IOS 17.4.1 update stuck

I had the same issue with my new IPhone 15 Pro yesterday and was able to set up today successfully by following these steps (keep in mind I use windows PC)

1- Set up your phone without restoring data from cloud or another phone (3rd option)

2-Sign into your ID and access your phone

3- Open ITunes from PC, make sure iTunes has latest Update

4- Connect your new phone to laptop/PC to connect to ITunes

5- After IPhone is identified in ITunes it will either ask you to automatically update to new IOS or you will have to manually choose it from setting (it works either way)

6- After download is completed, it will automatically install it on your phone (it took me 40 min to complete, upgrade size was 8GB and my connection was slow)

7- After new IOS is successfully downloaded on your phone, make sure to check it from general, software update (it will state your phone has latest version)

8- Sign out of apple ID

9- Go to General, transfer or reset phone

10-Erase all content and settings and confirm

11- IPhone will restart again and restart the process of setting up the phone

12- choose the option of transferring data from your other iPhone or restore from cloud (I chose to transfer from my old iPhone)

That’s it.. it will transfer data successfully and not ask for IOS update again

TIPS..

1- If you have already downloaded the software and it’s stuck, make sure to delete it from iPhone storage before starting this process

2- If your download is painfully slow (2 or 3 hours) then reset network settings! It worked for me straight away

Good luck.

Hey, I was having the same problem. Just bought the 15 plus, stuck on “update requested”. I think I may have figured it out though. I reset my phone as new but didn’t delete my eSIM. I didn’t sign in with my icloud, didn’t make a password or set up anything at all except the wifi. Then I went into the settings & downloaded it from there. Then it finally let me update it. Took about 25 minutes then another 15 to restore from icloud. After it updated, I reset it then added my icloud. No more requesting update screen since it’s already updated :) I think the problem is that when you’re transferring from a higher update it gets stuck because it’s operating on a lower update if that makes sense. I hope this helps you or anyone else having this problem. Apple tech said you can use iTunes on mac or pc but unfortunately that didn’t work for me.

I was able to get around this without connecting to a pc. Had to restart the process and reset/wipe my new 15 pro multiple times.

when setting up the phone from the start, don’t link it to anything at all. Not the old phone, no Apple ID, nothing. Just connect the WiFi as needed. in doing this, it didn’t prompt me to update. Just fly through, deferring the set-up of everything “until later”

after that the phone let me set up as blank device with the bare bones apps and settings. I went in and updated to the 17.4.1. That took about 10 min. After verifying the software update was up to date, I went to settings, general, transfer or reset iPhone, and erased all settings.

I went back and set the phone to my old back up via iCloud, and everything loaded just fine. becuase I had downloaded and installed 17.4.1 before resetting my iPhone

I am using iPhone 14 Pro Max and been on 17.3 (I am few versions outdated lol) I've been trying many time for straight three days to update my phone but I experience the same thing. I already tried restarting my phone, turning it off, deleting the update on iPhone storage the try to update again, using different wifi network—BUT NOTHING HAPPENED.

So I am checking just this night if I can update already, but still no. So what I did is that:

1. I plugged my phone to my Macbook using my lightning to type c cord then click "Trust the Device"
2. Open Finder and look for the device name
3. Click General then the update button
4. Just agree with the terms, input your phone's passcode then wait.
5. After the download for update is done, it will ask if you will continue with the update so just confirm
6. Wait again then you're done!!!!!!

I just got mine updated tonight waiting for around 15 minutes only given my internet connection is weak, how much more if it's faster?!?? So try this now besties!

these might help you for much clearer instructions:

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with the Finder - Apple Support

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes - Apple Support

Finally got it working;

SOLUTION...

This has been driving me mad today. Solution seemed to be to start it up as a new iphone instead of restoring from my previous iphone. Then plugging into my macbook and downloading and installing 17.4.1 from the macbook Then erase and restore and then transfer from previous device.

Guys, jasilyn242 is right!

This is the solution:

1. Activate the phone without transferring any data to it.
2. Don't setup iCloud.
3. Once you reach the phone's home screen, open Settings, go to General & download the latest software update.
4. Once the update is installed, reset the phone completely - erase all of it's content.
5. Restart the activation process
6. You should be able to transfer your data whichever way you prefer.

I can't believe Apple still hasn't fixed this bug.

What a horrible waste of time 💀

Good luck people,

Alex.

I had the same issue with my iPad Pro, support wanted me to delete all my VPN connections and reset my networks and cellular settings. They said VPN entries could be causing the issue (even if VPN was off).

I decided NOT to follow that recommendation, but knowing that VPN or Wireless could be an issue, I did the following:

-Rebooted iPad.

-Turned cell data off

-Turned wifi off

-Connect the iPad via Ethernet

-Enabled one of my VPN connections

-update completed successfully in a few minutes

If you have a VPN entry, try enabling it over wifi and see if that alone does the trick.

Else, try the Ethernet option.

Good Luck!

I call Support and they suggested connecting my device to my PC and downloading the update after opening said device on my PC. It worked perfectly and I was able to complete setup of my new device.

Seems like this would work in most situations. My MacBook recognized my iPad immediately after connected it via the usb-c. I had to “allow” the connection via a pop-up. I then found my device in FINDER where I was then able to open the options for the device. The SOFTWARE UPDATE option was at the top of the menu. It took about 15 mins for the update to download on my MacBook but after that my device was good to go.

Setting up a new iPhone 15 as a new phone, with just your icloud account (rather than copying from exisiting device) then connecting it to a mac, works to do the update to 17.4.1. The new phone will be on the left hand devices menu in Finder - follow the option to update it via your Mac. You will of course get several security checks along the way. Then after its done, erase the phone and then you can copy from your existing device, since it will retain the 17.4.1 update. I dont know what people can do to resolve this issue, if they dont have access to these helpful boards.

I had the same problem while trying to do a phone to phone transfer. Left it stuck in updating for an hour while I read this thread.

• Unplugged it from the charger
• Plugged it into MBA
• Selected it from the Finder window
• It prompted for an update, I let it do it
• When update completed, removed it from the MBA, plugged into a charger next to the phone I was transferring from
• It resumed the transfer on it's on
• 25 minutes later it was done
• It rebooted and is downloading apps, photos, emails, messages, etc now

Of note, at no time did I have to reset or erase the phone. Maybe I was just lucky?

I purchased my new iPhone 15 Max Pro and ran into the same issue trying to transfer data from my old phone. it would not move past trying to install 17.4.1. I connected the iPhone 15 to my mac and launched MUSIC selected devices / iPhone 15 / sync to get to status screen to check for updates. Was FINALLY able to update phone to 17.4.1 manually through my imac. very frustrating end to a day i was excited to purchase my new iphone.

Hi all, PC user here and I'm going off what a MAC user said in another post. My only way to force 17.4.1 to update was to hook it up to my computer and force update it through iTUNES. Hope this helps! I'm using iTunes on PC and this worked fine just now. I could never get past Preparing using just the phone.

I've had the same problem on the 15 Pro and a couple of previous phones. If you don't have an iMac handy, a quick fix is to erase wherever you got up to, then set up as "new phone". Do the iOS update. Erase everything again and set up the new phone from another device or iCloud. Sounds more complicated than it is...

I have the iPhone 11 Pro, which isn't brand new, and I was stuck at that "Update Requested" screen, even after restarting and other attempts.

I found a solution: by connecting the phone to a computer, you can download the iOS update via iTunes on the computer. It takes about 30 minutes, but it works!

Connect to an MacBook or iMac, in the Finder click update your phone under Finder.