Can I get files off an iPhone 4 that is stuck in a firmware update loop? So I updated my iPhone 4 to iOS6 today (using the built in updater on the iPhone). The phone did some stuff for a while and then rebooted with a progress bar which never updates. If I leave it long enough it reboots and then shows that bar again.

Annoyingly I have some stuff on that I didn't back up, is there any way to fix this? Even if I didn't care about the data on the phone, I can't get iTunes to do anything and the phone will just reboot to this progress bar screen.

Not once have I had any error codes from iTunes. I'm more concerned with the data at this point and can probably force the device into restore mode once I have the files I need.
Usually this is resolved by a second restore after you reboot your computer. Of course, you might wait things out if you don't have a backup and there is any chance whatsoever the phone will complete this update without risk of losing the data on the phone (contacts, app information, documents, etc...)

To be sure you (and I) haven't skipped a step, you will want to do everything on this page.


iTunes: Restoring iOS software


Pay attention to the link at the bottom should you get there about putting the device into recovery mode. That will wipe everything, so don't do that unless you have a good backup from this morning (or whenever you started the update process).