Apple released iOS 7.0.6 to patch a vulnerability, which if unpatched could allow attackers to capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS. However, quite a few users have reported that the upgrade didn’t go as planned and their iDevices have been bricked after the update or during the update process.
Users have flocked to Twitter as well as Apple support forums voicing their concerns and frustrations as quite a few users have tried updating their iOS 7 devices while on the move and once bricked, their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch requires a connection to iTunes to restart.
“Updated my iPhone 5s to 7.0.6 and the phone won’t turn back on”, wrote one user on Apple Support. “Same problem here. 7.0.6 completely bricked my IPhone 5s. It won’t turn on or restore”, wrote another user.
Some of the users were able to enter recovery mode and then after a factory reset managed to restore their last backup to get their iDevice working, but quite a few were not lucky.
“I had the same thing happen last night, but I’m unable to restore. iTunes detects my phone… even though the serial number field says N/A. But, when I press Restore it gives me an iTunes Error #11 and stops”, wrote one user.
“Warning: Apple iOS 7.0.6 bricked my device. Loses all data, requires iTunes cable. Common occurrence for others also. Do not install!” wrote one user on Twitter.
“iOS 7.0.6. Bricked my iPad Air. Help @AppStore :(,” wrote another.
The issue doesn’t seem to be widespread as there are relatively less entries on both Twitter and Apple Support; however, we recommend that users first backup their devices before they hit the update button and only go about doing it if they have their iTunes loaded system with them in case the update fails.
My iPhone 5S is also dead. Either in Soft DFU or Full DFU, thats all it does.
Time to restore!
my 5S is dead too.
my ipad air is dead too after I clicked install update.
My iPad Air is also bricked after attempting to install 7.0.6. Restore doesn’t work. I now have a $700 paper weight.
You can add the iPod Touch to the list of bricked devises too. It asks me to connect to iTunes but when I connect it to my Macbook I get an error message saying ‘iTunes has detected a Macintosh-formatted iPod. You must restore this iPod before you can use it on WIndows’. This might make sense if were trying to attach it to a Windows device but it makes no sense on my MacBook running OS/X
im still use i4s bcoz i love it , and has updated iOS 7.0.6 already via WIFI without any problems.
You should ALWAYS update an Ios device with a hard-wired connection to itunes. Its ALWAYS been like that. You don’t want data as sensitive as operating code floating through the air.
Thank you for the information, Richard. Some people, like me, were unaware of that.
I’ve done every update over the air since Apple started offering that, and never once had this problem. However, I now have a bricked iPhone 5s 🙁 At some points, I haven’t had a PC or laptop to do this unfortunately.
Nonsense.
My iPhone 5s worked fine when I updated from 7.0.4, you guys are unlucky… Maybe you should have done it via iTunes/PC… Like I did. Oh well !
May I just suggest that your comment was rude and unnecessary, Kane? Not everyone knows to update via iTunes/PC. That doesn’t make you some kind of genius, either, it just makes you someone in the know.
That isnt rude..at all
I just tried to do the update via itunes/PC and guess what. I got an error go figure! and now I’m stuck on the connect to itunes symbol, and itunes isn’t detecting ipad air. So I dont think it matters doing it by air, or by PC!!!!
Here is a fix: Pur iPad in DFU mode…
Hold the power button for 3 seconds
Begin holding the Home button without releasing the Sleep/Power button for 10 seconds
Release the power button and continue holding the home button until you get a popup from iTunes that your device is recognized as being in recovery mode.
That’s it, you’re in DFU mode. If you get stuck in DFU mode and need to get out, just hold the power button and home button simultaneously until the Apple logo appears.
You can add my wife’s Verizon iPhone 4 to this mess as well. Only option is to restore through iTunes, losing all of her vital school data. Not happening.
…all her school data was stored locally on the iPhone, with no online sync of any kind to any cloud-based service or Exchange Activesync?
How…is it…that people today still continue to store all their data merely locally on their mobile device? What if they lose it? We’ve all long passed the point where it’s the data that’s the most important thing, not the device…
I did the upgrade. My iPhone 4S and 5 had no issues but my iPad 3 keeps shutting down every 2 minutes. I don’t know what to do!
Phones are not bricked when it’s asking to connect to iTunes. My phone was stuck in boot loops. Easy to fix. I downloaded the full 7.0.6 1.2Gig IPSW file and restored it manually. iTunes should have done it for me automatically however the Apple servers were slow while everybody downloading the patches and the file was coming only around 300KB/sec, more than an hour. BTW, my phone was on 7.0.1 or so prior to 7.0.6 upgrade, I missed a few prior updates. I think it caused this incremental update to fail.
Attempted to update my iPhone 5s and, #fail! Going through the iTunes restore process now.
Yep, phones are getting smarter and people are getting dumb.
4S done. This is the last time I say this is my last Apple.
I carelessly updated my 64GB 5S OTA with no backup from 7.0.3. Left the phone alone for the duration. Updated beautifully with no issues. My fingerprint scanner now somehow remembers all of my fingerprints (which has been flaky since the 7.0.3 update, forgetting them every 24 hours or so).
NOT TRUE…. I’m running 7.0.6 on an IPad air just fine… All a lie.
ah yes of course, since it’s worked for you, there is no possibly circumstance that anyone else could have an issue. Ah yes you’d make one fine IT helpdesk tech. “not working for you? well it’s working for me. bye”.
Not a lie at all. It’s so bad my company sent a mass message to all employee not to upgrade. Unfortunately 34% of our company employees had already upgraded and have iphone’s and ipad now bricked beyond repair. Myself included along with 2 of my personnel devices. Just ridiculous. I hope to see a class action suit to free repair, replace, or refund money from Apple who don’t seem to even care at this point!
Any update on this. I would join such a lawsuit.
ios 7.0.6 bricked my iphone 5 too. Don’t know what to do. Genius bar asked me 269 $ to repair it when i haven’t done anything.
Updated my iPad 3 via iTunes after backing up. iTunes failed in the middle of the update. When I unplugged and plugged my iPad back in, it found the iPad 3 in recovery mode, restored it, then I restored the backup. So everything ended up okay. But I was wondering, since I’ve never had iTunes fail during an update before. Probably a coincidence *smile*.
Tried to upgrade my 5s 64 GB this morning via iTunes on OS X Mavericks. Everything on the Mac was updated to the latest version, including iTunes. Once iTunes downloaded the iOS and backup up the phone, it was stuck on “Preparing iPhone for software update”. I decided to unplug the iPhone and then plugged it back in. At this point, the iPhone went black and then – after a few seconds – a saw the dreaded “Connect to iTunes” screen. However, a few seconds later, the screen went away, and iTunes finally started upgrading the iPhone. A few minutes later, the iPhone was running on iOS 7.0.6.
However, I also tried to upgrade my iPad Mini retina Wi-Fi only 32 GB – using a different Mac, but also running the latest OS X with all the latest upgrades. I experienced the same exact problem – once iOS was downloaded, iTunes was stuck on “Preparing iPad for software update” message. The same trick – disconnecting the iPad and reconnecting it to the Mac did not kick off the update process. Instead, I saw the notification on the retina iPad Mini saying that there’s an update available. No matter what I tried, I could not kick off the update via iTunes. Finally, I went to Settings in iOS and updated to 7.0.6 from there.
Finally, I wanted to restore to iOS 7.0.6 via iTunes – I want to have the iOS version running that was not updated to over-the-air. Now iTunes is stuck on “Preparing iPad for restore” message. The iPad is still on and usable running the over-the-air iOS 7.0.6.
There’s something seriously wrong with iOS 7.0.6. There’s no doubt in my mind that both the update and the restore processes are broken. I have been upgrading iOS devices both over-the-air and via iTunes multiple times since 2009, and I have never seen this issue before. This time I tried two different Macs with two different types of iOS devices, and both of them had issues. I have two more iOS devices to update – an iPhone 5s and an iPad Air. I’m not going to update them until I understand what’s happening here. Maybe Apple’s servers are hammered with everyone trying to update at the same time – I don’t know.
I JUST DOWNLOADED THIS STUPID UPDATE ON MY IPHONE 5 AND NOTHING WORKS !!! IM STUCK IM RECOVERY MODE LOOOP AND TINY UMBRELLA AND REDSN0W CANT KICK IT OUT PLEASE HELPP!!!!!! THIS HAPPENED ONLY CAUSE I WANTED TO UPDATE MY PHONE ? NICE JOB APPLE , IT SEEMS LIKE THIER IS ALWAYS AT LEAST ONE WRONG WITH EACH IPHONE IT IS SICK. AS SOON AS I GET THIS WORKING IM SEELING IT AND GETTING A GALAXY. TIRED OF THESE STUPID PROBLEMS AND UPDATE IS SUPPOSED TO FIX YOUR PHONE AND ENHANCE IT , INSTEAD OF HARMING IT -.- SSO IF ANYONE ACTUALLY TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS PLEASE PLEASE HELP
John,
If you want help, provide some information. Like iPhone model version of iOS it was running, the steps you performed to brick it, etc. how can anyone help you without any of this information?
Also, TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY.
Mine is missing app icons for photos, music and contacts. content still there. app icons gone.
My iPhone 5 is bricked to thanks to the update. I took it to Apple today, after trying every.single.fix known to man and they confirmed it’s dead. Because it’s 14 months old, and I didn’t buy Apple Care, I’m out of luck. Completely sucks, especially since there were other people in the store with the exact same problem as me.
That’s what you get for buying Apple.
🙂
Apple is the new Microsoft.
Maybe a much worse and arrogant one. Microsoft could never make such a stupid updates bricking its own system.
i see why best buy is having an ipad sale
I updated my iPad mini & it’s now a paperweight. It won’t come back on or respond to anything, it’s completely dead.
Just bought at ipad air at nine pm
Last night brought it home plugged into charge finally sat down to setup about midnight setup fine prompted me to do update started fine then went black ..now it won’t turn on or anything wtf so beyond pissed right now!!! hubby called best and they told him to bring it in not happy for the money I just spent and didn’t have it but a few hours and already problems!!
Yeah, that’s the right answer. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3, as many or more problems there, especially with updates. Updates have been a lot easier on the iPad side than on the Samsung Galaxy side. No way would I multiply my problems by getting another Samsung Galaxy product.
Have you read the Android forums at all? There are a tremendous number of users that have problems after Samsung updates their Android phones…get a life, man, and find something else to do.
Backed up my iPhone 4s first and then did the update through iTunes. Now my phone says to plug in to iTunes, but itunes is not finding it. What to do now????
Take it to an Apple store and see if they can get it back on. They will definitely try to get you help. Make sure you make an appointment before you head in so they can get you help asap without any issues.
Not allegedly ….it does brick your phone! I HAD a fairly new iPhone. Apple charged me 150 to replace my iPhone in late Nov for a screen that suddenly went blue. After update 7.0.6 my phone completely stopped working. Went to Apple genius bar – they couldnt fix. 250 on top of the 150 i just spent in Nov. No Thanks!!
Im now an HTC One user and loving it so far. As a bonus, i have an Apple iPhone paper weight!
Same thing happened to my iPad2. They wanted $250 for a replacement after I already spent $700 three years ago. Where does it end? I got a Note for $300 from Costco. I wish I could go back in time and not buy the iPad.
Bricked my iPad 3 too. Connected to iTunes, shows up with the correct device name, try to restore and it tells me I have to turn OFF Find My iPhone in the iCloud settings on the device. Only problem is, I CANNOT ACCESS THE DEVICE. Thanks Apple; what a bunch of amateurs.
So, I just wanted to charge my phone through my laptop and lo and behold I got an update notification from itunes. I never do my updates through itunes, so I carelessly clicked on it,thinking it was for the itunes, and HUGE MISTAKE. I usually update through my phone and I backup on a separate netbook I purchase especially for my iphone. Now my phone is stuck on the page where it is asking to plug into itunes. When I do plug it wants to factory restore, but I hadn’t backed up, so now I am not sure what to do. I’ve been trying to get all the data on my iphone transferred to my netbook, but I can’t access. What should I do next? I do not want to lose my data, and not sure itunes backs up. Before you judge this is my first mac product ever and I am extremely in need of help, please reply if you know of any links. I will really appreciate it.
apparently this update will also brick a 4S — just updated last night and now my phone is inoperable.
i have update for ipad 2 now iTunes cant detect what the hell is happen?? so i cant transfer my data from pc to ipad or ipad to pc….
Same thing happened to me. They want $250 for a replacement, but I think I’ve paid enough. Is there a way to get enough of us together to force apple to do the right thing?
This is why it’s always good to check a few forums before installing new software, as I’m doing now
4S here also showing the “Connect to iTunes” screen, Win8 (ugh) PC telling me to restore. Luckily backed up on home Win7 PC yesterday, so will try to connect there before making any moves to restore. Fingers crossed!
I wish I’m still on Ios 5. Ios 7 is simply terrible
Hey guys any new products that you have recently purchased are still under the one year manufacturing warranty, if i were you just contact Apple vie telephone or go to the Apple store and get it switched out. It is a simple process and Apple won’t make it hard to get a new one. I know it is a inconvenience but at least you can get another one without paying anything. Also ask them if they can update your iPad to the latest software for you while you are there.
And what about for those of us who are out of warranty? Should we have to pay Apple anything for their mistakes?
It bricked my ipad 3 as well. I have tried to restore several times. was on the phone with an Apple rep for 3 hours. Still won’t restore. Have to take it to store and was told that I will be charged for fixing because it’s out of warranty.
Same thing happened to my iPad2. They want $250 for a replacement, but I think I’ve paid enough. Is there a way to get enough of us together to force apple to do the right thing?
Ohhh the charmer. I happen to use *both* Android and iOS devices.
This isn’t the first time an update has caused issues, whether it be smartphone, Windows OS, or otherwise. And it won’t be the last.
My point stands. It’s not the device that’s important. It’s the data. If you brick your iOS device beyond recovery(and even this update doesn’t entirely brick it), take it to the Apple store, get it exchanged, resync your data and oh look everything was back to exactly the way it was, so hard I know.
I did too, I had a brand new phone in less than a half an hour 🙂
My iPhone 5 did not turn on when it was automatically updated to 7.0.6. I used iTunes to restore, and it died again a few days later. It gives me error number 2009, or 2006, or some other numbers each time.
They tell you it’s a hardware issue and want $250 for a replacement.
Same thing happened to me. They want $250 for a replacement, but I think I’ve paid enough. Is there a way to get enough of us together to force apple to do the right thing?
I would be very interested in a class action lawsuit, but how do we all get together? I see at least four people on this board with similar issues.