“The iPhone could not be updated. An unknown error occurred (14)”

Your iPhone is frozen. Stuck at the Apple logo. It won’t reboot.

The storage was full. Out of space. Overloaded with photos. Then one day it crashed and now it’s not working. You hope your data is not lost.

You plugged your phone into the computer, in an attempt to update the phone’s iOS using iTunes. But then a message appeared:

“The iphone could not be updated. An unknown error occurred (14).”

What happened? And what can you do about it?

iPhone error 14 – What is it?

iPhone error 14 is triggered when your iPhone reaches near maximum storage capacity. This can cause the phone to crash and get stuck on the Apple logo while updating.

While there are other issues that can cause error 14, it’s often the result of an iPhone’s memory being too full.

This is an acknowledged and frustrating issue for many iPhone users, the data recovery community, and law enforcement.

How to fix iPhone error 14

When you get error 14 as a result of your iPhone storage being too full, your options are limited:

Option 1: Restore your iPhone and lose any data that’s not backed up.

Option 2: Call Apple Support (who will most likely recommend option 1).

Option 3: Get a new phone while you wait for a solution that might never come.

The only way to “fix” your iPhone after error 14 is to restore it. This will return your phone to normal, working order, but you will lose any data that is not backed up. When you restore your phone, you can restore it to a previous backup, like an iTunes or an iCloud backup if you have one. But if you don’t have a backup, then restoring your phone will wipe all of its data.

Is there a data recovery solution to iPhone Error 14?

No, there is no data recovery solution to iPhone error 14.

When it’s triggered by a phone’s memory being too full, the underlying issue causing error 14 is a corruption in the software. There is no work around. Taking the memory chip off isn’t an option.

There is no solution to this problem. No data recovery software or forensic software can recover data from an iPhone with error 14.

If and when a solution becomes available, we will update this post. But if you are reading this now, there’s still no solution.

What iPhone models does error 14 affect?

This has been going on for at least a couple of years, but is happening now with increasing frequency.

We’ve seen it more recently with newer iPhone models but it’s not exclusive. We started seeing more of it beginning with iPhone 8 and X models, which are very similar because they use the same CPU chip. Then with the iPhone XR and 11 family, we started seeing it more and more.

What has Apple’s response been about iPhone error 14?

Apple has not addressed the problem. No press releases. No acknowledgement that an issue even exists. And no fix.

Update 3/21: This blog post was originally published on 24 Nov 2020. Two weeks later, on 7 Dec 2020, Apple published an article publicly acknowledging – for the first time ever – a connection between error 14 and an iPhone low on storage. Even though this issue has been going on for years.

The communities of both law enforcement and data recovery are extremely frustrated by it.

And it’s easy to see why. You can’t help a lot of users, and it happens very often. We probably get five to ten requests each week to fix iPhones that have error 14. We turn down about one request a day.

Does Apple know about iPhone error 14?

Of course they do. They just choose not to do anything about it. Implementing a solution for them would be extremely difficult.

But Apple hasn’t been so forthcoming about the issue.

Apple’s support page for iOS update and restore errors has a section on error 14, but there is no mention that a full memory can trigger it.

Update 3/21: Apple’s new support article published in Dec 2020 makes a connection between low iPhone storage and error 14. The article recommends that you try to update your device again. And that if you still have an issue, you are encouraged to contact Apple support. When you click on “see all questions on this article” you’ll find many users asking Apple about a data recovery solution. And while Apple has not addressed a data recovery solution, many people report contacting customer service and being told that their data cannot be restored. It’s unclear why Apple isn’t addressing this issue directly or being more transparent with their customers. This is a devastating problem.

With no (other) acknowledgement about the issue from Apple, it seems almost reasonable to conclude that Apple has no knowledge of the issue…

Except Apple users have not been silent.

The apple discussion forum is filled with hundreds of threads about iPhones that were at full storage when they randomly crashed and froze while updating, resulting in an error 14.

The response to these threads is discouraging, with comments from other users acknowledging that they have the same issue and asking for any updates. In many of these threads, an Apple community specialist leaves a reply referring the iPhone user to Apple’s update and restore page (which does not address the issue) and encourages the user to contact Apple support before signing off with “cheers!”.

What happens when you contact Apple support about error 14?

Users who have contacted Apple support about error 14 report being told to restore their iPhone. This will get the phone back to working condition again, but all of a user’s data that is not backed up will be lost.

To this, Apple’s response is: not our problem.

I had to know for myself. So I contacted Apple support to ask about error 14.

I called Apple Support about Error 14. Here’s what they said.

After 6 minutes of waiting and getting stuck in the phone tree, I was connected to a human.

I explained that I was looking for general information about iPhone error 14 as a result of a full phone. I wanted to know if Apple was aware of it and what, if anything, they were doing about it.

While the representative had not personally helped other callers with this issue before, she was willing to look up information for me.

But after a few minutes of getting nowhere, she transferred me to a senior advisor.

I explained to the senior advisor that as a member of the data recovery community, I was seeing widespread issues related to iPhone error 14 triggered when a phone was at or near full storage capacity. I was seeing it not only with our own data recovery clients, but also in online Apple discussion forums, Reddit, YouTube, and conversations with other members of the data recovery community. I even mentioned that there was an online petition about it.

The advisor listened patiently. He was also not aware of the issue that I was describing. He asked some questions and referred me to the iOS update and restore errors page – with no mention of error 14 as the result of a full memory. It only describes error 14 as a hardware issue with the USB cable or connection. He suggested updating the phone wirelessly, and to call back if there was still an error 14.

It was clear that we hadn’t reached an understanding.

Because the situation didn’t apply to my iPhone directly, and because I was speaking in “hypothetical” terms, I couldn’t answer his specific questions.

He said he needed more information to better help.

It didn’t matter that there were hundreds of stories from the Apple community forum, our own data recovery clients, and iPhone users across the Internet.

At the end of the call, I shared my frustration for all the iPhone users in this situation. I asked if there was really nothing that could be done about it? I wanted to make sure that Apple was at least aware of the issue, even if they weren’t doing anything about it. Was there somebody he could inform or ask to investigate…

He said that, “Well, if you look at the update process terms and conditions, anytime you update an iPhone there is always the potential for data loss.”

We left the conversation at that.

If you have iPhone error 14, contact Apple support.

If iPhone error 14 applies to you, contact Apple Support.

Not because they can help you, but because they need to be made aware of the scope and scale of the issue. They won’t be interested in solving it until they are pushed to a point where it’s more beneficial for them to do something about it then to ignore it.

As Apple continues to do nothing, more and more users lose their data.