Apple Admits To Big iOS 9 Problem
For the vast majority of users iOS 9 has been a great success. It’s biggest new features and multitude of great secrets have been a welcome improvement from iOS 8’s year of bugs. But it isn’t all smooth sailing and Apple has just admitted iOS 9 has a big problem…
In short iOS 9 is locking up users’ iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. Worse still it is locking them up at the earliest possible opportunity: the point of upgrade.
The precise moment comes when iOS 9 has downloaded and users are prompted to ‘Slide to Upgrade’. At this point devices lock up completely. And what is Apple’s fix? It actually doesn’t have one.
Instead the company has issued an official warning on its site under the somewhat descriptive title: ‘If the Slide to Upgrade screen won’t go away after you update to iOS 9’ and says the only workaround is to restore your phone from iTunes after a forced restart.
Apple lists the steps are as follows:
- Connect your iOS device to a computer that you’ve previously synced with iTunes. Then make sure iTunes is open.
- Select your device. If you don’t see it listed, force restart your device by pressing and holding both the Sleep/Wake and Home button for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.
While these steps will get you out of a jam, it doesn’t help you get iOS 9 on your phone. The good news? Apple reveals “This will be resolved soon in an upcoming iOS update.” With iOS 9.1 already in testing, beta testers can sign up for it now otherwise the fix should arrive within 4-8 weeks, based on iOS beta testing history.
Avoiding The Bug
If you haven’t yet upgraded to iOS 9, how will you know if you are going to be affected by this bug?
Sadly you will only know at the moment you are asked to ‘Slide to Upgrade’. So take a deep breath – or wait for iOS 9.1.
Interestingly the Slide to Upgrade bug isn’t the only one users have reported in iOS 9: upgrading straight from iOS 7 has caused problems for some users and others have reported a strange bug on T-Mobile where their iMessage phone number is changed. But Slide to Upgrade was clearly considered serious enough to prompt Apple’s fast response.
Given that it took Apple 5 months to acknowledge the GMT Bug in iOS 8 and 7 months to admit to WiFried, the change in attitude with iOS 9 shows either a) a welcome improvement in the company attitude, or b) that the Slide to Upgrade bug is far more widespread than it would like us to know.
I suspect we will never know which it is, but fans and critics alike will no doubt find it easy to pick the option they believe…