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How To Put An iPhone In DFU Mode, The Apple Way

    David Payette
  • 2 years ago
    • Categories: iOS

DFU stands for Device Firmware Update, and it’s the deepest type of restore you can do on an iPhone. An Apple lead genius taught me how to put iPhones into DFU mode, and as an Apple tech, I’ve done it hundreds of times.

Surprisingly, I’ve never seen another article explain how to enter DFU mode the way I was trained. A lot of the information out there is just plain wrong. In this article, I’ll explain what DFU mode is, how firmware works on your iPhone, and show you step-by-step how to DFU restore your iPhone.

If you’d rather watch than read (actually, both can be helpful), skip down to our new YouTube video about DFU mode and how to DFU restore an iPhone.

What You Need To Know Before We Begin

  • The Home Button is the circular button below your iPhone’s display.
  • The Sleep / Wake Button is Apple’s name for the power button.
  • You’ll need a timer to count to 8 seconds (or you can do it in your head).
  • If you can, back up your iPhone to iCloud, iTunes, or Finder before put your iPhone in DFU mode.
  • Macs running macOS Catalina 10.15 or newer use Finder to DFU restore an iPhone.

How To Put An iPhone 7 Or Older In DFU Mode

  1. Plug your iPhone into your computer and open iTunes if you have a Mac running macOS Mojave 10.14 or a PC. Open Finder if you have a Mac running macOS Catalina 10.15 or newer. It doesn’t matter if your iPhone is on or off.
  2. Press and hold the Sleep / Wake Button and Home Button (iPhone 6s and below) or the volume down button (iPhone 7) together for 8 seconds.
  3. After 8 seconds, release the Sleep / Wake Button but continue to hold the Home Button (iPhone 6s and below) or the volume down button (iPhone 7) until your iPhone appears in iTunes or Finder.
  4. Let go of the Home Button or volume down button. Your iPhone’s display will be completely black if you’ve successfully entered DFU mode. If it’s not, try again from the beginning.
  5. Restore your iPhone using iTunes or Finder.

How To Put An iPhone 8 Or Newer In DFU Mode

A lot of other websites give false, misleading, or overcomplicated steps when telling you how to DFU restore an iPhone 8 or newer. They’ll tell you to turn off your iPhone first, which is completely unnecessary. Your iPhone does not have to be off before you put it in DFU Mode.

If you like our videos, watch our new YouTube video about how to DFU restore your iPhone or newer, including the iPhone 13. If you prefer to read the steps, the process is actually a lot easier than they make it out to be! Putting your iPhone in DFU mode starts off just like a hard hard reset.

  1. Quickly press and release the volume up button, then quickly press and release the volume down button, and then press and hold the side button until the screen goes black.
  2. As soon as the screen turns black, press and hold the volume down button while continuing to hold the side button.
  3. After 5 seconds, release the side button while continuing to hold the volume down button until your iPhone shows up in iTunes or Finder.
  4. As soon as it appears in iTunes or Finder, release the volume button. Ta-da! Your iPhone is in DFU mode.

Note: If the Apple logo is appearing on the screen, you held down the volume down button for too long. Start the process over from the beginning and try again.

If You’d Rather Watch Than Read…

Check out our new YouTube tutorial on how to put an iPhone into DFU mode and how to perform a DFU restore if you’d like to see it in action. In this video, we also show you how to get your iPhone out of DFU mode and debunk some misinformation about DFU restores.

A Word Of Warning

When you DFU restore your iPhone, your computer erases and reloads every bit of code that controls the software and hardware on your iPhone. There’s the potential for something to go wrong.

If your iPhone is damaged in any way, and especially if it’s water-damaged, a DFU restore may break your iPhone. I’ve worked with customers who tried to restore their iPhones to fix a minor problem, but water had damaged another component that prevented the restore from completing. A useable iPhone with minor problems can become completely unusable if a DFU restore fails because of water-damage.

What’s Firmware? What Does It Do?

Firmware is the programming that controls the hardware of your device. Software changes all the time (you install apps and download new email), hardware never changes (hopefully, you don’t open your iPhone and rearrange its components), and firmware almost never changes — unless it has to.

What Other Electronic Devices Have Firmware?

All of them! Think about it: Your washing machine, dryer, TV remote, and microwave all use firmware to control buttons, timers, and other basic functions. You can’t change what the Popcorn setting does on your microwave, so it’s not software — it’s firmware.

DFU Restores: All Day, Every Day.

Apple employees restore a lot of iPhones. Given the option, I’d always choose a DFU restore over a regular or recovery mode restore. This isn’t official Apple policy and some techs would say it’s overkill, but if an iPhone has a problem that can be resolved with a restore, a DFU restore stands the best chance of fixing it.

Thanks for reading and I hope this article clarifies some of the misinformation on the internet about how to enter DFU mode and why you’d want to use it. I encourage you to embrace your inner geekiness. You should be proud! Now you can tell your friends (and kids), “Yeah, I know how to DFU restore my iPhone.”

View Comments (896)

  • mant people continuously ask me new acquaintances what model my
    ohone is , lockdown mode if I use race ID… my xfinity account and u phone over a year ago for exactly one year start April and appear to have been altered recently to have another sim downloaded to it and 547 apartment 1 as then used and changed so u didn’t have access to my own xfinity account and couldn’t be verified .

    i went to xfinity store numerous times , they showed my account in the system and being shut off 8 months prior and no understanding as to why my phone even had service with my phone number which was my business start up line , and plastered all over job ads marketing stuff etc :

    after hours and days and stress and crying and no one helping but someone Jake’s NICK who said sounded like someone installed a facial somthing or ither at some point to basically take over my camera functions and phone make ids - etc . Even tho I didn’t have that turned on the I phone 11 pro . He saw it and agreed .

    I lost my car due to this bank accounts payments sent back not knowing , because the emails said they were being paid until too late , i don’t understand why I had service for over a year made payments to what I thought was my account and got co girmanrione from xrinit only to have them keep adding iver 700 in charges mess up my credit after recently paying off all my back owed debt to buy a house for the first time , loose everything no matter how many calls I made people I spoke to half the time I was being directed to the same and or sinikar call center and people that would use English first names if people I was closest to and spot to often iver the years .

    but clearly was t their name .

    i took notes and recorded conversations times and dates , one of those things where , how could this happen and why would it have happened what did I do or what did I possibly have to offer to have this be so carefully thought out .

    i had been officially screwed with nothing to do but continue to document everything . It took four years of my hard nose to the grindstone life and accomplishments out of my life and for what?

    to charge 800 to xfinity on my account so that even xfinity could do nothing unless I paid the bill . Even tho it was working ?

    I just received an email saying comcast will remove 35 of the owed debt to settle .
    I don’t owe it !

    how can I get the kitty gritty and try to get some of all of this mess from this terrible phone and support to gain some control and have some sense of security again.

  • support.apple.com/iphone/restore
    I cant conect with computer . In was updating i phone and this hapen.?
    What tu do now?

  • Hello can you please help my iPhone 6s is stuck on apple logo I have tried all hard reset buttons I have plugged into I-tunes it is saying to do update but wont remove my data? Is this correct? I have appointment with Apple tomorrow can they restore my phone and get the data back? I am so scared I really need the Voice memos as I am going through domestic violence order and need the evidence of Messages and Voice Memos. PLS HELP.

  • My iPhone XS rear camera and flashlight isn’t working at all even after resetting all settings

  • My iPhone XS rear camera keeps coming up black when it is opened and my flash isn’t working too, this is after I did a reset all settings after I noticed that the camera was black and the flash was working

  • Does the DFU reset, remove Pegasus off my phone?
    I mean can it replace the software of my iPhone completely!?
    an expert told me I’m infected with pegasus
    It is possible to be a target in my case
    but I’m not sure if it really is Pegasus
    after reset I’ve got hacked again with zero click attacks
    i didn’t know about locked down feature that time
    now that I’m aware I’m a target
    I like to try DFU before replacing my phone
    does it work on other types of malware’s?

  • My face lock sudden not working
    Now it’s show Face lock isn’t available
    Is DFU mode helps??

  • My face lock sudden not working
    Now it’s show Face lock isn’t available
    Is DFU mode helps??

  • Wow! Just came across your website for the first time and I love the tone of writing, the clarity of instructions and how engaging the article(s) are - kudos and welcome to my “best stuff on the web” bookmarks folder! 😉😄

  • My I Phone is stuck on Verifying updates and can't get it off to do anything. What do I do?

  • My phone restarts every three minutes. Just started today . I can’t even update because it keeps shutting off . I put the data run to see if I had bad apps. There’s one that keeps saying panicfull or panic mode that happened like a lot today maybe fifty or more times . Help I clear phone dumped apps. I just can’t keep the thing on . It’s an 13 pro max only bout eight months old.

    • the issue is the mic 1 sensor is missing or damaged,and the phone will constantly restart trying to connect with it if it doesn't detect it

    • Same here but IPhone SE 2nd gen. Won't stay on long enough to reset or revert to backup. Tried restore through iTunes and still reboots without input.

  • I put my password in wrong multiple times and don't remember any of my apple account information because I broke my recent phone found my old iphone Xr and I guess i didnt use my normal password I use for everything I have no computer to hook it up to so can I fix it

  • Hello and Thanks for the great video on putting an iPhone in DFU mode. I'm 59 yr. old grammy, married to a genius businessman, who had to go to work this morning, leaving me to figure this out on my own! LOL (one day he won't be here, so I should probably figure things out on my own now!) Thanks for helping this grammy!

  • I just tried the DFU mode thing and i got it too work, but midway in restarting my iphone i didnt have enough storage, any ideas of what i could do

  • mine iphone sometimes those making: display freezing, applications opening wont, charging wont, forever automatically own closing-opening. what make shall?

  • My phone wont connect to the cellular service. I've done multiple resets and I've gotten nowhere. When I go in to check cellular connection it say's "An update is required to use cellular data on this iPhone," but my phone is running on the current ios 16.1 update. I have an iPhone XS max. Please help!!

  • Back in january of this year i shattered my iphone 7 plus screen. I wasnt able to get a screen replacement till recently. i have charged the device since january! i did the replacement how i was supposed to, but the issue i have now is that the phone doesnt cut on. i did research and found that if the phone body vibrates but the screen is black then its the screen replacement but it hasnt vibrated, so im thinking that i left the phone dead for so long itll take a long time to charge up. if anyone has any advice its greatly appreciated

    • with my 11, I changed out the broken screen for a new one, and it did the same thing, wouldn't turn on or anything. Then we did a hard reset (volume up/down then hold power button till apple logo comes on) and it worked just fine.

  • Well I kinda have a big problem…. Long story short I obtained this iPhone 6 from a friend that got it from someone who owed him money for their addiction to drugs.. well I had this phone now for a couple of months and I’ve lost contact with him but whoever he got it from has the find my phone thing on it.. it’s activation locked.. so how can I go about this

    • carrier locked the phone still has payments on it . otherwise you should be able to wipe everything the no password way, then you can add your own icloud. account to it there's will be gone .

      or you can buy a unlock code for the phone online 20 bucks or so .

      the find my i phone has nothing to do with activation locked .
      it was probably a replacement phone and he needed to enter the info from the insurance to activate it , otherwise he may have reported it lost or stolen , so that it can't be activated without some type of firmware or software intervention.

      you can always add an e sim ? dunno look into those options tho

  • After tearing my hair out for days and wasting hours talking to Apple Support I tried this DFU reset. It worked an absolute treat. Thanks for saving my life LOL

  • After I dropped my iphone 12, it shows vertical colored lines in both sides of the screen. Can this be solved with the DFU restore ?

  • Hi guy's! My first here and i already saw your iphone warnings no follow me on your tube. Anyways i hope you'll help me here. My problem and i tried a lot of technics so my iphone 11 pro suddenly went out of wifi. I tried all sorts of technics then when i saw this DFU restore from you, great to know this but how can i DFU when is ask to restore without a wifi appearing on my phone? Thanks in advance before i trow it in the garbage...;-)

  • En el iPhone 11 no me aparece el menú del Face ID por lo tanto no puedo configurarlo no cambiar mi contraseña, alguien sabe como hacer que vuelva a aparecer en el menú?

  • Thursday 8:00 a.m. I saw IOS 16 I grabbed it and went to my dr appointment I was with sprint 20 yrs recently switched to Xfinity THATS now telling me altho I’m running 1200 Mbs tv is fine but can’t download IOS16 anymore “no internet connection “ plz help guys

  • Thank you sooooo much for this article. The DFU saved my phone without having to hire someone. a Millions thanks!!!!

  • Thanks for this updated article. I used an earlier version of your article about a year ago to restore my iPhone 6s. It worked a treat. Two things about this current article:

    1. The ads on this page are obnoxious!!! I understand that you need to be paid for your expertise. Surely there is a better way! The page keeps refreshing and I lose my place while reading/typing. Most annoying!

    2. Would you please make a note for future readers about just how long it takes for iTunes to download the software and restore the phone when one doesn't have a super-fast internet connection, and the fact that iTunes doesn't tell you what - if anything - is going on all the while. A static message that it's downloading the software and will restore my phone once it's done is disconcerting. Is it actually doing it? Where is it up to in the process? How much longer will it take? Have I messed up?? I have no way of knowing!

    Thanks again!

  • have an iphone 11 and it has damage on the back (could have water damage ) is there a way to confirm this is so ?

  • elefono lenovo se congela al abrirlo y asi se queda ya hise lo necesari y sigue igual como lo conecto a mi lap top y lo reinicio no me importa perder todo gracias

  • iPad Air 2020 stopped working overnight unexpectedly. Tried an update then restore now I’m stuck in a restore loop. It only powers on to tell me to restore it which I’ve done several times now. Otherwise dead. Seems like dfu would be the next step but can’t find how to attempt this with air. Also don’t think I have iTunes anymore just “music”?? Thanks

    • Hello Nick, any updates? I have a 7th gen ipad that experienced the same issue. Took it to apple and since it was out of warranty they estimated the fix to run around $300. I will try the DFU process today.

  • I just bought an iPhone 5s from a friend of mine, but the phone cannot connect to App Store, please how can that be fixed?

  • have an iphone 6S - I forgot the password, iput the password tooo many times and now the phone is disabled. Am not able to reset it to factory settings using iTunes, because (a) I don't have a back up (b) the laptop that had the back up was formatted. So now am stuck.. How do I restore the phone to factory settings to be able to use it again. ?

  • Not sure if it's battery or I need to reset. My iphone 7+. home button frozen, screen is grey/white with apple logo. Completely frozen up. Last very quick view, Red and a battery sign before the freeze. I have kept it plugged in over night.

  • Hi I have an iPhone XS Max and the phone would always shut down on 62% with plenty of battery in it what should I do it’s a refurbished phone from Dubai

  • Thank you, I panicked when charging my phone all night but nothing in the morning !!!! followed your video and wella !!! it's charging again.

  • Hice una copia de seguridad con ITunes de mi IPhone 5S. Después restablecí y borré todo los datos. Luego con ITunes quise restaurar la copia de seguridad y horror! ITunes me avisa que no puede activarse porque no ha podido obtener la información de activación del dispositivo. He probado en modo DFU y empieza bien todo pero casi terminando me vuelve a decir el mismo aviso de ITunes. Me estoy volviendo loco!

  • iPhones have the be the worst sort of device. I'm forced to use one for work, and ever since I upgraded from the 8 to an XR, then an 11, and now a 12, I've had the same issues.

    1st, the speakerphone being activated right as you put it on your ear. No telling how much damage this has done to my ear drum. It not only activates the speaker, but it seemingly amplifies the sound. From one end of an isle in the big box supermarket to the other, I had a lady that heard what was being said through my speakerphone, probably a good 75' away. Too bad it can't be that loud when you're actually trying to use the speakerphone.

    2nd, the brightness keeps dimming no matter what I do. Auto-brightness, true tone, night shift, none of this is on and yet every time I Lock my phone the brightness changes. It's usually about half brightness, but it isn't always the same.

    Give me a flip phone please.

  • Hello, my iphone xsmas back camera 1x and flashlight not working but if changed to 2x it works perfectly and using third party like instagram to take pictures it works well. pls help

  • Thanks boys Victor from Australia I’ve been trying everything to get my wifi back up on phone it was grayed out you showed me some options the quick way with r three kids and homework etc you helped your mate. From Australia

  • My phone has no cellular data even went an upgraded my phone only way I have data is wifi turned on if it’s off I have no data

    • The same thing is happening to me! My carrier and Apple support have not been able to figure it out, was trying this DFU restore but I can't seem to get into DFU mode... did you ever find a solution?

  • Dear David, thank you so much for your article. I did not do a dfu but your site was the only place that actually said you have to leave your phone off at least a minute. I read so many help articles and kept doing everything it said, and did soft resets and all but nothing would work. After your ariticle i left my phone off for more than just a minute, I kept it off while if finished reading the whole article and all the comments and then i turned my phone back on and it worked. So happy :)

  • Siri has stopped working. I have repowered. Turned Siri off and on, location services are on, etc. Reset the airplane off on and off. Just upgraded to 15.4 as well. Any ideas

  • I recently changed password for an app that was Face ID activated.
    Since Face ID does not work on app.
    I checked Face ID in settings and it is no longer listed as an app using Face ID. Short of DFC reset I have checked everything else including reinstalling app. Can you help me?

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David Payette: I'm a former Apple employee and the founder of Payette Forward, and I'm here to help you with your iPhone.