How to fix spinning cog wheels with Nokia Lumia Amber update

Update: There is now a way of recovering from Lumia spinning cog wheels using Nokia Software Updater on a PC - Updated post.


The GDR2/Amber update from Nokia for Lumia WP8 smartphones can take varying times to install.

Users are reporting more than an hour and during much of that the screen will show the Nokia spinning cog wheels.

And for some, the spinning wheels just go on and on.

That means the phone is stuck in a boot-up and needs to be rebooted to kick it into action. Do not pull the battery in an attempt to fix.

Here's what Nokia advises will cure it:

Step 1
Make sure the charger is disconnected.
1. Switch the power Off.
2. Press and hold the Volume down and connect the charger, if succeed an exclamation mark (!) is shown on the screen.

(To cancel OS reset and exit to the normal mode, press the Volume Down + Power Key and hold them for 15 seconds).

Step 2
Then input Keys in the following order:
1. Volume up
2. Volume down
3. Power
4. Volume down

Step 3
The phone will reset and boot up automatically. Please note that this may take several minutes.