Recover data from old iPhone 4 stuck on spinning wheel?

Hi everyone!

A long time ago, when I was just 17 or something, I attempted at jailbreaking my iphone 4 and I failed miserably. I know, I shouldn't have done it, but I was 17 and thought it'd be cool.

Basically what happened was that after 10-15 seconds of usage, the Iphone went to the loading wheel and got stuck in that situation forever.

I don't remember why I didn't reset it, maybe I didnt want to lose all the photos I had and figured I'd find a way to recover them one day.

Well, 10 years have passed and I have decided it's time to do this. I want to recover at least all the pictures, although the best option ever would be to get my iphone fully recovered without resetting it (I guess that must be very unlikely).

The following video shows exactly what happens:


https://youtube.com/watch?v=0f3k10DXs60


When the video starts the phone has just finished rebooting. As you can see, I am able to unlock it, open the gallery, the pictures are there! Even the apps, there's everything I had on my phone, from Temple Run to Angry Birds, it's cute.

But a few seconds later you get that loading screen and then the neverending loading circle (note: it's not me pressing the home button that causes it, the video is misleading on that, it happens whether I press it or not) and there's no apparent way to go back to the previous situation. The only thing I can do is holding down power button and home button for 10 seconds to reboot it and then the loop starts again.

In the few seconds I get before the screen goes black with the loading bar I can see the phone's data from the PC, then I lose the connection to the device.

Is there any way to recover the pictures or, even better, recover my phone without a factory reset?

Thanks a lot in advance, it would be so great to recover all those pictures after all these years... a small time capsule.

Earlier iPhone models

Posted on Feb 21, 2025 02:05 AM

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Recover data from old iPhone 4 stuck on spinning wheel?

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