Well, the past couple of days have been pretty trying on my tech savvy.

I decided to upgrade to the new 3.0 software on my iPhone because I learned an app I was using, Twittelator, was no longer working. After tweeting with @twittelator and learning I needed to upgrade I took the plunge.

That was at about 11:30 am yesterday.

First of all make sure that your iTunes version is 8.2. Then follow the steps as you normally would to upgrade to 3.0.

Hopefully, it will go smooth as silk and you will upgrade easily. But if you’re like countless others about half way through the process you’ll get a screen on your iPhone telling you to connect to iTunes, AND that your iPhone is now in Recovery mode.

That’s when the panic sets in. After 5 hours of scanning the internet and nothing working, I shut down and decided to try again today. Up to that point nothing that I found online worked.

This morning was a new day, and I began with high hopes. I had downloaded a piece of software yesterday (won’t mention it because it didn’t work) but it did have some comments from Apple on how to set the iPhone in DFU mode. Not sure what that means, but here is what I did that finally worked.

Full Hardware DFU (required for downgrades):
Note that using a cable instead of the dock may make it easier to press
buttons in the following steps without losing the connection.

1) Start iTunes and plug the phone in.
2) With the phone powered on, hold both the POWER and HOME buttons for
seven seconds. The screen should turn black.
3) Wait two seconds while the screen is black and release the POWER button
while still holding the HOME button.
4) The screen will remain black, but after a few more seconds iTunes will
detect the phone in recovery mode.
5) Release the HOME button and proceed to restore firmware with iTunes.

Timing is fairly important on this.  If your phone reboots or ends up in
recovery mode, just try again.  You might want to look at a clock that shows
seconds while you do this.  The timing needs to be exact for it to work.

Now, in my own experience timing was not a huge factor. Simply hold down the power button (on top) and the home button (lower front) and when the screen goes black wait a couple of counts and let up. iTunes will then find your iPhone and finish the install.

Some problems that occured after the install completed.

1) All phone contacts disappeared. I don’t know where the contact synch was taking place before, but in version 3.0 it must be different. So make sure you have this info saved. Version 3.0 gives you the chance to sync with your gmail contacts so this may be a good place to start.

2) It took a while to get the apps, pictures, and music, etc. reloaded. It almost treats your phone as a brand new setup.

So, in summary, be prepared to spend a few hours to make this happen. If you like many others find yourself staring at the Recovery Screen asking you to connect to iTunes, I hope this helps.