back to article iOS 10 bricks iThings

Apple's iOS 10 update has knackered some people's iPhones and iPads, requiring the devices to be completely wiped to continue working. Affected folks found that after downloading and installing the operating system upgrade, an error message was shown instructing owners to plug their bricked iThing into a computer running …

  1. Oengus

    Early adpoters beware

    Who installs version x.0 of anything? The prudent wait for x.1 or even better x.1.2 or x.2.

    Oops sorry these are the fanbois. They have to have the latest Shiny Shiny..

    1. hardboiledphil

      Re: Early adpoters beware

      >> Who installs version x.0 of anything? The prudent wait for x.1 or even better x.1.2 or x.2 <<

      Prudence makes sense (at least for the first couple of weeks of any release) but these days you have to actively stop it from updating so not like it's just the fanbois that get the x.0, everyone should get it.

      1. Daniel B.

        Re: Early adpoters beware

        Unlike Windows 10, iOS only nags you to update, but you can happily say no and the device will honor your decision.

        In this case, iOS hasn't even told me to update at all. I guess it isn't yet being pushed for the same reason most people avoid x.0 releases.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Early adpoters beware

          The update notifications are typically phased in over a few days, otherwise I imagine Apple's servers would be overloaded if everyone tried to grab a big update the same afternoon. It would also increase the chances for more people to be affected by a problem, so it probably makes sense to at first require people to specifically check for updates if they want to get it right away and only start the phased "an update is available" notifications the next day.

          As I've posted before, I have a few rules for iOS updates I use and have never had problems. Based on years of experience dealing with OS updates on many platforms, I always close all apps, shut down my iPhone, start it up, and THEN update. You want to do an upgrade after a clean reboot without any apps running. For a major a.x to b.x type upgrade, I always connect to iTunes, do a full backup, then update while tethered to iTunes.

          I'll do OTA upgrades for the point releases, but not the big yearly one - and in fact the early adopters who were bit by this issue were doing OTA upgrades and the fix according to Apple was to retry the update via iTunes (some people had to reset and restore their phones too, others were able to do the update via iTunes without that...IMHO anyone who does a major OS upgrade ON ANY PLATFORM without any sort of backup/sync is playing with fire)

          I never do the major update the first day. If by the end of the week this is the only issue encountered then I'll go for it. Worst case if I run into real problems with iOS 10, it is still possible to go back to iOS 9 the first few weeks, but I've never had any problems with any update, major or minor, following the above rules.

    2. paulf
      Thumb Up

      Re: Early adpoters beware

      I used to wait for x.0.2 before installing.

      After the mess that was iOS 8 I now wait until at least a week after something like x.1.3 is released. With iOS 8 I think I held off until 8.2 was looking mostly stable.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iOS 10 bricks iThings

    Really? I thought that "bricked" meant it couldn't be recovered by the user?

    The article says the user is told how to recover the device, so hardly bricked!

    Though a right pain if it happens to you...

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon