Iphone Update Failures

[JHZR2]

Very frustrating... I had 16.0.2, and an update for 16.0.3 is available for my iPhone 12 Pro 512GB.

I like to keep a physical backup of my phone on my computer and an external drive... I backed it up, and allowed the update to download. Then I get a failure message... Crap... Just what I dont need. Its like the update failed or stalled. The apple with the white bar is stuck maybe 25% across.

I restart the phone, and it gives me the option to update or restore. It tries to update, and that fails. I get this:

Mind you Im connected with a good (new) cable, and a strong wifi connection on my computer. I just did 16.0.2 a couple weeks ago. No issues.

So now I have to sit on edge to see if the restoration will have all my key stuff, particularly my camera roll. I treasure that.

So.... Why does this happen? Ive only encountered this once, many versions of ios and phone ago...

Is the wired version less reliable/less trustworthy than a wireless update? I thought I read long ago that when a wired update is applied, you get a full new image of the OS installed, which is better, as opposed to the limited scope patch of the OTA update, which just changes some core files/code.

Is that wrong? Ive had good success with wired updates over time. Of course my work phone cant be connected so it gets nothing but OTA... But it is a LOT less involved. It just runs MS apps and not much else.

Very frustrating... What is the current best practice?

 

[JavierH19]

If you say you backed it up entirely which is what a full backup does and not an iCloud backup then I'd just restore it and reload the backup. That's extremely odd but hey if you backed it up right before you're in the green.

 

[racer12306]

I agree that the wired update should be more reliable. There was a while where I could not get an OTA to work on any device, but that was several years ago. Since it stated working consistently, I've only done OTA updates after verifying an iCloud backup was completed recently (set to run every night when plugged in)

I'd do as Javier says and just restore from backup. If you've selected the encrypted backup option, you should be fine with passwords and such reloading. If you did not, then it's likely that all of that will be gone. Pictures should be in the backup regardless.

 

[JMJNet]

As for the why, you need to talk to Apple Support directly.

 

[Marcozi]

I always update my iPhone via a cable. That way I'm sure iTunes does a full backup.

 

[JHZR2]

I always update my iPhone via a cable. That way I'm sure iTunes does a full backup.

Agree!!

 

[haggler]

Atleast you have a backup. I'd say 99% of people use OTA update, so itunes/cable update may have bugs. For small releases like 16.0.x, I'd use the OTA update. I've heard similar about updating via itunes and the full image, but I'd only usually do it on major relases like 16.1, 16.2, 17, etc. I now have android and all their updates are pretty much OTA. On my company iphone, I only do OTA updates and havent had a problem for 4-5 yrs.

 

[Hall]

I'd say 99% of people use OTA update

I didn't know people still updated their iPhones via iTunes

I'm already on 16.0.3 but usually the X.X.# updates are small. I really doubt that a full download/install of the IPSW is "better" than the patch variety either. I have some things backed up to iCloud but most other stuff is Google-related to it's all in Google's cloud. I consider wiping my phone clean annually to be a good practice anyway.

 

[haggler]

I remember when iPhone first released OTA updates, and there were often problems that occurred because the OTA updates only does a delta of the system partition. I'm pretty sure if you do an update via itunes, it just flashes a 1on1 system partition but keeps your encryption key the same (same fingerprint, etc). On a major release like from 6.0 to 7.0, I would still do a full restore wiping the entire phone, but most people dont care.

 

[Hall]

I would still do a full restore wiping the entire phone, but most people dont care.

I think most people have restored their iOS installs for years, from their iPhone 6 (??) to their iPhone 12, 13, 14, with every phone in between, carrying over everything, apps, garbage, etc that they installed years ago, and so on.

 

[Carmudgeon]

It's always a good idea to have an local iTunes/Mac backup of your iOS devices. They are more complete than iCloud backups (more so if password protected), and take less time to restore.

The update process on a local machine also automatically makes a backup as the first step. I don't recall for certain whether it archives any existing backup, and creates a fresh one, but it's also not a bad idea to "Archive" the last existing backup, or backups, for redundancy, so it won't be iincrementally overwritten the next time.

As long as a recent backup has been made, there is little to fear. Also applies to Watch backups.

The only things at risk of being lost are apps, if they've been pulled from the App Store, and can no longer be downloaded. When iTunes lost the ability to manage apps, and kept local ipas on the computer, it all went to the cloud.