why downloading timed out?

and had you bothered to search the forum before posting, you would have been told to disable all your firewall and antivirus software and try downloading again.

Well, I have bothered to search this and other forums, and I have tried to download IOS 5.0.1 many times, without success. I have disabled my Windows firewall, and my anti-virus software. I have updated to the latest iTunes. I have run the "netsh winsock reset" command and rebooted (the solution that did work for a previous iPhone update problem).

And I still get the same result: downloading... downloading... downloading... 684.9 of 685.0 MB... "processing file"...

"There was a problem downloading the software for the iPhone. The network connection timed out."

This is on Windows Vista, on an HP laptop. iPhone is a 3GS/16MB, running IOS 4.3.5. I am doing the "Download only" option, so I doubt that it has anything to do with the USB connection to the iPhone.

I just returned from the Genius Bar, where I was told that they had never heard of this before, and suggested uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes. I guess I will try that the next time I have some spare time, I have wasted enough on it today...

I am having the same problem while trying to upgrade iPad1 to ios 5.0.1 using windows XP. "the network connection timed out".

I have disabled all firewalls/antivirus etc. Have uninstalled and reinstalled latest iTunes. Still having the same problem.

Any ideas?

Good news and bad news.

Good news:

(1) I have upgraded, and I can tell you how I did it.

(2) No need to disable your firewall or anti-virus software.

Bad news:

(1) IOS 5 on a 16GB 3GS is grotesquely slow, and I occasionally have applications just close without any explanation.

(2) The upgrade failed the first time and blew away everything on the phone (the Genius at the Apple Store had said that this was a possibility), so I had to restore it from my most recent backup -- SO BE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR PHONE BEFORE YOU DO THIS.

(3) In a remarkable brain fart, Apple has the attitude that your media files will be in your iTunes media storage, so MEDIA FILES ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE BACKUP!!! IMHO, that would be fine if the XML file that lists all of the media files and playlists was included in the backup, and so the restore could restore them from the iTunes media storage, but no such luck. Note, also, that I could find no way to copy the media data (in particular, all my playlists) from the phone manually, so if this happens, you will need to manually recreate all your playlists and copy each and every bit of media back to the phone. Not impossible, but time consuming and utterly unnecessary if Apple had thought about the meaning of the word "backup". Or maybe it is just Apple's way of telling you that you need to review and replace the music in your iPod every so often...

OK, so that being said, here is what you can do to workaround the bogus download failure. Go to

http://osxdaily.com/2010/10/25/download-iphone-firmware-ipsw

and download the appropriate version of IOS for your phone and IOS version. These are not copies of the software, they are direct links to the Apple Download server. Unlike iTunes, which only offers the latest version, this will offer you older versions as well. There are instructions just below the list of download links that explain where to download the file on different hosts; just above the list is a suggestion that you right-click and explicitly save the file rather then just clicking on the link if you are using Safari.

Note: I downloaded both my current version (IOS 4.3.5) and the latest version (IOS 5.0.1), but after I installed IOS 5.0.1, I found that iTunes deleted the older (4.3.5) IPSW file, so you should make a backup copy elsewhere.

After you have downloaded the file(s), here are the instructions for selecting the file you want to use to update your iPhone:

http://osxdaily.com/2010/11/23/how-to-use-ipsw-files

It is essentially the same as usual, except that you hold down the Option (Mac) or Shift (PC) key when you click "Update" in iTunes.

Also note that there are some user comments indicating that some browsers will append a different extension to the file when it is downloaded, and if so, you have to rename it to something like:

iPhone2,1_4.3.5_8L1_Restore.ipsw

iPhone2,1_5.0.1_9A405_Restore.ipsw

If you're using IE, especially IE 9, completely understandable.. sometimes all it takes is installing another Browser to use.. I love Google Chrome: Works Great & Very Effective!

http://www.google.com/chrome

Great solution - thanks!

I expect nothing more from Apple garbage than a dodgy upgrade process - never have this on our Android devices!

totalsurf.....I can't tell you how many former Andriod users I've spoken with that are now iPhone users, but I can tell you they never looked backed with any regrets. I've also spoken with former iPhone users that switched to an Android phone and were so disappointed that they switched back to an iPhone.

The real truth of this restoring/update issue (if you can handle the truth) is that these issues are by large due to either something installed on the computer that intereferes with iTunes and as tries to download the iOS from the update servers, or with the network connections, such as a firewall enabled on a router or just a plain slow internet connections. So before you go about putting the blame on Apple do a little more research.

Thanks so much! Worked like magic!