How do I restore iPhone 6s stuck on connect to iTunes screen/Apple logo

Question

I'm not really sure how, but after I woke up today, my phone was just displaying the loading spinner and doesn't start up anymore.
It's weird because my phone turned off last night and suspecting that it was probably out of charge, I thought charging it overnight would fix the problem.

So, my iPhone is currently stuck on the iTunes/Apple Logo loop. When I put it into DFU/Recovery Mode and connect it to iTunes, it isn't able to restore it. It keeps throwing "Network Connection Problems" -- it downloads iOS 10 for a bit and suddenly stops downloading, throwing the error. I've also tried downloading a custom .ipsw from https://ipsw.me/ but it seems that the file is corrupted whenever iTunes tries to unpack it.

Any thoughts on how I could go about fixing this?

Note - I don't have a jailbroken iPhone.

Answer 1

The network error means iTunes can't get the files it needs from Apple so there's nothing to do on the phone at this point.

The fastest way to sort any iOS device that says “connect to iTunes” and your preferred iTunes isn’t working is to take your iOS device to iTunes on a computer that you know works. Apple stores maintain multiple installations of iTunes ready to restore devices. No data sync happens when you are at the “restore screen” but you can check for local backups in iTunes when you’re done if you like.

As to fixing your specific error, can you take your PC/Mac to a different network or take the phone to a different computer? Sometimes that's far easier than diagnosing one iTunes that isn't working for a rare event like a DFU restore.

If you want to troubleshoot your iTunes, I would start with:

• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204770

It's quite detailed, so you will want to make note of the exact error message and be sure to follow steps like updating the computer and iTunes as well as making sure anti virus and other security software and network blocks aren't the cause of network errors.