How to Put iPhone in DFU Mode

It is not common for an iPhone to have problems that do not allow us to start the device and access the home screen. But, as with any electronic device, it is possible, especially in times of scene jailbreak or, more normal and current, test the betas of the Apple mobile operating system. When our iPhone fails to start in itself, we will probably have to restore the device, and the best way is to put it In DFU mode (Device firmware update).

Putting an iOS device in DFU mode is a simple and risk-free process. If you search the Internet for how to do it, you will most likely find the multi-step method that involves having to count several seconds for each operation. This method is also included in this article, but, whenever possible, I recommend the second one, which is much simpler. In addition, if we use the method that combines buttons and accounts, we can also restart the device, which is not useful if what we want is simply restore our iPhone. Below we explain all the secrets of DFU mode.

What is DFU mode for?

We could say that DFU mode is a 0 point (or almost) in which we can Restore an iOS device regardless of the problem that we live in. The main reason to use it is to change the firmware From the device. Although the “U” stands for “Upgrade”, DFU mode will also allow us to install a previous version of iOS, which was particularly interesting on the iPhone 4, a device with a hardware failure that will still allow you to download/upload. version (as long as we have saved the SHSH to sign the firmware we want to install). We can also downgrade to an iPhone 4S or later as long as Apple continues to sign the version we intend to install.

On the other hand, it is possible that our iPhone cannot be restored for some reason, so it is best to force DFU mode, which will allow us to restore our device.

How to Put iPhone in DFU Mode

Until 2016, when Apple released the first iPhone with a touch-sensitive home button that was no longer pressed, everything was easier. I don’t mean that it’s harder to put iPhones in DFU mode now, but that there are more models and each type is made differently. The most recent ones aren’t that they don’t have a home button that doesn’t leak, inaccessible in the event of a software failure; it’s that in 2017 came the iPhone X (ten) and the circle that until then had been something of an identifier for the blocked phone had disappeared, never to return.

What you have below explains how to put iPhones into DFU mode separately by model, although part of the process is repeated in each of them and is explained in the first three steps:

1. We connect the iPhone with the cable to a Mac or PC.
2. We open Finder in recent versions of macOS or iTunes in older versions and Windows. It is possible that if you are reading this article after a few months or years, iTunes is no longer available on Windows and the application to use is Apple devices. At the time of publishing this note, iTunes remains official for Windows.
3. We turn off the iPhone.

The following is what changes in each type of iPhone

iPhone with FaceID, iPhone 8/Plus and iPhone SE 2

4. We press the power button for 3 seconds.
5. Without stopping pressing the power button, press and hold the volume down button.
6. We hold both buttons for 10 seconds. If we see the Apple logo, it went wrong and we have to start again.
7. We release the power button and continue holding the volume down button for another 5 seconds. In this case, what indicates that everything has gone wrong and we have to start over is the message that invites us to connect the device to iTunes or Finder. If what we have seen is that the screen is still black, that’s it. The computer will detect that the iPhone is in DFU.

iPhone 7/Plus

4. We press the power button for 3 seconds.
5. Without stopping pressing the power button, press and hold the start button.
6. We hold both buttons for 10 seconds. If we see the Apple logo, it went wrong and we have to start again.
7. We release the power button and continue holding the volume down button for another 5 seconds. In this case, what indicates that everything has gone wrong and we have to start over is the message to connect to iTunes or Finder. If what we have seen is that the screen is still black, that’s it. The computer will detect that the iPhone is in DFU.

iPhone 6s/Plus and earlier

4. Without releasing the power button, press and hold the home button and the power button for 10 seconds.
5. We release the power button and hold the home button until we see the iTunes logo with the cable on the screen of our device.

The previous method is the most common, but there is also a much simpler method with only three steps:

1. We turn off the iPhone.
2. We connect the cable to the iPhone.
3. With the home button pressed, we connect the other end of the cable to a computer.

The second method is better, right? The problem is that this method can’t work on phones without a sagging home button.

How to exit DFU mode

If you put your device into DFU mode unnecessarily, you have a maximum of four options:

• Force a restartwhich until the iPhone 6s was with the sleep + home button, in the 7 and 8 with the off + volume down button and in those with FadeID it is volume + -> volume – -> off, and in all models keep until you see the apple.
• Options 2 and 3 are only for old equipment and are made with tools that are no longer available even on their official website. These are TinyUmbrella, with which you need to connect the device to the computer and press the “Exit Recovery” button, and redsn0w, which we will talk about later.
• Finally, if none of the previous options worked for us, we can always restoresomething we will achieve by connecting our iPhone to a computer, opening Finder in recent versions of macOS and iTunes in older versions and in Windows and restoring from one of these options.

What is the difference between DFU and recovery mode?

The main difference between recovery mode and DFU mode is booting. Recovery mode uses iBoot when restoring or updating an iPhone, while DFU mode does a Bypass on iBootwhich will allow us to download the version of our iPhone (if the previous version of iOS is still signed).

iBoot is the bootloader (bootloader) of iOS devices. iBoot acts on restores when the iPhone is in recovery mode and makes sure that we are using a version of iOS equal to or higher than the one we have installed on our iPhone. If this is not the case, iBoot will not allow us to restore.

If we want to restore the latest version, Recovery mode will do almost everything for ussomething that doesn’t happen if we want to install a previous version of iOS.

conclusion

Keep in mind that we don’t need to put our iPhone/iPod or iPad into DFU mode unless it is strictly necessary.

What is described in this article only makes sense if our device cannot be restored for some reason, for example when running the downgrade from a beta version of iOS to an official version or because some twist installed through jailbreak left our iPhone/iPod or iPad in an infinite boot in which it does not go beyond the apple logo that appears when turning on.