Level 1

9 points

iOS 8.3 a disaster

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. When 8.3 install finished it went into a restart loop, asking for my password and such, showing the home screen for 1/2 second, then starting again. Per Apple site, I put it in recovery mode and reinstalled the update. Same behavior. Then I did a factory reset and tried to restore from the only backup (which was created in the midst of this fiasco) and was told the backup was correct. Back to rebuilding the iPad from scratch. Be warned.

iPad

Posted on Apr 8, 2015 4:22 PM

37 replies

ShagCA

Level 5

6,415 points

Apr 10, 2015 10:24 AM in response to Demo

Oh.. no, I hope you don't think I'm picking on you. That's not my intention at all. I like learning something new. That's why I posted a comment.

I do have a copy of all iTunes related folders (except the software itself) stored in a USB external drive. I'm covered as far as backup is concerned. Now... restore is something I have never done. A backup is good if I can use it. Unfortunately I have no idea if I can use that backup data. I mean if I format my HD and reinstall Windows from scratch then copy iTunes library and its related folders/files from USB external drive back to PC hard drive, will iTunes be exactly the same as it was? Similarly, will iTunes see the backup sets copied (from USB HD) back to PC HD?

Demo

Level 10

168,235 points

Apr 10, 2015 10:46 AM in response to ShagCA

I Don't think that you picking on me at alL. It's just a coincidence that we cross paths again and I famously screwed up again. Like I said before, I admit when I screw up. I've learned a lot from failure!

This user turingtest2 , is the one of the most knowledgeable iTunes for Windows users that I have ever seen in the forum. I consider him my iTunes for Windows Guru. If there is a way to do it in Windows he knows. He should also know that I mentioned him and hopefully he will join in here, however, this was his answer when I asked if backups can be archived in iTunes for Windows.

The only way that works properly on Windows is to backup and then immediately restore the backup. Cloning the folder and dating it might work if you manually restored the folder if/when needed, and I have vague recollections of finding out how to manipulate the list of available backups, but there is a good chance that something like that might fail a pre-restore validation check.

IF you immediately restore the backup, that creates a time and date stamped backup that will reside in the backups folder for later use if needed. It will then be accessible in that window that I showed in my screenshot.

ShagCA

Level 5

6,415 points

Apr 10, 2015 1:58 PM in response to Demo

Good to know and thanks for the help. I guess the surest way to find out is to restore the data to another computer and find out for myself. I just wish I had an iDevice that I could use as a test device.

Turingtest2, I'm a control freak when it comes to computer related stuff. I don't want automatic start of anything so yeah the settings you mentioned are disabled from day one (iTunes doesn't auto launch when iDevice is connected, no auto sync either). I manually choose what data I want to sync and when I want to.

Sorry Newstech, my posts have gone off on a tangent. I'll stop right here.

Newstech Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 13, 2015 10:22 AM in response to runman4896

I am afraid life ***** for both of us. To update since I last posted, I redownloaded the 8.3 update and installed in recovery mode. No luck. I then ran Decipher Backup Repair against the backup I had the most hope for. It corrected a number of errors, and I no longer got an error message in trying to restore that backup file, but the iPad was right back into the restart loop. (I was impressed by that software nonetheless, and the nice people there refunded my money when the repair didn't result in a fix.) So I went back to factory mode again and restored the backup I pulled after starting to rebuild by hand -- creating folders, etc. Of course all my app data files, passwords, etc., etc., were blown away so it has become a tedious process to try to get back to normal.

I guess I jumped at the 8.3 install because I had seen both the wifi and Bluetooth issues and was hoping to have them go away. Impatience is dangerous.

Thoughts, in retrospect:

--Wait and read before installing an iOS upgrade.

--Before starting it, create a manual backup and then, if in Windows, go to the iOS backup directory (C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup) and move that new backup folder out of harm's way. Mind you, I still don't know if that would have saved me. It may be that 8.3 has some fundamental bug that only appeared in conjunction with the contents of my iPad.

--Be religious about using a good password manager. In my case, I use Password Safe / PWSafe on my PC and iPad, and keep the password database synced via Dropbox. My policy is to ALWAYS update it when I add an account or change a password, because it's so easy to get confused by differing password rules on different sites, etc. That made my recovery easier.

--Online file storage is your friend. I've recovered a number of data files -- PDFs and such -- that I've kept up on Dropbox.

--There is a place in **** for programmers who make it impossible to roll back an OS upgrade, even with the previous installer sitting on your machine.

--I might have been helped by a more-recent backup of my PC to my external drive. But with the new iPad I was so busy doing hundreds of updates and such, not to mention taxes, that housekeeping took a back seat.

--Apple's customer service people are hit and miss. Previous time I had to call I reached a woman who knew everything. This time the fellow was dense and obviously kept going away to look up and read from support bulletins. Yeah, I'd already done that online.

I really wish, for both our sakes, that I had better practical advice. Best of luck to you.

bernemer

Level 1

0 points

Apr 13, 2015 2:47 PM in response to Newstech

Same problem with my iPhone 6.

Solution (worked for me):

Downgrade to 8.2 (It's still possible at that time!)

read this, if necessary: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/04/08/how-to-downgrade-to-ios-8-2-from-ios-8-3 /

After downgrade to 8.2 my Backup was not longer marked as corrupt or incompatible :-)

But I had to restore twice before my apps got their settings back :-))

Now at the time I had to do the same procedure, because I once again tried to get 8.3.

Same behavior, bootloop modus.

Maybe 8.3.1 will help....

Good luck!

Newstech Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 14, 2015 6:34 AM in response to bernemer

OMG. I specifically asked the Apple moron whether there was any chance I could get it back to 8.2 and he told me absolutely not. Of course, he also told me the backup is one big file, when in fact it was a folder on my PC with 8,000 files.

deggie

Level 10

168,155 points

Apr 14, 2015 7:38 AM in response to Newstech

There is a difference between Mac and PC backup files, on the Mac it is one file, on the PC it is a folder with many seemingly randomly named files and an XML directory file. Be very careful doing anything in this folder. The tech probably got confused and thought you were using a Mac. They are told to say you cannot roll back as it is not supported for general users and the signing time for the .ipsw file can vary and they are not privy to the information as to when it will be.

Newstech Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 16, 2015 8:40 AM in response to MacLing99

My sympathy, MacLing. I'm afraid I haven't seen any good recovery suggestions. I suppose misery loves company, in that I'm glad, in a weird way, to hear other users reporting the exact same problem. That suggests that it's a true 8.3 bug, and not a result of bad hardware in my setup or a corrupted backup file. I hope Apple knows what's going on and fixes it.

Jun 9, 2015 4:41 PM in response to Newstech

Where is Apple's "official" solution to this problem?

I've done everything anyone has suggested. Had it all set up, organized and running perfectly 3 times. Same reboot loop every time after the first use...and this is AFTER multiple times of it acting like it was just fine!

Apple: Are you reading these?

Gwanim

Level 1

0 points

Jul 2, 2015 9:03 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Same problem for me, on iOS 8.3 and iOS 8.4, only Apple logo loop. That is annoying because iPad would correctly work under Apple logo loop layer, but those 250-500 ms without logo are too much short to do anything. Is there any news?

Jun 9, 2015 5:23 PM in response to rdspafford

rdspafford wrote:

Apple: Are you reading these?

Probably not.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Newstech Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 3, 2015 6:51 AM in response to Gwanim

There's been a discussion about 8.4 getting into a reboot loop that links the problem to using a VPN.

iOS 8.4 crashing on iPad

That wasn't my issue but it might help you.

deggie

Level 10

168,155 points

Apr 8, 2015 4:25 PM in response to Newstech

Didn't have any such problem. How much free space is on your machine?

Apr 8, 2015 4:33 PM in response to Newstech

did you update OTA or thru iTunes? I think it makes a big difference

deggie

Level 10

168,155 points

Apr 8, 2015 4:41 PM in response to ChazThePhoenix

I updated OTA on both my phone and iPad.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

iOS 8.3 a disaster