back to article Apple wilts under iPhone upgrade strain

Owners of Apple's iPhone, desperate to be the first to upgrade to version 3 of the OS, are hitting certification problems. Some are reporting that their beloved handsets refuse to work after an attempted upgrade. The problems seem to be down to Apple's certification service, though the details are far from clear. It is …

COMMENTS

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  1. K
    Thumb Up

    Shamed to admit it..

    But managed to get mine upgraded immediately as it was released, yes, several hours of button clicking paid off!

  2. Toastan Buttar
    Coat

    Internet Explorer ???

    "(if they really must have the update immediately) they could try mucking about with the Internet Explorer security settings"

    Shome mishtake shurely ?

    Mine's a safari jacket.

  3. Paddy Fagan
    Thumb Up

    Some problems last night, but...

    Hi

    I ran into some of these problems last night with my upgrade. Two things seems to help:

    1. Disconnecting my iPhone, openning iTunes and signing into my account.

    2. Then plug in the iPhone, when it still failed (this happened a few times) clicking between the iTunes store and My iPhone inside iTunes forced it to retry and it eventually worked.

    It seems that the iPhone must be re-activated after the upgrade and it's this step that seems to keep timing out.

    Paddy

  4. Gavin Peake
    Happy

    Switch off network adapter when uncompressing for upgrade to work

    If you start the upgrade, when the message comes up about uncompressing the files, disable the network adapter in the PC (or switch off the wireless if using a laptop), this skips the activation check and the upgrade installs.

    I tested this last night and it worked fine on my iPhone 3G.

  5. Belvedere Mulholland
    Thumb Up

    How was it for you?

    I upgraded last night OK (about 19:30). There were a couple of timeouts and a few error messages but I just did it again and it went through.

    It's a good upgrade. The new features you know... but it's also brought a smoother feel to the touch interface (flipping home pages is faster), and things like browser text entry are subtly slicker.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Internet Explorer?

    Am I missing something here? Why would internet explorer settings help with an apple product?

    Also, the fanboi wars, as ever, will be amusing. I'm not a fan of apple but this rollout is, as you would expect most rollouts to go for anything which is cultish and/or fashionable.

    Flames don't need any further explaining.

  7. Alex 32
    Go

    Yup

    Yes, it did take an hour and a half to authorise, but so what? It's not like many organisations around the globe can stomach 17million people trying to authenticate for the "upgrade of the year" (...until MS release Win7 Q3-4...)

    Wasn't particulalry bothered really...

  8. Hedley Phillips

    Going to wait a couple of weeks

    I see no point in being the first to download. I have had the original OS version since getting the phone and certainly have many more important things in life to worry about rather than a new OS.

    Might see about it next week after the mad rush has finished.

  9. laughing_badger

    Tres Bon

    Well v3.0 is installed and working ... well, working after I figured out what the French was for 'put the UI back into English'! Very odd.

  10. moylan
    Alien

    upgrade went well

    the download of the update went ahead instantly and took about 10 minutes to download on my slow broadband.

    took about 7 attempts at 10min intervals to get past the cannot connect to authtentication server error which i reckon was purely caused by high demand.

    installed upgrade after that ok.

    when it rebooted it took 5 minutes for it to find o2 provider here so that i could unlock sim. probably demand on o2 as all the iphones in ireland were reconnecting at once. :-)

    after that just a quick test to see that i could take a picture silently, that works ok (i hate at meetings when i take a picture of a projected image that my nokia e71 now has a mandatory very loud click). that and its crappy global search put me off symbian completely.

    best new feature for me is the global search. seems fast but only have 30 notes on it. will have to see how it behaves when there are more than 300. of course the notes won't sync with mail on macosx as i'm still using 10.4. not really an issue as like the nokia i've crashed it loads and never lost a single record. hello winmobile! i'm talking to you.

    one small glitch is that the game epic pet wars has a known glitch were spells can't be cast in combat. there is a fix on the way but will have to wait for apple to approve that.

    on the whole. one more reason to get rid of my nokia e71. only things left that i use on it are shooting video of system errors to email to the necessary support desks. was trying to learn python on symbian but have gone off symbian in a big way since i got the e71. was going to get the n97 but not now.

    however would i buy the 3gs to shoot video? more likely i would get android if they ever release it here in ireland. miss a keyboard. pity apple didn't allow for bluetooth keyboards. that and android would be cheaper on prepay i reckon. €600 v €400. and would love to play with androids new Android Scriping Environment.

    my 2c

  11. D@v3
    Gates Horns

    activation server

    After repeatedly getting the "unable to contact activation server" last night, i did what no true fanboi would ever consider doing, and gave up.

    Gave it another shot before leaving for work this morning, worked first try, and due to the fact that i spent most of last night sleeping, I didn't even loose out on any missed time playing with the (slightly underwhelming, but still appreciated) new features.

    Evil Bill, coz regardless of how good/bad Jobs is, bill is still the devil!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It worked fine for me...

    Clicked the "Check for Update" button in iTunes, 15 minutes later I had a fully functioning iPhone with OS 3.0! Two questions; what are you guy's doing to your phones? How many of these were jailbroken? On the MMS. I took the unusual step of READING THE ADVICE ON O2'S WEBSITE FIRST. It's amazing what you can achieve when you metaphorically RTFM...

  13. Slaphead

    Worked here

    Worked here in Switzerland, but then I did wait until this morning to upgrade. Bugged out on the authorisation until I disconnected the iPhone, entered my pin, and then reconnected it. And yes I got the same language problem, Phone slipped back to german until authorised.

    A quick glance through the settings shows no obvious tethering settings, but then I guess that depends on the network provider, and I've seen no statements from Swisscom to either confirm or deny that they'll allow tethering. Not a big problem for me as Zürich is littered with fee wifi hotspots anyway.

    I guess the next couple of days will show how many Apps this update has rendered useless.

  14. fluffy

    My phone was broken but it got better

    I tried upgrading while at work yesterday, and iTunes got as far as installing the new firmware and then indicating there was an "unknown error," which put it in an endless cycle of trying to recover the firmware and continuing to fail.

    When I got home and did the phone recovery from my usual sync point, though, it went through just fine. I did end up losing all my notes, though, and I haven't bothered to check my various games' saved data just yet.

    In the end, the one feature I actually cared about (stereo bluetooth music) turns out to not even be available on the first-gen iPhone anyway, which means either I can keep on putting up with crappy "iPhone-compatible" headphones, or I can upgrade to a 3G just for that one feature (and the ability to use my normal damn headphones) which isn't worth the extra $15/month for data service.

  15. Dustin 1
    Stop

    Update bricked my GF's 2nd gen

    It was plugged in and she is always gental as a lamb with it. It's now bricked, will not turn on at all. We are both at work so I can't get my hands on it yet, but she's no fool. Shes a Unix/Linux SA.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    no problems at all

    I started the update just after 6pm last night, downloaded in about 10 minutes and was back, updated and operational not long after. A colleague a desk or two away from me has a similar experience.

    MMS was automatically turned on as soon as I sent the first one, so no problems there.

    Friends who tried updating later in the evening did experience some authentication problems, which left me feeling rather smug :)

  17. Chris Robinson 1
    Thumb Down

    Bad, BAD 3.0 Update!

    I tried the 3.0 upgrade this morning and my iPhone 3G is now a non-functional brick. Lovely little "1604 error" when iTunes tried to flash the update to the phone. Thereafter, blank screen, hard reset gives me the USB cable pointing to the iTunes logo, but phone no longer recognized in iTunes.

    No, I do not have a jailbroken phone

    Yes, I was using the latest version of iTunes on a PC with USB 2.0 ports and the correct Apple cable for the iPhone

    Yes, I tried using another PC to update the phone (a desktop)

    i spent 4 hours on the phone with Apple support in Kalifornia and the final consensus was to take the phone in to the nearest Apple store (28 miles away) so they can format and re-flash it or give me a new phone. My appointment is this Saturday at noon. Glad I had 27 days left on the warranty or I would probably be toast.

    SIM card in my old reliable Motorola L7 in the meantime so I have something. I want that 5 hours of my life back.

    Check the Apple support forums -- peole are having similar issues to mine all over the place.

    Just wondering -- why is it that AppleHeads are so forgiving when their devices completely take a dump? As opposed to MicoSofty/Intel devices which, when they fail or have problems, it's all a massive conspiracy to abuse/manipulate consumers, crappy products, crappy support, Bill Gates sucks, etc.

    Hmmm?

    </bitterness>

  18. Jimbo 7
    Thumb Down

    why iTunes

    why do I have to install iTunes to upgrade firmware on wireless device again? Screw Apple !!

    Android updates OS over the air

  19. kilofoxtrot

    iPhone 3.0 upgrade resoltuion

    here’s how to fix it under

    Windows XP. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Advanced Tab,

    make sure that both the SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 options are checked.

    Then under Security make sure that the “Check for server certificate revocation

    (requires restart)” is unchecked. Then click ok, restart and fire up iTunes.

  20. Nameless Faceless Computer User
    Stop

    No beta testing for me

    I will be waiting patiently for 3.0.1, thank-you. My time is important to me and I'd rather not spend it as an unpaid Apple Beta Software Tester.

  21. Des
    Thumb Up

    Installation wasn't a problem for me...

    I got the upgrade installed within half an hour of it going live and had no issues whatsoever with the install; my wife's iPhone was a little more awkward, but a few retries sorted that out too.

    I can understand the desire to be first with the upgrade, but for me the reason was I wanted to see if I could use my Jabra BT620s headphones. I am able to report that I can listen to stereo music and make calls using the Bluetooth headphones, but the track selection (next/previous track) don't work so it's not 100% success. I still have the same intermittent connectivity issues, but I had that with WinMo too, but at least next/previous track worked with WinMo.

    My overall impression is that the iPhone 3G now runs a bit slower, but I guess it's doing more? I wouldn't want to revert to the previous OS, but now my iPhones gone from having a great UI to being just a bit better than the WinMo UI on my XDA Stellar/HTC TyTN II.

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