iOS 8.3 a disaster

Maybe I described this wrong. On a Mac, I launch iTunes and go to iTunes>Preferences>Devices and see this window.

As you can see I have a bunch of archived backups. If I wanted to restore one of these, that would take place when my device is connected with the cable and I select the Restore Backup option from the Summary Screen in iTunes. When the drop down menu pops up for the backups, you select the backup that you want to restore from in there.

Hmmm... I'm using iTunes for Windows. There is only 1 backup for each device. If I do another backup, the current one will be replaced. Newstech is experiencing the same thing because he's using Windows. Perhaps that feature is only available on Mac OS.

This article confirms it:

Create and delete iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backups in iTunes - Apple Support

Right-click a backup, and select Archive. (Available in iTunes for Mac only.)

Just to add to some thoughts...

On the device summary tab I suggest unticking the box that says Open iTunes when this iDevice is connected and under Edit > Preferences > Devices tick the box that says Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically. This means that you get to choose and, if necessary, edit the content selections before your device starts syncing, and also leaves you in the best position should you need to restore a recent backup. The default settings essentially mean that any iTunes backup is updated with the current state of the device on connection which may not always be what you want.

Restore as new device, then restore from backup can sometimes get around odd issues. See also If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch which explains how to use recovery mode, also known as DFU update.

As far as backing up the library is concerned the method I recommend is given in Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.

tt2

Restoring an iTunes library is straightforward if the library is in a portable shape, or all components can be restored to exactly the same paths. The library is portable if it consists of a library folder containing the .itl database file and a media folder, and all media connected to the library is inside that media folder. See Make a split library portable for details. As long as any iOS devices are in good shape at the time there should be no need to migrate iOS backup data but in principle this could be achieved by copying over the Apple Computer folders from inside the user profile before installing iTunes on the new computer.

tt3

I've run into the same issue described here. See my description in another thread: Anyone else seeing issue with iOS 8.3 update on iPad Mini 3?I've been searching through the morass of stuff in the communities here looking for other folks with the same issue.

It looks like there is no resolution short of "wiping the slate clean"?

You really shouldn't have waited until you were in the middle of this "fiasco" before you created a backup, if that is what you actually did. And if it is what you did, it's no wonder that it was corrupt. I know that your iPad is only six weeks old, but you shouldn't wait that long to backup. With iCloud and automatic backups, or with iTunes and automatic WiFi syncing, there is no reason to not have been backing up. IMO, you really have to work at preventing backups to not have backed up several times in six weeks.

I'm not trying to come off like an a-hole. You've had enough problems for one day with your iPad. I just hope you have learned from the experience. I had no issues at all updating and I'm guessing that millions of people will update without any issues at all. There could be a very good reason why the update went south on you, but without knowing more information as to how you updated, how you use your iPad on a daily basis, what you have on your iPad, etc. it's really difficult to explain why it happened.

I hope that you get it all sorted out and that rebuking the iPad goes smoothly for you. But I also believe that your experience will be that of a small percentage of iOS device users.

ChazThePhoenix wrote:

i find OTA is hit or miss...itunes ALWAYS WORKS FOR ME. The OTA download is 293ish MB...while the iTunes one was 1.83 gigs...leading me to believe its a patchwork update

I Have updated both ways over the years and since iOS 5 came out, the overwhelming majority of my updates have come using WiFi OTA, in fact, two of the major updates (iOS 6 and iOS 7) that I did were when I was at work using an ad hoc network that I create with the Ethernet connection to my iMac. I have never had issues with an OTA update.

Rebuking was obviously supposed to be rebuilding. Sometimes I hate autocorrect because it doesn't correct grammar. I get ticked off so I disable it, then I feel like I need it, so I enable it again. I just can't make up my mind what I want to do. Throw in the quirks that crop up here using Safari on an iPad in the ASC and when I read some of the responses I have posted, even I'm not sure what I meant when I wrote the reply!

I couldn't tell from your first post if you were backing up or not, so that's why I responded the way that I did. You can archive backups so that you always have a good one in the backup folder. If you want to save or archive a backup, just right click on the backup in window where your backups appear and select Archive.

For Windows - Edit>Preferences>Devices>Right click on the backup for the device. For Mac - iTunes>Preferences>Devices....

I have read this response three times now, and I hope it doesn't have any glaring typo screw ups again. 😝

Newstech wrote:

8.3 upgrade killed my iPad Air 2. It's about 6 weeks old, having been updated from an iPad 1 with hundreds of apps.

6 weeks old? Why bother trying to fix anything? It's under warranty. Take it to Apple store and let them clean up the mess.

Demo wrote:

You can archive backups so that you always have a good one in the backup folder. If you want to save or archive a backup, just right click on the backup in window where your backups appear and select Archive.

For Windows - Edit>Preferences>Devices>Right click on the backup for the device. For Mac - iTunes>Preferences>Devices....

I didn't know that option exists. Thanks for the tip. Does that mean we can have multiple backups stored in the computer storage? If so, how do we choose which backup set to restore from?

Demo wrote:

You can archive backups so that you always have a good one in the backup folder. If you want to save or archive a backup, just right click on the backup in window where your backups appear and select Archive.

For Windows - Edit>Preferences>Devices>Right click on the backup for the device. For Mac - iTunes>Preferences>Devices....

I just had a chance to test it myself. Right clicking on the backup does not do anything (there's no pop-up menu). I don't know how you're able to do it. I am using iTunes version 12.1.

It fixed my ipad2 which had become slow after the iOS 8 update. Try to use recovery mode. I had done that before going on vacation and that helped a bit as well. I did the most recent update OTA while on vacation for both my ipad 2 and my iPhone 5S.

Egg on my face again, I guess. I could swear that a Windows user turned me onto this trick, but it was quite some time ago when I found out about it. You can see how old some of my backups are. But in the very last line in the support article it clearly states it's for Mac only. I don't know why these differneces exist from one OS to the other, but I don't write code and know nothing about how it's done.

The really unwieldy way of saving backups would be to copy a backup to another folder on your PC and drag them back and forth as needed Into the mobile sync folder. That should work for either OS, but its a few steps more work than the simple one step way of archiving on a Mac.

I'm going to ask in another area of the forum where only upper level users can have discussions. I will report back.