First an update failure on iPhone (18.6.1) and soon after an update failure on iPad (18.6.2)

Hi dawn417... In your recent post, you said, in part,

...."plus, update worked fine on a different computer ON THE SAME NETWORK"...

Can you say more about that update??? Was it this same 18.6 --> 18.6.1 on an iPhone using the Finder method of updating??? But where it failed on another computer, it worked on a "different computer"??? That might be important so just asking to see if you can give more details...

By the way, for those same details from me, I was running macOS 15.6 Sequoia on a MacBook Pro (Finder method) when trying to update my iPhone from 18.6 to 18.6.1 (on 8/16/25) resulted in an "unknown error" that bricked my iPhone...

Then, four days later, on 8/20/25, an update on my iPad to take that from 18.6 to 18.6.2 ALSO resulted in the same error that also bricked my iPad...

It took a ton of help from Apple Support and more than a little luck, I think, to save my iPhone as to more attempts to "update" the phone after the crash and subsequent move to "recovery mode" both failed AS DID the first attempt to "restore" the iPhone... But a 2nd attempt WORKED (same procedure as first to "restore" the iPhone, first failed, 2nd worked, go figure???, but I was grateful..)... When the iPad bricked, I had enough knowledge from the recent iPhone issue to move the iPad into "recovery mode" and a first attempt at "updating" that device brought it back to life...

So can you offer details about the one you said that "worked" on a different computer but on the same network??? Again, there might be useful information in the specifics... thanks...

Also, dawn417, I sent feedback to Apple the other day detailing this issue as best I could in the allowed 800 characters.. If you've not done so and have the time, it might be helpful if you offered something similar from your end??? thanks...

Product Feedback - Apple

One of the reasons I choose to use my Mac and a Finder window (vs "backing up and later restoring from iCloud") is that on my Mac I can go to /Users/xxxxx/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/ and SEE a FOLDER that actually contains the Backup for either the iPhone or iPad... Granted it's not a set of files I can read but when I do a backup I can actually see the date on one of the folders in that MobileSync location change...

Also, when updating from my Mac, I get to watch the large file (these two most recent updates for iPhone and iPad were a bit over 9 GBytes download from the Apple servers to my Mac... When I do an iPad update like I attempted today, it offers the choice to download ONLY and then separately press the button to "Update" which is what I always choose to do... Did that today... The download worked just fine (connection was GOOD), completed and then it was part way through the update (should all just be on my computer via a cable to the iPad) when it failed...

For iPhone updates, for reasons I've never known, there is no option to Download ONLY before Updating... Instead the only choice is to just Update which first does the download which I always watch to completion.

For the iPad update today, there was the initial failure after the completed download and then there was a 2nd failure when I tried to update (from recovery mode) a 2nd time... So two total failures...

It was much worse with the iPhone failure 5 days ago because there was the initial update failure, then two more failures to update out of recovery mode and then even 1 "restore" failure when the apple support person and I gave up on trying to "update" but instead chose to rebuild the phone to factory defaults... So that was a total of 4 failures, 3 update failures and one restore failure...

So six total failures on two updates, one update to iPhone (4 failures) and one update to iPad (2 failures)... Otherwise, zero failures in many, many years of updates???!!!! How could that even be??? Could it be my MacBook Pro??? It's NOT the network because I watch the downloads complete before the updates start... Maybe bad bits being downloaded??? That I would have no way to know other than perhaps some sort of Apple checksum deal??? Seems like I always see the update "verified" with Apple... Again, what could cause this??? No way I'm doing another update on my phone until I learn something!!!!

Wow, dawn417, thanks for the post... Another person reporting a very similar deal to what I experienced... Amazing... I've been trying to figure out WHAT might be wrong with either the Type-C connectors on the ports on my MacBook Pro or maybe something wrong with the MacBook Pro itself... Couldn't be the cables in my case as I use two different cables to connect the MBP to my iPhone (14 Pro) vs MBP to iPad Pro... And both errors were almost identical and it was only thanks to some really good help from an Apple Support person back east that saved me... Plus, in ALL the years I've been doing updates, I don't think I had EVER seen an update for the iPhone ONLY (18.6.1)... The one that failed so miserably for me last Saturday was to go from 18.6 to 18.6.1 that they said was only for the iPhone... Then there was the update last Wednesday to take my iPad from 18.6 to 18.6.2 (skipping .1)... The one that bricked my iPhone had left me almost convinced I would either need a new phone or at least take a trip to the Genius Bar soon and have no phone until then...

My phone is now requesting 18.6.2 and there is NO WAY I'm gonna do that anytime soon, at least not over a cable between the phone and a Finder on my MBP... I have two other MBP's, both quite a bit older, and I backed up both my iPhone and my iPad to one of those older MBP's yesterday, just so I have plenty of backups...

I've been considering switching to OTA which seems sooooooooo wrong considering what you and I were doing (cable to Finder using macOS) has always seemed to be the much more conscientious way to go about doing updates... I will likely call and talk with Apple support again before I try 18.6.2 on my iPhone. If I did the cable to Finder routine, I would have zero faith it would work even though I've NEVER had a failure before these two last week... Sad...

So you think OTA would likely work for me??? Is that what I'm hearing...??? And please holler if you learn anything new and I will do the same, here, in this post...

Thanks again for the post... I don't feel so crazy!!!!

Anyone else on why now at least two of us had serious update failures using macOS, Finder windows and a cable to do Apple device updates??? thanks...

You never want to be the ONLY one with a specific problem... But now there are two, which I think means there are quite a few more... Read what Dawn417 describes above and compare that to what I said above... Bingo... I've been doing iPhone and iPad updates the same way (not over the air while I sleep but instead on my Mac while I actively watch how it's going) for all the years iPhone (2007) and iPad (2010) have been around... And never a failure until just this week I have two at two different times using two completely different cables (lighting vs Type-C).. Sure I was still considering something wrong with my MBP so maybe a dirty Type-C connector... And then Dawn417 came along and now I know it wasn't anything on my end but something Apple did on their end...

I sent Feedback to Apple just a while ago... I hope Dawn417 will also do so and any others who might have encountered this issue...

This bricked my iPhone (for the batter part of a day) and multiple attempts at Updates and even one attempt at Restore to Factory Defaults failed (with an Apple Support supervisor helping me all the way) before a 2nd such attempt saved my iPhone. That considered, you can believe I am NOT ABOUT to touch the request for an update to my iPhone to go up to 18.6.2... OTA maybe but certainly not gonna try again any time soon that which has always worked (update through my MBP) since 2007!!!!... Tough...