification that your iPhone is in Recovery Mode while the phone screen is still blank.
- Let go of the Volume Down button as well.
For iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus:
- Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to your computer.
- Launch iTunes.
- Press and hold down the Volume Down and Sleep/Wake buttons together.
- After 8 seconds, let go of the Sleep/Wake button while still pressing the Volume Down button.
- Wait until iTunes displays the message that your iPhone is in Recovery Mode.
- Let go of the Volume Down button as well.
For iPhone 6s or Earlier
- Connect your iPhone to your computer using the Lightning Cable.
- Launch iTunes.
- Press and hold down the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons together.
- After 8 seconds, let go of the Sleep/Wake button while holding down the Home button.
- Wait until iTunes displays a notification that your iPhone is in Recovery Mode.
- Let go of the Home button as well.
Please note that your iPhone screen will be black when it is in DFU Mode.
Click OK when the iTunes notification box appears. Once your iPhone is in DFU Mode, you can click Restore iPhone and follow the on-screen instructions to allow iTunes to download and install a fresh and error-free instance of iOS on your device.
3. Use a Third-Party Tool (If iTunes Fails to Work)
If none of the above iTunes solutions work, you can use any third-party tool to your preference to fix your bricked iPhone. There are many choices online and some of them are proven to work amazingly. Because such tools are designed and developed specifically for the purpose, most of them are efficient enough to do the job in merely a few mouse clicks. For example, AnyFix developed by iMobie that focuses on solutions for mobile phones for more than 10 years, is a good choice. Some users said it worked like a charm. You can have a try if you have a budget.
4. Go to Apple Store (If Nothing Works)
If none of the above solutions to unbrick the iPhone works, it would be a wise idea to take the phone to the nearest Apple Store and let the professionals do the job for you because there must be some hardware problems with your device. That’s not we can fix at home. Although you may have to bear the repairing cost if the phone is out of warranty, it is more possible for you to get the device back up and running.
Frequently Asked Questions about Bricked iPhone
Although we have introduced the solutions to unbrick iPhone, you may still have some other questions as below.
1. Can you recover data from a bricked iPhone?
If your iPhone is bricked, you can still recover your data as long as you didn’t restore iOS via iTunes. Because restoring through iTunes performs a clean installation of iOS, all the data and settings of your device are gone for good, and you must set up the phone afresh. If unfortunately, you have to restore iPhone in order to use it again, you can only recover from an iTunes or iCloud backup. In this case, those who never back up iPhone will lose all the data.
2. What can you do if iPhone bricked after jailbreak?
In such a case, you can try any of the above solutions to unbrick iPhone, but you probably have to restore your iPhone. Although jailbreaking nullifies your warranty, when you send it to Apple store, they will usually help you fix it.
3. What can you do if iPhone bricked after update of iOS 17?
If your iPhone bricked after updating to iOS 17, you can try putting it into Recovery Mode and retry updating it via iTunes. Try more times. If the issue persists, you have to go for the DFU method to restore your iPhone via iTunes.
Conclusion
If your iPhone bricked, using iTunes to update or restore iOS through Recovery Mode should work. If that path doesn’t help, you can try the DFU method to restore iOS as explained above. You can also obtain a third-party tool to fix the problem. If nothing helps, taking the phone to the nearest Apple Store would be your last resort.
