iPhone error 4013, 4014 or 4005: the iPhone could not be restored

• Update reinstalls iOS and keeps your personal data. Restore reinstalls iOS and erases all your data. Both lines are Apple's own words.
• Apple's steps end with Restore when the iPhone drops into recovery mode during the update. If you need the photos, stop before that step and find the fault first.
• A phone in DFU mode only offers Restore. Use recovery mode when you want Update.
• On a Mac, Apple Configurator has Revive. Apple says it can "attempt to revive the device to recover any data on it".
• When a flex cable is the cause, the update can finish with that flex unplugged. Fit a known-good part before the phone boots. From the iPhone 8 on, the phone checks its parts while it starts and restarts again if one does not answer.
• Every extra restore on a failing storage chip can make it worse. We have seen this on our bench too, so stop after two tries.

1. Update the computer: macOS, or iTunes or the Apple Devices app on Windows.
2. Force restart the iPhone.
3. Connect it straight to the computer and choose Update, not Restore.
4. Still failing: try another USB cable, then another computer.
5. The same error on a good computer: Apple sends it for service. This is where a repair technician looks for the part.

For the iPhone 12 to 17 we found no confirmed board-level repair of these errors yet, in any language. The order above comes from older models. If you fix one, post it on the forum and we will add it.

• No Apple logo at all: look at the processor side first.
• Apple logo, but the progress bar never moves: the storage chip (NAND), or a bad write to it.
• The logic board restores on its own, the complete phone fails: a part on a flex cable.
• Newer computers add four characters after the number, like 130A.0000. They show the step where the restore stopped. Paste the whole message into the restore error lookup.

1. Do Apple's steps above and choose Update. Write down where it stops.
2. Open the phone. Look for liquid marks and corrosion on the front sensor flex, the charging port flex and the wireless charging flex.
3. Keep the battery, screen and charging port connected. Unplug the front sensor flex and try Update again. Then the other flexes, one at a time.
4. If it updates with a flex unplugged, do not boot it like that. From the iPhone 8 on, the phone talks to its serialized parts while it starts and recovers the data: the front sensor (proximity) flex, the charging port flex and the wireless charging flex with the flash and rear microphone. If a part does not answer, it starts restarting again. Fit a known-good part first, then boot it and back up.
5. On an iPhone X or XS, move the original Face ID flood light to the new flex, or Face ID stops working. The light sensor is paired to the phone too, so a new flex can lose True Tone.
6. The same error with every flex unplugged: board level. Check the storage and processor power lines for a short. If there is no short, measure the power on those lines. Next are the NAND and the CPU themselves. A new NAND must be programmed with the board's own data and the old data is gone with the old chip, so repair the original chip if you need the data. If you are not a professional motherboard technician with micro-soldering experience, stop here. From this point the job is not an experiment anymore and one wrong step is unrecoverable.