Earlier today we got a question from one of our reader, regarding an error occurred during iOS 4.3.3 restore. “The iPhone could not be restored . This device isn’t eligible for the requested build.”
Solution :
You may have downloaded the wrong firmware for your device. Make sure you have downloaded a correct firmware for your iDevice.
Click this link (http://gs.apple.com) on the computer you’re using to restore, if you get an Apple 404 page, it’s okay but if you get an index page, just like following screenshot, remove 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com from your host file and try to restore once again. 
That’s it.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
how could i downloaded the wrong firmware? i downloaded it directly for iTunes.
Hello, I got the index page, basically the same from the screenshot, any idea on how to remove the host file on mac os x?
This fixed my problem, thank you!!!
Yes! i can confirm that this works 100% to get rid of the error, my iphone is now upgrading to 4.3.3 with no issues. Thanks for the info.
what do you mean by this host file ?? where do i find it so that i can clear it…
i need help! i dont understand what to do.
i have a general question and my others in the buissness are unavialble. i have the ios 5 on my iphone and i was supposed to add my device to their program how do i go about doing that im on the developers site but idk where to go or what to do please help me soon please
what host file ?
how would I go about that exactly? haha. Thanks.
I have an iPhone 3GS – 4.2.1 firmware, 5.12.01 Baseband and 6.04 Bootloader.
I did a hard reset of the phone and lost everything. This led me to create a custom firmware for 4.3.3 using pwnageTool, resulting in the error that you are describing: “This device is not eligible for the requested build.” I followed the information you have provided to remove gs.apple.com from my hosts file. Now I get the 404 page.
The problem is that now I am getting a different error message: “The iphone could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (1600).” I have tried reinstalling iTunes but to no avail. I don’t have my Cydia blobs saved. Any suggestions?
how do I remove 4.208.10.249 gs.apple.com from my host file?
thanks
thanks a lot, this works just fine!
How to remove gs.apple.com from the hosts file on mac os:
1) In Finder, use the “Go to folder” (shift+command+g), write “/etc”
2) Scroll down to the file “hosts”, open it in your favourite text editor (Textmate perhaps?)
3) Remove the line, save the file.
You might need to restart the computer.
Windors:
1) Right-click on notepad and select “Run as administrator” (Windows 7 or Vista)
2) Open “C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts”
3) Remove the line, save the file, restart the computer.
Hey viktor,
i tried removing line “74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com” from my host file, but it says document “hosts” could not be saved.
i tried changing the permissions, but still same error.. its is not accepting the changes i made..
what next??