Upgrade to iOS 9 failure at "slide to upgrade"

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Level 1

5 points

Upgrade to iOS 9 failure at "slide to upgrade"

Problem: Upgrade to iOS 9 freezes. Phone is now useless.

Hardware and Software: iPhone 4s with iOS 7 (latest) on upgrade to iOS 9. (I purposely chose not to upgrade to iOS 8, because everything I read suggested it would slow down the phone. And what I've read about iOS 9 made be believe it would be fast enough to work on this old phone.)

Update Process: done through iTunes (latest update) with wired connection between iPhone and iMac 20" early 2008 with OS X Mavericks (latest update.)

Specifics: The freeze occurs at the point that the phone shows the update is installed successfully, and that there are just a few more steps, including connecting to a wireless router. After having up to that point successfully swiped "slide to upgrade", at this point sliding no longer works.

I have searched the internet and found that many others are having this same problem. I am posting this as a new message to get the attention of Apple that this demands an immediate fix BECAUSE MY PHONE IS USELESS UNTIL IT GETS FIXED.

Perhaps this is isolate, and affects only a few customers. But, I'm a long term Apple customer, and I am beginning to lose faith in its moto that "it just works", because with this along with Apple Mail problems I have on a brand new MacBook Pro 13" early 2008 with latest OS X Yosemite, I am beginning to thing that for Apple, IT JUST DOES'T WORK -- reliably, anyway.

Seriously, please don't follow in the steps of Microsoft. Please focus on quality as an absolute. I want it to JUST WORK.

Please indicate if you too have this same issue so that we can escalate the problem for immediate attention and solution. MY iPHONE NO LONGER WORKS.

iPhone 4S, iOS 9

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 6:32 PM

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Answer 1

StéphaneTL Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 17, 2015 6:35 PM in response to StéphaneTL

Correction: the new MacBook Pro 13" I referred to with continuing Apple Mail problems is the early 2015 model, not 2008 as I incorrectly wrote. (I don't know how to edit a previous post.)

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Answer 2

Sep 17, 2015 6:41 PM in response to StéphaneTL

I have the exact same issue as you. Tried it through iTunes and OTA. Both work until I download my iCloud backup. Then I only get up to my Connect to WiFi and blam... everything goes white with the black Apple logo and I can't do a thing anymore. So if I don't want my apps and contacts and photos and etc. back, it's fine, if I do... phone won't let me.

Right now waiting for Apple support. If they are going to fix the issue, I'll post the solution to the problem. If not... I don't know 'yet) what I'm gonna do. 😕

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Answer 3

StéphaneTL Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 17, 2015 7:04 PM in response to Chat33box

Thanks.

One suggestion I've read is to Restore, but I can't because I left "Find my iPhone" on. (I didn't realize this would become an issue. I did the backups as recommended, etc.) And I can't figure how to remotely turn it off. I can't through the iPhone, obviously, but also can't see how to do it remotely through iCloud.com If anyone can give me a lead on that, maybe I can find a way to restore it and wait for a fixed iOS 9 release.

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Answer 4

Sep 17, 2015 7:28 PM in response to StéphaneTL

I don't think that's an issue. I had it installed on my phone as well (it's in my iCloud backup now). What I do assume is that it might be a bit of a compatibility issue between the older and the newer iOS. Though interesting enough, some people went through the process without any problems whatsoever.

I did restore several times thorugh iTunes. It goes well... *but*. iTunes won't offer you an iCloud backup download, so you get a "new" phone, without any data you had previously stored (you can pull it through iCloud.com but not all of it as far as I know). So if you're okay with that, that's one solution to the problem. But I'm not, I want my data and apps back and to that, there's no solution yet.

Apple Support is collecting all the data of this issue and they'll try to find a fix as soon as possible, since there's obviously quite a lot of us. :/

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Answer 5

BVander

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2015 7:57 PM in response to StéphaneTL

I had the identical problem today. Went through the same steps multiple times with Apple support and was told that I must have had a corrupted backup, which is why it failed. I had no choice but to set it up as a new phone and lose my data and apps.

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Answer 6

Sep 17, 2015 8:09 PM in response to StéphaneTL

You can erase it remotely this way:

Sign in to iCloud with their Apple ID.
Go to Find My iPhone.
Select All Devices to open a list of devices linked to their account, then select the device to be removed.
Click Erase iPhone. When prompted, don't enter a phone number or message. Select Next until the device is erased.
Click Remove from Account.

After the device is erased and removed from the iCloud account, turn off the device and then turn it back on to begin the setup process.

Once you get it set back up, you will be able to turn Find My iPhone back on to put your phone back on the iCloud account.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the Apple servers are slammed right now. In future, I would recommend that you wait to install any new major updates for at least a week after the initial release. I had to restore my device to an iCloud backup yesterday (not for iOS 9), and left it "restoring from iCloud backup" last night. When I got up this morning it was still restoring. I was seeing no progress in what had been restored, so figured it was pretty much dead in the water. I erased it again, and restored it from iTunes and updated the iOS, and that all went fairly quickly. Unfortunately, my iTunes backup didn't restore all of my playlists and apps, and I really didn't want to rebuild them, so I erased it again, and started the iCloud backup again. Now, all my playlists and apps are there, but it is still "Restoring from iCloud Backup" 3 hours later. However, this time, I am sure it is still downloading as fast as it can. I checked to see where my photos had stopped loading about an hour ago, and then checked again just now. It has loaded another 50 photos or so. So, it is very, very slow going. Had I had any option about doing this restore, I can promise you, it wouldn't have been until at least a week from now....

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 7

Sep 17, 2015 9:03 PM in response to StéphaneTL

So far Apple gave out this...

If the Slide to Upgrade screen won't go away after you update to iOS 9 - Apple Support

... but for me that's not a solution since I'm not doing iTunes backups. I only do iCloud backups. :\ Hope it helps you though.

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Answer 8

Sep 17, 2015 9:10 PM in response to Chat33box

Good find Chat33box!!!

The reset is the important step, however, whether you are restoring from iTunes or iCloud. I'm guessing that they may be steering people away from the iCloud restore because of the demand it makes on servers that are overtaxed right now. I'm doing an iCloud restore now, and it has been restoring for over 4 hours. I can see that it is making progress, but extremely slowly.

Again, I think the main fix here is the reset: Hold down the Home and Power buttons at the same time and continue to hold them down until the Apple appears (up to 30 seconds - I know they say 10, but I like to err on the side of caution, and people sometimes have a difficult time gauging what constitutes 10 seconds....). Once the reset is complete the Slide to Unlock screen will display.

You can check to see if the upgrade was successful by going to Settings>General>About, and checking the Version number.

Thanks for the link! 🙂

GB

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Answer 9

StéphaneTL Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 17, 2015 9:19 PM in response to gail from maine

Yes, I read of that solution, but I might have made a mistake. I didn't understand the interface at iCloud.com and was afraid to erase the phone, so I instead chose the option to remove the phone. But that only removed it from the list of devices being tracked. So later when I read that I should do what you wrote, it was no longer in the list for me to select to erase.

Being new to that option and being afraid to make things worse, I misunderstood the language used and chose an option that made things not any better and maybe worse.

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Answer 10

Sep 17, 2015 9:22 PM in response to gail from maine

I make it all the way. I restore the phone in iTunes and then go through the process all the way to download backup from iCloud (I could also set it as a new phone, but I don't want that, the point is I have all my data in my backup).

The backup download goes through without a problem as well (takes a few minutes, but that's nothing). Then phone restarts and welcomes me with a Hello. I can only get to the WiFi connecting, once I input the password, the whole thing crashes and I'm back to "Slide to Upgrade" screen. 😟

No solution for that so far. 😐

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Answer 11

StéphaneTL Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 17, 2015 9:23 PM in response to Chat33box

Thanks for this.

But, because I have the Find My iPhone feature on and can no longer remotely turn it off, I'm still stuck.

I have another option I am working on now, which is downloading via web browser the latest iOS 8 version. I will then go to iTunes and hold the alt/option key down when I click on the Update button on the screen to update the iPhone. (The iPhone is showing up as a connected device in iTunes.) I will then try to install iOS 8, then retry installing iOS 9. I'll post results here.

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Answer 12

burstSA

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2015 9:35 PM in response to StéphaneTL

you did the correct thing stephane in regards to removing the device. That means you should be able to restore.

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Answer 13

Sep 17, 2015 9:57 PM in response to StéphaneTL

Wherever you are getting an iOS 8 version from, it is not a good idea. Apple does not support the downgrading of the iOS, so you may get yourself into a bigger mess than you are in now.

Best of luck,

GB

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Answer 14

StéphaneTL Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 18, 2015 8:48 AM in response to StéphaneTL

Status: Resolved. My iPhone is now working and iOS 9 is installed.

Solution:

1) I found iOS install files signed by Apple at the site ripsaw.me, and downloaded the signed firmwares for both iOS 8.4.1 and iOS 9.0 for iPhone 4s.

2) While my iPhone was in the stuck position in the iOS 9 upgrade process, it did appear as a device in iTunes while connected by the chord. I was able to then...

3) Select the device and in Summary, click on "Check for Update" while holding down the alt/option key. This brings up a finder window to select a specific firmware install file.

3a) I then chose the file for iOS 8.4.1 and successfully completed that upgrade.

3b) I turned off the Find My iPhone feature and checked via iCloud.com to be sure it was off.

3c) I then chose the file for iOS 9.0 and successfully completed that upgrade.

Note: I did not have to perform a restore from my iTunes backup using this process.

Thank you to everyone who responded in this thread, as well as to the many others who responded to the other threads posting the same problem. Between all of it, I was able to figure this out without risking being on the phone with an Apple representative who was not already advised that this was a known problem and had a known fix. (Everything I read showed that many Apple reps didn't know about the specific problem, and advised customers to take steps that may have caused them to lose data if they didn't have a backup to restore from.) As big as the company is and as much as they charge for their premium devices, I expect that they would have a system down to immediately determine problems and solutions, even if they only affect a smaller number of customers -- such as those who chose not to upgrade from iOS 7 to iOS 8 on their older iPhones 4s, 5, and 5c because iOS 8 was know to be slow and bloated and then took the promise that iOS 9 was better and workable for their machines. I write this for Apple to read.

I hope this information here can help others in a similar predicament.

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Answer 15

StéphaneTL Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 18, 2015 8:50 AM in response to gail from maine

Thanks for that advice.

I already took the risk, and did that. The machine now works, and I'm hoping I didn't somehow get a trojan horse or something. If I did, will subsequent normal updates via iTunes resolve that? I hope so. At least for the moment, I feel relieved that my phone works again.

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