What Are the Differences Between DFU Mode & Recovery Mode?

As a smart phone user, you may be familiar with “Flashing iDevice”, especially strong iFans. We all known that iPhone has two flashing mode: Recovery mode and DFU mode. This tutorial is mainly introducing the differences between DFU mode and Recovery mode. 

Definition of Recovery mode and DFU mode.

Recovery mode allows iTunes to restore your iPhone to its original factory settings but with the latest iOS and firmware. (If your iPhone’s screen shows iTunes icon with USB data link that means your iDevice is in Recovery mode).

DFU is short for Device Firmware Update, it is a capability of USB devices to update and backup firmware using a USB connection. (When your iDevive shows black screen, connect it to 3uTools and it will give you a prompt that iDevice is in DFU state).

Main differences between recovery mode and DFU mode.

Recovery mode is also called iBoot mode, which is the main difference between recovery mode and DFU mode.

Because DFU mode can skip the guidance of iBoot, it can meet with iPhone’s programming pattern directly, that’s the reason why when you set your iDevice in DFU mode, iPhone’s screen doesn’t show you any information.

What’s iBoot?

iBoo is an agent between iPhone’s hardware and iOS, it is also called iBoot Loader or iBoot Agent. iBoot is the bootloader on iOS 10/9/8/7 devices. iBoot acts on restore while iPhone is in Recovery Mode. It makes sure that you are flashing a firmware version greater than or equal to a current one. If you are not, iBoot will not allow the restore to proceed.



We can easily take iBoot as a preinstalled environment of iOS, like WinPE. It’s main feature is to check and contrast current iOS and the firmware you want to flash. If it find the lower firmware or the firmware that has been stopped by Apple, iBoot will refuse to begin a new instruction and show you an error. So, that’s the reason why you need to set iDevice into DFU mode if you want to downgrade it to a lower iOS version.