Problems installing iOS 5 on iPad

I have tried at least a dozen times with no sucess. Though I read online that it is working for people now, it still is not for me.

I have tried the direct downlown method, and the standard menthod with the same results. I have deleted the ipsw file several times, but same results.

The iPad is in recovery mode, it connect to iTunes, but I get stuck in the "Restoring iPad Software..." phase, with the bar filled in on the iPad and about 98% in iTunes.

This is my son's iPad, and he almost lives on it. 🙂 Hopefully I can get it working for the weekend for him, though I don't know what else to do. He just have to live without it longer somehow, 🙂.

Even though I'd successfully backed up my iPad (iPad 1 running 4.3.3) before attempting to update, I got this error message as well (my error # was -402653081). I decided to click continue anyway and start from scratch, and planned just to reinstall apps and resync after the upgrade. I was pleased to find that it nonetheless let me restore from my backup after the upgrade, and the iPad seems to be syncing fine now.

Oh, and I don't get any error messages.

I'm trying to find the direct link to some version of 4 so I can at least get the iPad back running.

Similar problem here... I'm running iTunes on Windows 7. I downloaded the latest iTunes update and downloaded the iOS 5 update separately from doing the upgrade.

I started the upgrade on my iPad 1 about an hour ago and it's been sitting at "Backing up" ever since then. No progress bar movement AT ALL so it doesn't look like it's actually backing up anything.

I went through this on my iPod touch back in the day with an iOS update and that update more or less hosed my device. It went through but the new OS was slow and buggy on my 2nd gen touch. I'm really leery of allowing this to continue and am considering just cancelling the update since it hasn't gotten past "Backing up".

Same thing happened here. I wonder how many of us with the backup problem(s) are running 64-bit Windows? When I look at the processes in Task Manager with only iTunes running, I see AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe *32 and AppleMobileDeviceService.exe *32. When I start the iPad backup, up pops AppleMobileBackup.exe *32. The iPad (now running iOS 5) shows the spinning tails in the top corner, iTunes says "Backing up", and this situation will just linger forever.

There has to be some s/w conflict somewhere, but it's not Windows Firewall or my antiVirus since I tried it with both deactivated.

I've removed and reinstalled iTunes and other Apple s/w in the prescribed order, to no avail.

This happened before with the upgrade to 4.3, then eventually with some tweaks to the system (who knows what) the backup process was working. And now it doesn't.

Update: killing the AppleMobileBackup.exe *32 process caused iTunes to skip the backup with a grumpy message but it then went on to happily complete the Sync with the iPad.

O.K., I hooked the iPad up to another MacBook we have in the house, and (after it updated iTunes), it restored the iPad to 4.something, and then upgraded to 5 with no problems.

I think plugged it back in to my Mac, (which it had been synced with), and it automaticaly restored apps, then podcasts and music, and then synced (which meant getting a few new podcasts).

It all seems to work fine now.

Hi RSnyder, I've been stymied at this backup failure (and thus sync and update since both go through the backup process first) for a long time, ever since release 4.3.3 or thereabouts.

Stay with me, please; this was part of my recent troubleshooting process. I tried using the new install of Safari and sure enough, it only loaded blank pages. iTunes (new release) Help also loaded only blank pages and then reported "computer not connected to the internet".

In seeking a resolution to the Safari connection issue, I came across this advice from Mike41: "If anyone runs across my post of 7/21/2011 regarding Safari 5.1 not connecting to the Internet on my Windows Vista system, BorisKon suggested I run a command prompt window as administrator and execute the command "netsh winsock reset" (then be sure to reboot). I tried this and now Safari 5.1 can access the Internet. See the discussion athttps://discussions.apple.com/thread/3194305?answerId=15734035022#15734035022. I had to reboot for the command to take effect. "

I did this on my system and now Safari, iTunes, and the iPad backup all function 100%.

Start/Run/"cmd" without quotes.

Type "netsh winsock reset" without quotes.

Reboot the computer.

Happy, happy, joy, joy...

Yes once again I have been fooled by Apple into touching the dreaded up-date button and the lure of IOS5 was too much for me. My IPAD2 is now sat with the cable and itunes picture on it and locked solid, not response to button holds. It seem OK to start with but then I got an eror message about back up and the ipad locked....HELP

Any ides would be welcome before I find a GURU????

Thanks

Ray

Thanks for all of the good input here. I have been having the same problem all day but was just now able to get the update and recovery to go thru by simply rebooting the computer (Win 7) and turning off my Zone Alarm firewall & antivirus package BEFORE connecting the ipad2 & starting the process again (for the 15th time!!).

Maybe it was just a huge coincidence, but if you're running Zone Alarm (or maybe any firewall & antivirus?), you may want to try a clean boot & turning those off before attempting the update.

Hope it works as well for you as it just did for me.

-fredthemilkman

I tried 3 times overnight and had no luck it kept taking hours to create the backup then after hours would fail. I couldn't understand why seeing the manual backup I created only took 10 mins or so even in iTunes 10.5.

I have eventually got iOS5 on my iPad2 but not without much playing around.

1. Created a manual backup this was about 6GB and confirmed that the file was in the hidden folder location.
2. Deleted all the photos and movies from the iPad. (painful as you cant delete photos in bulk)
3. In the iPad sync menu unselected all apps, music, and other content then did a sync (not backup) so that the iPad bacically had nothing on it.
4. Then ran the iOS 5 installer (it warned me I would wipe it) and let it proceed, the backup took less than 5 minutes! Then the iTunes extracted the file and installed on iPad
5. Then Ran restore from backup and selected the backup with all my content on it and reselected to Apps, music and movies to sync. The backup even brought back all the photo's I deleted.
6. iPad now working with iOS 5, only thind missing is the apps in folders which is easy to fix!

Hope this helps as I was so worried that I was not going to get past the backup stage!

Ok, mine is working but it took an odd round about way to get there. 😝

I left it set to upload and install last night and it failed on the backup step.

Got home this evening, backed it up, then hit update. 3.5 hours later it finally finishes backing it up. 😝 Then goes the the restart, load the IOS, restart, then informed me that it was restoring it from backup. 30 minutes later it finishes and when I turn it on still connected it shows my normal stat screen. open it up and get a window i've never seen before.

Turns out it restored it to the IOS 5 version? Anyway now I'm sitting here somewhat bemused watching my apps be reinstalled from my PC one by one by one. As the IPad's screen flips from page to page. and more and more of my apps reappear on the screen. I think I'll wait until this step is done before I fuss futher with it but just thought I would report that oddity in a iPad 1.0 upgrade to IOS 5.

debrafromphoenix wrote:

How exactly did you back up to another file. External?.

Who are you asking? I backed up to another directory anywhere on my PC. It could be external. The IPad Backup overwrites the previous one. Apple does not keep multiple backups or ask you how many you would like to keep which is very bad computing practice. I think they assume you would only want the latest one. That means if you have a problem with your backup you do not have a falback to a previous version. Apple should actually be embarassed as to its engineering.

I simply copied that backup before it got overwritten. If I needed it, I could always write it back to the original directory. It is good practice to keep a backup of the backup, or any other important data on your PC for example. People know they should but get lazy or complacent. If your hard drive crashed, for example, you would have no backup to fall back to so keep it on a different drive would be my advice, either internal or external or flash.

Practice safe computing and backup and backup again. You'll be very grateful one day. I bought a WD 2TB external HD drive at Newegg for $80. If you really want to be safe, buy 2 and duplicate everything. I think you can get 500gb externals for around $60 or so. Backup up the iTunes Media as well while you're at it. Don't even need a fancy backup program. Just do a directory to directory copy. I also moved iTunes media files itself off the C drive.

wynchil wrote:

I tried 3 times overnight and had no luck it kept taking hours to create the backup then after hours would fail. I couldn't understand why seeing the manual backup I created only took 10 mins or so even in iTunes 10.5.

I have eventually got iOS5 on my iPad2 but not without much playing around.

1. Created a manual backup this was about 6GB and confirmed that the file was in the hidden folder location.
2. Deleted all the photos and movies from the iPad. (painful as you cant delete photos in bulk)
3. In the iPad sync menu unselected all apps, music, and other content then did a sync (not backup) so that the iPad bacically had nothing on it.
4. Then ran the iOS 5 installer (it warned me I would wipe it) and let it proceed, the backup took less than 5 minutes! Then the iTunes extracted the file and installed on iPad
5. Then Ran restore from backup and selected the backup with all my content on it and reselected to Apps, music and movies to sync. The backup even brought back all the photo's I deleted.
6. iPad now working with iOS 5, only thind missing is the apps in folders which is easy to fix!

Hope this helps as I was so worried that I was not going to get past the backup stage!

I dont quite understand. The IPAD backup option does not backup the media. It specifically says so (see below). So I'd be interested to know how your backup was 6GB and restored your media? ("selected the backup with all my content on it")

Also Itunes overwrite previous backups. How is it the backup in 4 did not overwrite the backup in 1? When you selected your backup, were their multiple backups to choose from? Apple does not give that option normally. I'm confused as to what you actually did. Backup is not sync and vice versa.

See this post:

http://www.monkeedev.co.uk/blog/2010/03/11/managing-multiple-iphone-backups-thro ugh-itunes/

and this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4137

and read this:

Backup iPad with iTunes

Every time you sync your iPad to your computer, an iPad backup is automatically saved on your computer that contains your settings and some data.

So, if you ever need to restore your iPad from backup, you'll be able to choose this backup and you'll be back up and running in a snap.

An important thing to know about the iTunes option, though, is that it doesn't backup your iPad's apps and music. Those are stored in your iTunes library and need to be backup as part of your computer backup or using iCloud (more on that in a minute). Given that, it's a good idea to ensure that you're employing some other kind of backup, whether it's an external hard drive or web-based automatic backup services. If you have to restore your iPad from backup, it would be too bad to lose your music because you didn't back it up.

bsvhj I was simply trying to assist.

Whatever Apple says throw that out the door. This install is far from textbook. I can tell you that the iOS backup was creating new folder with the number 1 at the end of the old file. And iTunes does allow you to select which backup you want to use and it allows you to delete all but the most recent backup.