iOS Software Download Progress in Finder

While there is no progress bar available, one potential way to estimate the progress is through Terminal, with the following command:

ls -lhrt ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone\ Software\ Updates

It will show the size of the current (*.ipsw.download) and all previous (*.ipsw) update files, which can be used to estimate progress. For example, for a 2.9G update file (can be estimated using previous update files), if we see that the current update file size is 2.3G, then the progress would be approximately 2.3G / 2.9G = 79%. By running the above command periodically, we can somewhat know how long it may still take (or at least the downloading is still in progress and not stopped because of network or other issue).

Hope this helps, thank you very much!

Agreed to the fact that Apple has removed the progress bar for software download (like in iTunes). It used to give the download percentage (as far as I remember) and an estimated time remaining. An average iOS software file is around 3-4 GB (iOS 13.2 is 3.8 GB for iPhone XR). The terminal command being the only option for now, you can use this 'while' loop on the terminal:

while true

do

clear

ls -lhrt ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone\ Software\ Updates

sleep 20

done

The "clear" command simple clears your terminal screen so you only see the latest row / value.

The numeric value after they keyword "sleep" is the number of seconds the code sleep before repeating itself again. So a value of 20 (20 secs) means, the same ls -lhrt command gets repeated after 20 seconds and shows you the most recent downloaded side of the file. So you do not have to repeatedly type the command again and again. Just set your preferred time in second after "sleep".

This helped. Thank you so much.

Pretty annoying that Apple removed it. Hope they get it back in the future.

What the hack is wrong with Apple? Is it that hard to put simple download progress there? 5 min job for junior programmer. MacOs really looks like there is just one programmer writing entire system.

This is dumb, yes.

I always choose download only, and there's not even a progress pie. Ugh!

Anyway, I think the following is a better method than using Terminal.

1. In Finder, open the 'Go' menu and choose 'Go to Folder…'
2. In the window that appears, enter '~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates'

Here you'll see the download and be able to check/remove when it's done.

I did find the size slow to update. You could probably use 'Get Info' or close the window and repeat steps 1 and 2 above to force it to update.

Agreed - this is really stupid. A simple feature is now gone.

this download can be monitored by opening Activity Monitor to the "Network" tab. Look for a process called "AMPDevicesAgent" in the "Rcvd Bytes" column and watch the GB’s count up

I just updated mine to 13.2 for first time in Catalina, and you are right there is no indicator of download progress, though from memory this used to be in top RH corner of the main screen or in Launchpad, outside of iTunes.

I tend to set upgrades off and go and get on with something else and only do while-U-wait on Syncs.

The circles do change to pie chart but only for sync and backup, not software updates.

we support customers all over the world....from the USA, Australia to Vietnam and Philippines. iOS download times vary from 5 minutes to 15 hours. It is now extremely difficult to position a time consuming task and call back without being able to provide ETA guidance or track download progress. In some instances this may result in customers having to leave their phone connected to their computer for over a half a day for no reason other than the download progress is not shown in Catalina.

In instances where we have to force a device into recovery, in which it will only stay in recovery mode for 15 minutes, its now difficult to provide guidance on what steps the customer will need to complete if we don't know if the download will take more or less than 15 minutes. For some customers, this step can easily confuse them if provided unnecessarily and this change seems like a drastic layer of complexity that has been added with Catalina.

tried to put the command in I just get repeat lines of code

Waynes-MacBook-Air:~ Wayne$ ls -lhrt ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone\ Software\ Updates

total 2785696

-rw-r--r--  1 Wayne  staff   1.3G Nov  1 14:12 iPhone10,3,iPhone10,6_13.2_17B84_Restore.ipsw.download

Waynes-MacBook-Air:~ Wayne$ 

Ctrl+C (can try Command+C also) to break the loop :-)

Yep I agree there will be less techy people to know or use this but I gave it just to make it easier for people in absence of a UI based progress bar.

Yes the pie works for part of regular sync but iOS updates just have the circling arrows for most of the download process in my experience and with middling internet speeds can be for half an hour or more.

I dont know the language but is there an "inkey" function so you can quit the loop if char$ == q or something similar.

Is there a way to save the. code like a Clist or basic program?

it's been more than 30 years since I last wrote anything like that on the Vic20

I'm finding that Catalina has removed a lot of formally very user-friendly features. It is really rather disheartening to be honest; I don't think this was an intentional thing on behalf of Apple, i.e. I don't think they set out with the mindset of "lets remove a bunch of features that are really helpful to our users." I think it speaks more to the fact that they are expending less rigor in ensuring that they are delivering updates that live up to their formally very high standards. Very sad; I would just hope that at some point, Apple realizes that the more they chip away at the user experience, the more they lose their competitive advantage, or their "moat" in investment terms. As time goes on, the value proposition of Apple products continues to erode. Their products demand a sizable price increase over their competition. As time goes on, I'm finding that I continue to pay "premium" pricing for ultra-sub-premium product. I'm seriously considering migrating to another platform.