I've had this iPhone 4S that was running iOS 7.1.1 and I figured it was time to upgrade to iOS 8 and then to iOS 9 when Apple releases iOS 10. I figured it would not be a big issue upgrading from iOS 7 to iOS 8 because I knew where to download the iPhone legitimate firmware package manually.
I went to the download page and selected the firmware for the iPhone 4S iPhone4,1_8.4.1_12H321_Restore and 20 minutes later, I had the package. I opened iTunes and proceeded to backup the iPhone. I was now faced with a choice to make between updating the iPhone or restoring it, I chose the latter because it meant wiping the iPhone clean to do a fresh install and this is always preferred when installing a new operating system.
Because I was restoring from a file that I had manually downloaded, there was really no need for iTunes to connect to the internet to fetch the file. To instruct iTunes to fetch the file from my download folder, you press and hold the shift key and click the Restore iPhone button. This opens up a file dialog which then allows you to select the IPSW file you downloaded earlier.
After I had selected the iOS file, iTunes then gives me a dialog box that says
A new iPhone software version (9.2.1) is available for the iPhone "iPhone name". Would you like to download it and update your iPhone now?
I obviously don't want to install iOS 9 but iTunes still wanted to inform me of the latest iOS. I should have probably done this part whilst not connected to the internet. I also doubt if it would have worked because iTunes needs to verify the software version you are about to install. I click the Cancel button and iTunes goes one to verify the iOS 8.4.1 that I downloaded earlier.
It was at this point I thought this was going to go smoothly when I got hit with that Error 3194. What does that mean???? I restarted iTunes and started the same process and still got hit with that iTunes Error 3194. I figured maybe I need to restart my iPhone and do it again and still got the error. At this point, I was afraid of losing my backup, so I made a copy of the backup folder and decided to install again but this time instead of clicking on Restore iPhone button, I will click on Update. You guessed it, I still got that unexplained iTunes error 3194.
I did what everyone does and searched the net for iTunes error 3194 and came across a whole lot of shrewd fixes which don't make any sense. One of them required you to go change some lines in some host file in system32 folder. I read some of the comments and it did not work for a few people. I decided maybe there was something wrong with the network and decided to do it again the following day.
Day two still kept giving the same error and I kept digging on the net and that is when I came across an explanation that really made sense here. It turns out, iTunes would not allow one to install an outdated iOS on an iPhone if a new version exists. The mistake I was making was trying to install iOS 8.4.1 when iOS 9.2.1 was available for download and this for Apple is a big NO NO!
I went back to download iPhone4,1_9.2.1_13D15_Restore which is 1.47GB and 30 minutes later I was restoring the iPhone the iPhone with no error 3194. When the iOS 9.2.1 was fully installed, I then had to wait another 2 hours to fully restore it from the 40GB backup.
That's pretty much it. If you are getting the iTunes error 3194 when restoring the iPhone, chances are you are installing an outdated iOS version.
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