iOS is a pretty closed operating system, so usually not usually occur so serious problems that make our iPhone or iPad stop working and not even start. When iOS works badly, simply by connecting it to iTunes (even from the device settings) we can restore all the data and system settings and make it work again normally. However, sometimes more critical, it can happen that iOS is so blocked and so corrupt that not even iTunes is able to detect it. In that case, we must reset our device through the "Recovery Mode".
The "Recovery Mode" of iOS is a special mode of the iPhone and iPad that allows us to recover our system from a serious error that makes our device practically useless. This mode allows us to recover our device when, for example, iTunes does not recognize it , when it enters bootloop mode or when we want, for some reason, to completely reset a device. This process, in addition to deleting all our data, will install the latest version of iOS on our device.
How to enter "Recovery Mode" on any iPhone or iPad prior to iPhone 7
To open this emergency recovery mode in iOS, all we have to do is connect the device to our computer and open iTunes (whatever its status, even if iTunes does not detect it) and start pressing the "start" buttons and "on". After a few seconds, our device will restart. When it does, we must keep holding them down (even when the Apple logo appears) until we see the iTunes logo with the cable connected.
Automatically, iTunes will detect our device and, in addition, will know that something bad happens with it. Therefore, it will show us a window like the one below where you will ask us if we want to restore your data to solve the problems of the connected iPhone or iPad.
Here we can choose the option "Update", which will try to repair our device by installing the latest version of iOS but without deleting our data (it does not always work) or "Restore", the most complete option that will completely erase our device and all its data. will install iOS from scratch.
When the process finishes, our iPhone or iPad should work again and, moreover, as if it had just left the factory.
How to enter the "Recovery Mode" on the iPhone 7/7 Plus
With the release of the iPhone 7, in addition to removing the headphone jack, Apple removed the start button as a physical button, so the original combination does not work on these models.
However, the "Recovery Mode" continues to function normally in the most modern iPhone, the only thing that changes is the way to launch it. To do this, all we have to do is change the start button to the volume down (very similar to the Recovery of the Android). Therefore, if we have an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, if we want to enter this recovery mode we must press the key combination:
The rest of the process to reset our device and solve your problems will be the same as in previous models.