ios 5.1 update stuck

The servers are jammed at the moment with everyone trying to update. It may take some time I'm afraid.

Same here. I just downloaded iOS 5.1 on my iPhone 4S (Verizon) and my phone is stuck at "Preparing Update...".

Not sure what to do at this point.

-Ryan

Had the same issue, however, after waiting out a bit, it decided of its own accord to show up as 'downloaded' "Install now".

That happened to me. Download was fast, but it got stuck at the end of Preparing Update with just a tiny bit left. It didn't move for a long time. I didn't want to brick my phone, and I was going to take a nap anyway, so I left it alone. When I woke up maybe 15 minutes later, the iPhone had moved on to the beginning of the update progress bar and it was fine after that.

I would say have some patience and let it finish.

My iPhone 4s is currently having the same issue. The download and preperation of the 5.1 update has finished smoothly. The problem is that once the update has actually started and the phone has shut off and rebooted, it sticks on the spinning load icon. It appears as though the loading icon is frozen, but every 3 or 5 minutes it circles once and then stops again. Mine has been sitting like this for about 30 minutes.

Not helpful, I know, but me too - exact same situation as kiheimac. I'm seeing the spinning load icon, but it's not spinning, except very infrequently and only for a few seconds. Gonna give it time and hope it's not bricked. Will check back here if it ends up recovering itself.

After a few hours of letting mine sit, I gave in and forced the phone to restart with the home button and lock switch. It booted back up with original iOS 5. I immediatley went to software update again and attempted a second time, which went smoothly. I did think there was a little more than usual delay in the begining stage of the progress bar which was unsettling at first but then it continued normally and now everything is upgraded and working.

I, too, let mine sit for a while and then forced the phone to restart the same way you did. Mine, too, booted by with the original iOS 5 and I was nervous about doing anything again. But then the phone, by itself, went back to the Apple Logo with progress bar and completed the process so I'm now on 5.1. I guess the moral of the story is if the spinner freezes, go ahead and restart (home + lock) and it may update itself but if not, you can still go ahead and do it.

FWIW, I ended up restarting mine b/c it was just getting so hot that I figured it was time to shut it off...