Hello all, I’m sure I can get more help with this from you guys than from Apple support.
I have an iPhone 7 Plus that was on iOS 13.3. Had no plan to update to 13.4.
Here’s what’s been happening: My phone storage is usually almost full so I periodically would offload apps or delete videos in order to free up space for the remaining apps to be able to run properly. Sometimes after deleting items the phone would not recognize the space I’ve freed up so I would turn phone off and back on and then it would. However I noticed that the iPhone started taking longer to boot, sometimes going from Apple logo to black screen after a few mins and back to Apple logo repeating a few times before it finally boots.
Here’s what happened: phone started running low on storage space again which meant apps couldn’t open/crash when it opened so I tried to offload some more apps but the phone wouldn’t delete the apps! And even the settings app started crashing upon opening. I figured the phone needed to reboot again to catch itself and then I’d force an iCloud backup to be on the safe side once the settings app stopped crashing. (my last update was beginning of March) I turned phone off and then back on and it started it’s usual Apple logo to black screen to Apple logo but it repeated this cycle indefinitely and never booted!! -Not sure if this is what’s considered a boot loop.
...So I started doing google searches on what to do. Majority of the results said updating the iOS device should get the iPhone running again or if I purchased this very expensive software it could automatically “repair” the device without data loss once I put phone in recovery mode. Of course I decided to go the free route and update in iTunes and I thought I was pretty lucky because i didn't already have the latest software. Only one big dilemma is that I didn’t have much free space to do a OTA update before the phone turned off so I looked into how iTunes updates work and came across a Apple support page that stated if your iOS device is low on storage, try an iTunes update (probably because all the temp files would be saved to the computer instead of the iOS device). Perfect I thought! (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203097). I did all the prerequisites: put iPhone in recovery mode, update to latest iTunes version etc.
iTunes downloaded 13.4 and Update started. The iPhone progress bar got to about halfway and the iTunes “updating iPhones firmware” bar got all the way to the end then it suddenly issued error 14! Then phone rebooted and went straight into recovery mode, no more boot loop like before. I was devastated. iTunes error code page says that error code 14 means there’s a usb cable issue (was using a new Apple cable), bad USB port on computer, antivirus software blocking it OR “problem with with your hardware”. I then did further research on the error and a few sites listed “low device storage” as a possible reason as well. This confused me as the support page clearly stated that iTunes update can be used if there’s low device storage but the other possible reasons sound pretty crazy eg. antivirus/firewall. iTunes only other option was to restore which would erase everything and not what I wanted to do especially cus when I researched some more, some people said restore didn’t work either as it could be battery or something called the u16 chip. All the other results led me back to the same expensive program that promises to fix/repair iOS device with various boot issues once you put phone in recovery mode. After contemplating i purchased the license and ran the “repair”. It literally did the same thing as iTunes and got just as far before it gave error (iPhone progress bar was at half again). Total waste of money. I then tried the iTunes update once more and it gave error 14 again.
I’m so confused:
1) what does this error 14 really mean?
2j did the phone actually update to iOS 13.4 or is it still on on the previous one?
2) can the Dfu mode be used to update without erasing?
3) can the iPhone be backup up once more while in recovery mode?
Could really use some suggestions. I’ve tried it all. Apple support is convinced it’s a firewall or antivirus blocking the update. The support agent told me if it was a low storage problem it would have produced a different number.
I have an iPhone 7 Plus that was on iOS 13.3. Had no plan to update to 13.4.
Here’s what’s been happening: My phone storage is usually almost full so I periodically would offload apps or delete videos in order to free up space for the remaining apps to be able to run properly. Sometimes after deleting items the phone would not recognize the space I’ve freed up so I would turn phone off and back on and then it would. However I noticed that the iPhone started taking longer to boot, sometimes going from Apple logo to black screen after a few mins and back to Apple logo repeating a few times before it finally boots.
Here’s what happened: phone started running low on storage space again which meant apps couldn’t open/crash when it opened so I tried to offload some more apps but the phone wouldn’t delete the apps! And even the settings app started crashing upon opening. I figured the phone needed to reboot again to catch itself and then I’d force an iCloud backup to be on the safe side once the settings app stopped crashing. (my last update was beginning of March) I turned phone off and then back on and it started it’s usual Apple logo to black screen to Apple logo but it repeated this cycle indefinitely and never booted!! -Not sure if this is what’s considered a boot loop.
...So I started doing google searches on what to do. Majority of the results said updating the iOS device should get the iPhone running again or if I purchased this very expensive software it could automatically “repair” the device without data loss once I put phone in recovery mode. Of course I decided to go the free route and update in iTunes and I thought I was pretty lucky because i didn't already have the latest software. Only one big dilemma is that I didn’t have much free space to do a OTA update before the phone turned off so I looked into how iTunes updates work and came across a Apple support page that stated if your iOS device is low on storage, try an iTunes update (probably because all the temp files would be saved to the computer instead of the iOS device). Perfect I thought! (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203097). I did all the prerequisites: put iPhone in recovery mode, update to latest iTunes version etc.
iTunes downloaded 13.4 and Update started. The iPhone progress bar got to about halfway and the iTunes “updating iPhones firmware” bar got all the way to the end then it suddenly issued error 14! Then phone rebooted and went straight into recovery mode, no more boot loop like before. I was devastated. iTunes error code page says that error code 14 means there’s a usb cable issue (was using a new Apple cable), bad USB port on computer, antivirus software blocking it OR “problem with with your hardware”. I then did further research on the error and a few sites listed “low device storage” as a possible reason as well. This confused me as the support page clearly stated that iTunes update can be used if there’s low device storage but the other possible reasons sound pretty crazy eg. antivirus/firewall. iTunes only other option was to restore which would erase everything and not what I wanted to do especially cus when I researched some more, some people said restore didn’t work either as it could be battery or something called the u16 chip. All the other results led me back to the same expensive program that promises to fix/repair iOS device with various boot issues once you put phone in recovery mode. After contemplating i purchased the license and ran the “repair”. It literally did the same thing as iTunes and got just as far before it gave error (iPhone progress bar was at half again). Total waste of money. I then tried the iTunes update once more and it gave error 14 again.
I’m so confused:
1) what does this error 14 really mean?
2j did the phone actually update to iOS 13.4 or is it still on on the previous one?
2) can the Dfu mode be used to update without erasing?
3) can the iPhone be backup up once more while in recovery mode?
Could really use some suggestions. I’ve tried it all. Apple support is convinced it’s a firewall or antivirus blocking the update. The support agent told me if it was a low storage problem it would have produced a different number.
