ios 6 update stuck on last part of install

Same here, after successfully updating several iPads and iPhones over the wire, one of the updates stalled on the "Preparing Update" message (small text under blue progress bar in the Software Update screen located in Preferences). The device was not frozen. The blue progress bar was indicating that the download was almost complete, say 99%. I decided to wait it out, and it did in fact complete the process successfully. I am not sure what it was waiting for, or why that particular update took so long, but it did.

Same problem but fixed itself while I was reading this thread. I too had rebooted.

Twitter folk have been suggesting that there is a 20-minute delay before the device reboots with the update...

Mine is stuck on the last 90-95% of the boot screen loading bar...after the reboot 😟

How are you guys forcing a reboot? I tried to restart the only way I know (home button + screen on/off button) and nothing happens. I have been stuck at the final stage for almost 30 minutes.

Me also. The iTunes said error occured.

I waited for about 40 minutes and finally did a restart. Still staring at the Apple logo with a blank progress bar underneath for about 20 minutes now. I guess I will have to wait!

After another 20 minutes or so it finaly started moving. Patience seems to be the key. I will update when it's done.

OK, it was stuck for about an hour for me. But it did eventually complete. Once the progress bar started moving it took about 10 minutes.

I have the progress bar of the split screen (the second one) at 95% now for more than two hours - on both an iPhone 4S and an iPad 3. Should I restart either or both?

I left mine going all night and its still stuck on about 25% of the progress bar. I force restarted it but it keeps freezing at that spot. Not sure if there is another way to start the install over again now.

Last night updated iPhone 4S and iPad 3. Downloading the update took about 45 minutes. Then they both reboot and you get the "progress" bar. It sat with NO progress for over an hour. I finally just went to bed thinking I'd wake up and have to tether to computer and restore and all that crap. But, when I woke up they both said "Welcome to iOS 6" OK - great. But seriously, Apple? Seems like there should be some messaging that says install make take over an hour once downloaded. There must be a lot of folks doing resets over and over again. I would have been one of those if I wasn't tired and lazy enough to just let the **** things sit while I crashed.

Here's the deal - JUST LET IT BAKE. Once you get that progress bar after downloading, it's not going to move. You can stare at it all you want. It's going to look stuck. Keep the devices plugged in and go away for the weekend, or read Moby Dick, or weave a quilt. It'll work out. But plug it in and forget about it.

When the planets align in the Appleverse, you will be summarily welcomed into the land of iOS6.

I have an old 3GS phone and it was stuck on the download bar for a long time as other have described; I rebooted it, before the download bar had finished (since I had no idea if it was frozen or what), and now the phone is stuck in an endless loop of power-up/power-down. Just the Apple logo and then black screen and then Apple logo etc etc. over and over for about an hour now. My computer doesn't "see" the phone, and the phone doesn't make its "chirp" when I plug in the charger.

Trying to decide whether to take it to the Apple store, or just wait 'til tomorrow.

I'm having an issue restoring. I've been stuck on the Apple Logo and progress bar at 5% for 6 hrs. I rebooted the device with HOLD + HOME, and it went back to that unmoving progress bar.

I did this a bit differently than the others in this thread. I downloaded the GM seed the same day as the announcement, on the advice of Lifehacker.com. This rant may have been rendered unnecessary if I had waited for the official release.

It installed handlily, except that all of my music disappeared from the Music app (not the albums or artists, just the song content and titles). FYI - I use iTunes Match. So everything in iOS 6 was working, except the Music app content. I filled the gap with the web version of Google Music, which still doesn't work near as well on the iPhone as Music.

I synced with iTunes via USB a few times. The old content was in there, but in the "other" category (several GB). I managed to get my device back below capacity, and the "other" down ~2 GB, but Music was still unavailable - I just got that large iCloud logo with a static progress bar at 0%, with apparent download activity occuring in the iPhone status bar. No actual music ever became accessible. This problem has also been reported by a few people who waited for the official reelase.

I finally took the dive and went for a Wi-Fi restore, figuring that with iTunes Match "On" I would just end up with iOS 6, my apps & settings, and no music downloaded, since the library was empty, sort of - all songs were indicated, but with no length or titles. Nope - static restore prograss bar for 6 hours.

So here I am - the only backup I can revert to now, besides this morning, is the iTunes backup from April, when I restored my new 4S with my 4 data.

Moving apps and folders is a PITA, even in iTunes. One screen at a time - I can't believe that the Steve Jobs biography had him claiming that iTunes was the "best program on Windows". So far, and this is before I encountered this issue - the opposite is true. Slowest Windows program I have, and I have quite a few. App management in iTunes is a weak port of the iOS method. It's painful to use if you want to move a lot of stuff.

So I restored to April. No non-Apple apps. It restored to "factory"; must have been from when I first got my 4S. Would have been nice to know that was the backup I was working with - how about some screen shots associated with the backup, so you know what you're getting into? I now am looking at a stock iPhone with no 3rd party apps. Time to sync and re-organize 200 apps, and manually re-enter all of the passwords.

Sigh. There's a chance Apple won't publish this reply - a similar one last year didn't make it.

Similar issue bothering me for quite a long time now...In fact, my iPhone 3GS suddenly broke and it started showing itunes + usb cable symbol. I'm away and am not carrying my lap top hence I installed itunes and downloaded iOS 6 again. Ever since then trying to restore and it keeps showing this apple and no progress in progress bar.

I tried what was suggested in this thread....to perform a reset but it didn't work. Now, again I'm waiting iOS 6 to be installed (or a restore happen to my mobile device) and it's still showing me stupid screen with silver apple and no progress in progress bar :-( I'm not loving Apple anymore for last 4-5 hours !!