6 ms·

iOS 10 update bricking iPhones and iPads for some users

23 points by JoshGlazebrook 10y ago

JoshGlazebrook 10y ago
This personally happened to me on my iPhone 6S. Assuming you do not have a backup of your phone you're basically screwed when you get it restored with DFU mode.
- eridius 10y ago
  It's so easy to back up nowadays, if you don't have a backup of your iPhone when you install a major OS update, what are you even thinking?
  - plandis 10y ago
    That's a very customer hostile attitude to have. Even iCloud can run out of space / backing up over mobile data might be prohibitive to some.
    - eridius 10y ago
      Backups go over wifi, not mobile data, and iOS warns you if it's unable to backup (and you can always back up to iTunes if you don't want to add more space). Major OS upgrades are always a little risky no matter the platform, upgrading without having an up-to-date backup is generally a bad idea. In fact, just using an iPhone that has critical data on it without a backup is a bad idea, because you can always break your phone.
  - vmasto 10y ago
    Hello, I would like to introduce you to the average user who doesn't understand backups.
    - eridius 10y ago
      You don't need to understand backups, you just need to follow the prompts to set up iCloud and turn on backups, at which point it all happens seamlessly without you worrying about it.
      - chadgeidel 10y ago
        Unless iCloud is being stupid and your paltry couple-hundred megabyte phone won't back up to 5GB free storage. No info other than a "backup failed" message. Or a phone backup mysteriously decides to make a 2nd copy and there are no tools to delete the first. Both of these things have happened to me. I'll pay for iCloud backup when the tooling improves, not before.
        eridius 10y ago
        What do you mean, no tools to delete the first? There certainly are tools to cull stuff from your backups. The simplest way is to open the iCloud preference pane on OS X, and click "Manage". It then gives you a comprehensive list of everything in iCloud, including all backups. You can also do this on your iPhone by going to iCloud preferences, tapping Storage, and tapping Manage Storage. IIRC, the dialog about having no space even offers a button to manage your storage (though I haven't seen it in a while so I can't confirm that).
        chadgeidel 10y ago
        Yep, and after doing all of that I still couldn't delete the backup. I tried deleting it from the iPhone iCloud UI as well as the iCloud settings UI on the Mac. Neither option actually deleted the backup. For giggles I tried to dig around in the iCloud drive app but that doesn't expose anything. The Web UI is equally useless. It would be nice to have a button that just "resets all iCloud storage" but that doesn't exist either. I did find a workaround. Back up phone manually (in iTunes), wipe phone, restore the (months old) iCloud backup. I was able to delete the "newer" iCloud backup after that. I then restored my backup from the computer and the iCloud backup mysteriously started working again (registered as a single backup for my phone instead of two). This was all over a year ago, so maybe they fixed it since then. The other phone on another account still won't back up to iCloud. The backup size is a fraction of the "free space" on that iCloud account and the error message is still the cryptic "failed to back up" message.
bgentry 10y ago
seeing enough reliable reports of this to believe it's at least a somewhat widespread issue: https://twitter.com/Stammy/status/775748665226895360 https://twitter.com/Stammy/status/775748665226895360 https://twitter.com/dhh/status/775751273299619841 https://twitter.com/dhh/status/775751273299619841
recursive 10y ago
> To restore, affected users must then plug their devices into iTunes on Mac or PC to restore the device. Bricking ain't what it used to be. Am I wrong in thinking that "bricking" means to render a piece of hardware permanently unusable for purposes other than paperweight?
- eridius 10y ago
  No, you're right. But writing an article saying "iOS 10 update bricking iPhones" gets a lot more clicks than "iOS 10 update fails for some people", so pretty much all of the news sites have started calling it "bricking" if it requires restoring with iTunes.
- devopsproject 10y ago
  Language changes and is fluid. You are witnessing a change from one common vernacular to another. Bricked = made useless, some people could probably figure out how to fix it.

This personally happened to me on my iPhone 6S. Assuming you do not have a backup of your phone you're basically screwed when you get it restored with DFU mode.

eridius 10y ago
It's so easy to back up nowadays, if you don't have a backup of your iPhone when you install a major OS update, what are you even thinking?
- plandis 10y ago
  That's a very customer hostile attitude to have. Even iCloud can run out of space / backing up over mobile data might be prohibitive to some.
  - eridius 10y ago
    Backups go over wifi, not mobile data, and iOS warns you if it's unable to backup (and you can always back up to iTunes if you don't want to add more space). Major OS upgrades are always a little risky no matter the platform, upgrading without having an up-to-date backup is generally a bad idea. In fact, just using an iPhone that has critical data on it without a backup is a bad idea, because you can always break your phone.
- vmasto 10y ago
  Hello, I would like to introduce you to the average user who doesn't understand backups.
  - eridius 10y ago
    You don't need to understand backups, you just need to follow the prompts to set up iCloud and turn on backups, at which point it all happens seamlessly without you worrying about it.
    - chadgeidel 10y ago
      Unless iCloud is being stupid and your paltry couple-hundred megabyte phone won't back up to 5GB free storage. No info other than a "backup failed" message. Or a phone backup mysteriously decides to make a 2nd copy and there are no tools to delete the first. Both of these things have happened to me. I'll pay for iCloud backup when the tooling improves, not before.
      - eridius 10y ago
        What do you mean, no tools to delete the first? There certainly are tools to cull stuff from your backups. The simplest way is to open the iCloud preference pane on OS X, and click "Manage". It then gives you a comprehensive list of everything in iCloud, including all backups. You can also do this on your iPhone by going to iCloud preferences, tapping Storage, and tapping Manage Storage. IIRC, the dialog about having no space even offers a button to manage your storage (though I haven't seen it in a while so I can't confirm that).
        chadgeidel 10y ago
        Yep, and after doing all of that I still couldn't delete the backup. I tried deleting it from the iPhone iCloud UI as well as the iCloud settings UI on the Mac. Neither option actually deleted the backup. For giggles I tried to dig around in the iCloud drive app but that doesn't expose anything. The Web UI is equally useless. It would be nice to have a button that just "resets all iCloud storage" but that doesn't exist either. I did find a workaround. Back up phone manually (in iTunes), wipe phone, restore the (months old) iCloud backup. I was able to delete the "newer" iCloud backup after that. I then restored my backup from the computer and the iCloud backup mysteriously started working again (registered as a single backup for my phone instead of two). This was all over a year ago, so maybe they fixed it since then. The other phone on another account still won't back up to iCloud. The backup size is a fraction of the "free space" on that iCloud account and the error message is still the cryptic "failed to back up" message.

bgentry 10y ago

seeing enough reliable reports of this to believe it's at least a somewhat widespread issue: https://twitter.com/Stammy/status/775748665226895360 https://twitter.com/Stammy/status/775748665226895360 https://twitter.com/dhh/status/775751273299619841 https://twitter.com/dhh/status/775751273299619841

recursive 10y ago

> To restore, affected users must then plug their devices into iTunes on Mac or PC to restore the device. Bricking ain't what it used to be. Am I wrong in thinking that "bricking" means to render a piece of hardware permanently unusable for purposes other than paperweight?

eridius 10y ago
No, you're right. But writing an article saying "iOS 10 update bricking iPhones" gets a lot more clicks than "iOS 10 update fails for some people", so pretty much all of the news sites have started calling it "bricking" if it requires restoring with iTunes.
devopsproject 10y ago
Language changes and is fluid. You are witnessing a change from one common vernacular to another. Bricked = made useless, some people could probably figure out how to fix it.