..:| applei.ph |:..

Stuck on SWOD (Spinning Wheel of Death) or Apple logo - Causes and Solutions
A day never goes by without an appleite seeking help in Live Chat or posting a new thread in the forum regarding their devices stuck in the SWOD or apple logo. This thread will try to tackle causes, solutions and how to avoid getting stuck in SWOD or apple logo situations.

Here is what it looks like:



On the left is the apple logo with SWOD (spinning wheel of death)
On the middle is SWOD (spinning wheel of death)
On the right is apple logo only


CAUSE AND SOLUTIONS

Cause A: Incompatible app or tweak
You installed a new app or tweak that may be incompatible with your device or your firmware or a conflict with a previously installed app or tweak.
Result is usually apple logo with swod.
Solution A:
This can usually be remedied by leaving the device alone for an hour or two plugged in a wall charger and wait for it to normally boot. After a couple of hours and it does not boot to springboard, do a hard reboot by pressing home+power button and release both buttons on apple logo. If it still does not boot to springboard, see final solution below.


Cause B: Erase All Content and Settings
Tapping erase all contents and settings is the major cause of SWOD.
Result is usually swod with the device rebooting by itself occassionally.

Solution B:
If your device is jailbroken, there is a 1% chance of it booting. If your device is not jailbroken, there is a 99% chance of it booting. The reason why a jailbroken device has only a very slim chance of booting normally is because jailbreaking and installing Cydia will move some system directories to /var/stash after the first run. If all content and settings are erased, the /var/stash folder will be deleted, which causes loss of some important system files necessary for the device to boot. Try leaving it plugged in to a wall charger overnight and allow it boot normally. DO NOT try a hard reboot. If you did a hard reboot, see final solution below. If it does not boot to springboard overnight, see final solution.


Cause C: Tethered jailbreak
If your device is an iP4/ 3Gs(new bootrom)/iPad/iPT2G(MC model)/3G/4G on 4.2.1 firmware and redsn0w 9.6 was used to jailbreak, it will get stuck on the apple logo everytime you reboot. Same will happen for a 3Gs (new bootrom)/iPT 2G (MC model)/3G on 3.1.2 jailbroken using blackra1n. That is normal for a tethered jailbreak.
Results is usually stuck in the apple logo.
Solution C:
If redsn0w 9.6 was used to jailbreak, run redsn0w 9.6 and check the option "just boot tethered" and it will boot to springboard normally. To untethered so that you don't have to run redsn0w 9.6 after every reboot, run greenpois0n RC5. Same goes for device on 4.3 and jailbroken. If your device is on 3.1.2 fw and jailbroken using blackra1n, run blackra1n to boot to springboard. Unlike those devices jailbroken by redsn0w 9.6, this cannot be untethered by greenpois0n RC5.
Another solution is restore to a higher firmware with an untethered JB tool available.


The final solution:
After all the solutions offered above and device is still stuck. You have to restore the device. Since it will not be recognized by iTunes if it is stuck, do the following steps below.
1. Place device in DFU mode so iTunes will detect device. Remember that DFU mode is black screen on the device and recognized as "in recovery mode" by Tunes.
2. Press shift+restore in iTunes and select pre-downloaded firmware. See FAQ tab for iPhone/iPT/iPad firmware download links. For software unlock (ultrasn0w) dependent iPhones, you must remember that restoring to an official firmware (OFW) will upgrade your baseband/modem firmware to an unlockable version. You must use a custom firmware (CFW) to keep your baseband on an unlockable version.
3. Sit back and let iTunes restore your device. Unfortunately, all data on the device will be erased.

*added info courtesy of TheAnswer. Try to see if you can back up data once device is detected by iTunes after a hard reset, recovery mode or dfu. To back up, select device on the left panel of iTunes then right click and select back up device. That way you will be able to save your device data and restore from back up after a dfu shift+restore. Thanks TA.


I hope that covers it all. Please let me know if there is anything I missed or errors so I may edit the above fix. Cheers!

Great infolecture, err, tutorial and couldn't have done a better job myself if i may say so

Another K+!!

Note: made this a sticky and would suggest adding to the FAQ

professor steve just

Justinered, I'd like to echo on what has already been said, awesome awesome FAQ write-up! K++!

question lang po... hindi naman po ako nakaranas ng SWOD pero everytime i respring my itouch 3rd gen 4.1 green poison, i noticed na may DOT in the middle of the loading wheel pero nagrerestart naman sya normally and properly ask ko lang kung magiging harmful ba yun in the future o parang precautionary na mauwi ako sa SWOD???

nice tutorial just, k++!

Galing! K+ bro

sir narestore sya kaso hang yung phone ko sa emergency "slide for emergency"

sinunod ko yung sa DFU, but the problem is nagrereboot sya by itself. will i still continue the download or just repeat from the start? my connection is freaking slowwww
thats why it will take 4hrs to download the update, but the thing is wala pang 20min nagrereboot by itself.. what to do
help. so ang nangyayare hndi nanaman nadedetect ng itunes. question, continue downloading cause it will be still useful in the end or whaT?

when doing DFU, make sure you are already connected to the PC, othwerise it will just reboot.