IOS 8 Extraordinarily Long download time?

stop it and start again.

I had 24 hours plus a couple of times last night until I stopped it and then it downloaded in just over an hour.

The first 24-48 hours of a release are always hard to get speedy downloads because you're one of millions that are all trying to get the same files at the same time. You may want to wait for a different time as well. For example it's the middle of the day in the US and early evening in the UK and Europe. so busy times for two major markets

I had the download request sitting for 5 hours with nothing happening.

I was trying to download it via wi-fi and finally decided to use iTunes to grab the update.

It took 5 minutes and then I updated my iPad Air with no problems and was up and running within half an hour.

Yeah. I was going to say. THis may be an update best done via iTunes. The installer pack is a 1.6 gigs (give or take) and expands to between 4-6 gigs.

how do you stop it? I don't even have a progress bar showing.

My iPhone 5 could not download the update even though it had about half the 64GB free. So I had to use iTunes. It definitely does not sound right. If my Mac Book p20 2009 flavor could download the update in a matter of minutes, why can't the iPhone 4? Was stuff on various staged and got to the point of counting the number of hours remaining (11 in some cases). Tried rebooting phone AND router and wifi... no go.

Installed from iTurnes fine!

I downloaded it on an iPhone and iPad on the 17th, both took 10 minutes.

installed without issue.

I ended up in the Apple store. They forced a recovery and restore. Twenty minutes later I was out the door with iOS 8 installed. I came home and installed it on my iPad using iTunes without a hitch.

Although Apple's servers are being hit hard, remember that your ISP plays a role in this as well.

If you haven't read about "net neutrality", "internet fast/slow lanes", "Netflix throttling"...do yourself a solid and research them.

I have FIOS, 42.6Mbps down, but notorious for throttling Netflix. Right now my IOS8 download shows "19 hours left". I have been trying to download since 3PM on 9/18.

Even direct download links are slow: http://www.redmondpie.com/ios-8-download-links-for-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-releas ed-direct-links/

Edit: meant to say iPhone 5 not 4 and stuck, not stuff. Also I had done the over the air update on my iPad 3 just fine as well without issue.

It is now the 23rd, and I have a fast internet as well. I tried using Wi Fi and the phone tells me that it will take 56 hours to download, and in Itunes no matter how many times i restart the download it starts at 16 hours to download and goes up. My ipad ios update took less than an hour but the iphone update has slowed to a crawl at 600kb/min rather than the 91Mbps download speeds I have on all other sites. I tried downloading through a third party and it still tells me 1+days to download. Had turned off firewall, anti virus and made sure that this was the only thing to download.

Very VERY frustrating. I am wondering if they restrict the download connection speeds to give preference to the local apple stores

I suppose that I might as well add my own very frustrating experience. I upgraded one iPhone and two iPads while on my own network at home with no problems. All of these took 30 min. to 60 min. to download on the first day of availability. We have been trying to upgrade our other device, an iPhone 5s, since the launch date for iOS 8 with no success on the same network connection. We typically get estimated download times of 24-32 hours. Even with that, the download never finishes. I have tried with iTunes as well (on a separate computer), with the same non-results. At the moment I am trying to download the file by the direct link. It has been running for three days now. It continues to pause with a timeout message from time to time so that I have to resume it. At the moment it reports about 6.5 hours to go. Yesterday at this time it estimated about 8 hours to go.

For the record, I tested my connection and it reports download speeds of about 20Mbps. All other files that I have tried to access or download for the last few days have had no problems at all. So this appears to be a problem with either the servers or Apple's content distribution system. Does anyone know a way to ensure a connection to one of the more efficient download paths?

my ios update downloaded ok, but i wish it hadn't. it's really screwed up the ipad - it has slowed down every function, can't download magazines i've subscribed to, etc etc etc. completely frustrating.

very disappointed in apple - they blew this one royally

Can you tell tell me or send link to where in iTunes the update is? I found all kinds of new,apps for the iOS 8, but no update.

THanks