iPhone 15 Stuck on Software Update

If it is still showing Downloading, then restart and try again. Most likely due to slow server speed from everyone updating. By trying again, you will most likely get a faster connection.

This is to complete my experience with the iPhone iOs 17.3 update.

During the many Apple updates that have taken place across my devices, I have never interrupted any stage during the process. There has never been the need to make such an interruption.

The exceedingly long delay in updating caused me to search for solutions. I discovered Apple information stating that the iPhone could be used during Downloading.

This enabled me to relax somewhat, and I let the update progress.

The update download Request was made at approximately 09:20.

The Download was commenced at approximately 09:30.

I missed the Preparing notification.

The Verification notification appeared at approximately 17:20.

The Ready to Install notification appeared at approximately 17:25.

The installation was Completed at 17:35.

The lesson learned is to Terminate the Download and Restart the Update.

In my case, I would allow the Download between 30 and 45 minutes to complete.

[Edited by Moderator]

I couldn’t finish software update even after forced quit 10 times. I went to ATT yesterday. Staff tried to finish but same thing. They finally updated mine after 1.5 hour effort. They reset data transfer (no transfer) then software update completed. Later they transferred data. So in short, data transfer first and software second jammed the process.

volume up

volume down

hold site button

swipe to power phone off

turn phone back on and it will switch screen to “transferring data from iPhone”

Hello everyone! I don’t normally put things up in these forums but wanted to share how I sorted this issue! My mum got a new IPhone 15 yesterday I tried for 5 hours to set it up for her with no luck! Took it to my house this morning with quicker wifi and update was completed within 10 minutes!

So i am not sure if this will help anyone but this is what worked for me. I literally sat by phone and tapped the screen when ever it started to look like it would go into sleep mode - ie, every 15 or 20 seconds. That kept the phone on for the update to download and to prepare to transfer - it took about 15 minutes for the whole process to complete and now it is finshing the transfer of information from one phone to the other.

hope this helps

Greetings everyone. I also had the Update Software freeze. I contacted Apple support and the tech helped me install the update using my computer. I am fortunate to have a MacBook Air so the download and subsequent upload to the new phone was relatively painless. My suggestion for those without Mac compatible computers would be to take your new phone to an Apple Store and allow the professionals to deal with it. Obviously they are having issues with the start-up software update. Good luck folks.

What step is it on? There are 3 steps to the update: Downloading, Preparing, and Installing. Depending on download speed, it is not unusual for an update to take an hour or more.

Here’s story of my life. I bought iPhone 15 then they said I can transfer from old phone to new phone at home. 2 days to try to update software but it didn't update. I brought it to the Apple Store, it took us 5 mins for update the software.

The Wi-Fi should not be VPN or a Hotspot. It should not have any anti-virus.

I called apple support for this issue and they told me to just wait… they said their update took 4 hours! That is just ridiculous for a small update

Is this on the Software Update screen located at Settings > General > Software Update? It should show you on this screen what step it is on. If it is still downloading, then the network connection is slowing it down. This could be either on your end or Apples server. Normally a slow down on the Apple Servers only occurs the day of a recent update when all users are updating at the same time.

An Apple technician gave me these steps https://support.apple.com/en-us/118106 but that didn't actually work for me.

When I plugged in the phone to my macbook, it showed up as connected without any issues. Putting it in activation mode resulted in the phone being rebooted and I had to start over the with the activation process.

I think the biggest issue for me was trying to restore it from my old phone, which I end up giving up.

Now it's trying to perform the update (for me it was a 1.5GB file) but has been stuck on "Preparing Update..." for over 20mins. If it remains stuck, I might have to go to the apple store :(

I went to Apple Store then it took 5 min to get it fixed.

Hi, thanks for sharing! And yes I have the same issue that it made me update software if I want to transfer stuff from my old phone. Once pressed the update software, it stuck there for 4 hr without any progressing. So quick question, when you were at your dad, you can transfer from old phone to new phone without updating the software? Thanks