My phone is in recovery mode and wants a restore to factory defaults. Can I recover the data? Pics? Msgs? numbers? Appointments?

The scenario was; I plugged into my pc, it said there was an update, so i said yes. Why didnt it ask to sync first? the phone restarted and went into recovery mode, itunes then said restore was only option.

WTh? ugh. is there ANY was to get the data after the restore?

Incomplete details, more info needed for accurate solutions.
I.e.:
1st gen / 3g
Officially unlocked / not
Jailbroken / not.

Should be ok if synched previously or a day before and YOU HAVE NOT TAMPERED WITH ITUNES.

Originally Posted by T33jay

Incomplete details, more info needed for accurate solutions.
I.e.:
1st gen / 3g
Officially unlocked / not
Jailbroken / not.

Should be ok if synched previously or a day before and YOU HAVE NOT TAMPERED WITH ITUNES.

Sorry, 1st gen. not unlocked. not jailbroken. Unfortunately have not synced lately. I thought it would sync before it started the update. SOL, eh?

Originally Posted by ayeco

Sorry, 1st gen. not unlocked. not jailbroken. Unfortunately have not synced lately. I thought it would sync before it started the update. SOL, eh?

Ist gen and Not unlocked officially / unofficially? Y?

Anyway, try and kick it out manually and pray it comes alive.
If it does, then manually sync it before proceeding

Try to kick the iPhone out of simple restore/recovery mode and make it reboot.
1. Connect iPhone and your PC/Mac, quit iTunes.
2. Hold Start/Sleep and Home for 10 seconds (I always count 100, 200, 300,...)
3. Let go of Home button but keep holding Start/Sleep until the Apple logo on the iPhone screen shows up.
4. Let go of Start/Sleep, the iPhone will boot

Keep your fingers crossed the iPhone will reboot and not jump into recovery again. If it jumps into recovery again, you'll have to restore.