iOS 8 update download takes forever

I've tried pausing/restarting the download (on iTunes) at least 20 times and keep getting 100+hour estimates, my favorite being the 1800 hour download estimate… the download will not go at all on my iPod or iPhone OTA, and this is day 4 of the release! Never had this problem before… any ideas? The Starbucks solution seems to keep popping up, I might just wait until they open, but a coffee, and download there...

I wish I had known this Monday! I think the issue is exaggerated if you update without connecting through iTunes as I did, it took almost 5 hours from start to finish. Now I know for next time not to update directly from the iPad. Now if all the other issues we iPad 2 users have get fixed, I'll be a happy camper again.

Briansyddall wrote:

what speed is your Wifi it must be very slow

do you know someone with Fiber broard band

it should take 30mins

.bsydd uk

I have symmetrical 75 Mbps, I am getting the same crap results as the OP. It's not our internet connection, it's Apple's new CDN.

My initial attempts to update my iPad Air and iPad mini on Friday showed 29 hours each, however after attempting approximately 5 hours for each on two separate occasions, both failed to update. Finally, on Saturday, my iPad Air was able to update in a little under an hour. And I am extremely ecstatic I did NOT continue with my iPad mini. My iPad Air (wifi only) is currently useless.... Will not connect to our home wifi (since the update) for more than 15 minutes at a time when it does, it is sluggish and kicks the other wifi devices offline. Constantly resetting the router. Discussion for that issue is located here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscussions.apple.com%2Fmessage%2F266 61440%3Fac_cid%3Dtw123456%2326661440&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEc6hi_gGkq6a-rZhKpFvP rQfl0WA

I don't recommend updating iPad Airs... And I'm not keen on attempting any other iDevice are this point until the bugs are worked out 😟

DCIFRTHS wrote:

Briansyddall wrote:

what speed is your Wifi it must be very slow

do you know someone with Fiber broard band

it should take 30mins

.bsydd uk

I have symmetrical 75 Mbps, I am getting the same crap results as the OP. It's not our internet connection, it's Apple's new CDN.

50Mb/s here, 20 minutes to download, Apple's end is running fine for me.

i think it's their CDN as well...the old one (i think it was akamai) has a big network of servers and i bet apple's is small at

this point...if you happen to be geographically challenged (in relation to apple's servers) which i think i am and and bunch

of others are, then we're outta luck until the traffic slows down.

Just because it worked for you and a few other people doesn't mean you know exactly what to do for every situation. What you may think will fix this issue may not work for the next person. You are suggesting that he/she move to a different location to test out a faster wifi, i did that, multiple times. Each time it was a steady and consistent 100+ hours to download while it never reached above a single Mb download speed which is where it matters. There is something that is happening within the Apple servers, it is quite simple to see, if they have blatantly stated to someone they will place their ticket with the others who have the same issue.

Clearly what you do not understand, is that i am speaking for others as i have experienced the same issues, and i am speaking to you. You also need to understand that every time a new OS is released that there will be bugs, especially with internal servers from companies. Not only am i speaking from experience but i am also speaking from countless years in the IT field. This is a constant with Apple.

Oh i can but to completely reiterate the fact that someone needs to change their locations countless times after telling you they have, its a little much. But its ok i like to get under peoples skin every once in a while and your mannerisms in how you state simple facts over and over again like unexperienced IT professionals is quite fun 🙂 Have a great day now!!

wgogo wrote:

so let me get this straight, if people have problem update their iOS at home, the solution is going to starbucks (a public wifi connection supposedly with slower speed) to download the update? and btw, i am not the only one with problem update download. this is wider spread problem. also noted, i was able to update my iphone two days ago within an hour. there is nothing wrong with my internet connection, there is something wrong on apple server side.

it may not be slow for you, please do not assume that is fast for others based on a sample of one.

Nothing will solve your slow download problem if the source of the problem is Apple (update) servers. They're getting hammered with millions of update requests simultaneously.

As a side note, Starbucks has partnered with Google to provide free WiFi access. Have you tried their free WiFi? I was pleasantly surprised to see the speedtest result, 80+ Mbps down and 5+ Mbps up. I've never seen free public WiFi that fast. One problem though, most Starbucks shops in my city are still offering AT&T WiFi with average speed of 1Mbps down/up.

wgogo wrote:

i finally be able to download the iOS update for both my iPad Air and iPad mini within 15 minutes. This is how to do:

When connected to iTunes and prompted the new iOS. click on "Download only"

then bring up the Downloads windows via "Menu->Windows->Downloads"

you will see "iPad Software Update". if you click on the progress bar, it will show the download speed.

if the speed is very slow (like 50kbps). then right click and choose "Pause"

then right click again and choose "Resume".

you might need to do several tries to get a reasonable speed, it took me 5-10 tries to get a 11.4Mbps speed.

My guess is there are some very slow servers on the other end and even if you are patient enough to wait, the server is not and eventually drops off. By pausing and resuming, you get a chance to connect to a faster server and be able to download the update within reasonable time.

This actually works... no doubt they have really slow servers and really fast ones.. I went from 48Hours to 8 min in one pause/resume click

Sounds dumb but it works. Thumbs up.

Managed to get IOS8 onto my iPad in a matter of about 6 hours on the 17th, but the next day when we tried to download it to my wife's iPad2 we kept on getting errors, so tried it through iTunes and it initially came back with 99 hours for the download and then dropped to 43 before I gave up. Might try that trick about pausing and resuming to see if we get a better connection. The Apple servers are getting hit big time, I heard that approximately 20 million people have either downloaded, or are currently attempting to download IOS8. Mind you what is Apple thinking, at the same time as they release IOS8 they also release an upgrade to OS X, so even more people will be tapping into their servers.

Thank you Wgogo!!!!

Worked - I went from 60 plus hours and countless timeouts to 9 minutes!! Lifesaver - as I am trying to restore my iPhone 4S from a previous bad install of ios8!!! I was stuck without a phone until I tried your solution - it took about 10 tries, but I eventually found a connection that took me to btwn 15 and 17 MB/Second....

THANK YOU ! !

Changing DNS solved it for me, but not on the first try. Google's DNS did nothing to improve my download speed through iTunes. But then I tried another DNS server (Level3) and downloaded my updated in under 5 min!! You can get a list of DNS servers here, if one of them doesn't work for you, try another one.

I wish I had the same luck as the rest of you. Updated iPhone 5S and iPad mini a few days ago from iTunes pretty quickly. I have been trying to update my iPad Air for three days. Tried from iTunes, says 50 to 99 hours remaining no matter how many times I hit pause and resume I can never get a download speed faster than 400 Kbps and I have a fast home connection. Tried it over wifi, started it last night, this morning it still says 22 hours remaining. My iPad is held hostage for the next day?? This is ridiculous. I wish I could stop the process.