iPhone won't stay in dfu mode long enough to restore?

For some reason iPhones have an annoying habit of rebooting while you're waiting for the firmware file to download. Thankfully, you can download the firmware file through your browser and select it manually in iTunes, so the phone doesn't have to wait for iTunes to download 2.5+ GB.

Go to https://ipsw.me/ , locate your model and download the latest IPSW (Apple's iOS firmware file type). ipsw.me links to Apple's firmware servers, so the latest versions are digitally signed, which means you can use them in iTunes.

Put your phone into recovery mode and connect it to your computer. Cancel any dialog options asking if you want to restore or update until you are at the phone's landing page. There should be two buttons on the righthand side of the iTunes window marked "Check for updates" and "Restore iPhone..." On Mac, hold down the "alt/option" key while left-clicking on "Restore iPhone...", and you'll have the option to choose the firmware file you wish to restore with. On Windows, hold down the shift key while clicking "Restore iPhone..."

Select the firmware file you downloaded from ipsw.me and the phone should restore. Doing it this way allows you to download the file prior to putting your phone into recovery mode, so it won't timeout and reboot while iTunes is doing its thing.

Still won’t finish extraction on my iPad 6 wifi model, keeps rebooting midway to 95% to extraction finish.

Thank god that actually worked. My iphone 6 while trying to update to ios 12 would go into recovery mode and not come out of it. Then i would get it into DFU only for it to reboot and turn on half way through while updating on itunes. I couldnt even force the update ota because the ‘checking for update’ would just spin and think but not freeze. This is the only option that has worked! Thank you and kudos to you!

I have the ultimate answer to this problem. I could restore my iPhone, which was not even detected by iTunes yesterday. When the software is being downloaded in my case through Finder, before the time is up for the DFU mode and the phone exits the DFU mode simply press the home button+power button combination followed by the home button only so the phone restarts the DFU mode. That way you can prolong the amount of time your phone stays in DFU mode and when the download is completed, you are good to go.

Extracting the software takes too long and the phone exits recovery mode

It didn’t work.

iPhone could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (32).

Nothing worked for me. Stuck on trying to get my iPhone 6 plus on recovery mode doesn't stay neither on dfu mode.

Hi guys this way worked for me, just get an elastic band and use it to keep your volume down button in.

This way your phone will stay in dfu mode.

Drivers problems. Need to check if all drivers be installed.

May Apple Device Support is missing.

Ok, so I had this problem where my IPhone 7 would keep restarting while it was in recovery mode or it would simply not turn on after downloading firmware was complete. I suspected the issue to be with the battery, because the phone used to work perfectly and I hadnt known of a battery change ever, so I got a new battery from ifixit, popped it in, and went to restore the phone in itunes. The process went smoothly, and I had no issues. As the batteries get older they start to degrade and affects the IPhones functionality. Most issues like slow IPhone or random shutoffs, even itunes errors can be fixed with a battery replacement and its $30, so why not try it. If a battery replacement doesn’t help you with your issues, then your problem is on the logic board itself, either on the memory chip or somewhere else. For that issue, I would recommend looking up REWA technology on youtube and see what they do and try contacting them if they may be able to help because I know they have professional grade equipment where they are able to re-flash the IPhone’s nand memory, but im not too sure about that. Anyway, try a battery replacement and if it works, great, if not, we got a different problem on our hands. Good luck on your issue!!

I have the same problem with an iPhone 2g (first generation of iPhone) which I bought on Ebay for few dollars from China. The phone was working when it arrived, but it was jailbroken and with lots of personal data on it (pictures, contacts, etc.). I decided to try restore it. Ok I did a mistake, I know now, because il was jailbroken. Now the iPhone never ends the startup process when I turn it on, and when put in DFU mode it's does not stay enough to try restore it with iTunes, even selecting the iOS image from the PC.
iTunes tells me it exited DFU mode, even if the phone is still in DFU mode...

I had this problem with my iPhone 11 pro. I had forgotten the passcode and wanted to do a complete reinstall.

I booted the phone in recovery mode, would get the screen, showing the laptop with a cable. When initiating the recovery on my macbook, it would reboot (within a minute) and would exit recovery mode.

The suggestion of first downloading the IPSW also didn't work for me, as while extracting the package, it would already reboot.. very frustrating.

Eventually I figured there's a difference between 'recovery mode' and 'DFU mode'. In recovery mode, it shows the laptop and cable, but in DFU mode, the phone starts without the use of iOS and shows a black screen.

Once I discovered this and connected it to my laptop, I was able to reinstall it without an issue (from DFU mode it didn't restart automatically).

I hope this may be the solution for some others facing this issue as well :)

Nothing worked for me trying to restore and ipod 4th generation which had a perfectly working strong battery after not being used for years. the device will enter DFU mode, show the cable on the device, Itunes will recognize the device, but it will exit DFU mode instantaneously, and once restore is selected, it will read a message that the device has left DFU mode, and you need to disconnect and put it back into DFU mode. Then its just a loop, same thing. Tried everything, guess its fried. Bummer because I love the Ipod and they don't make them anymore.