iTunes Store failure temporarily bricking iPhones during 3.0 upgrade

Paul Coleman

#1 – 12:15 PM June 17, 2009

I must have gotten lucky...first try...Maybe they had a segregated server for us paying iPod customers. I suspect there'd be less traffic at $9.99 a pop.

James Partridge

#2 – 12:29 PM June 17, 2009

At about 7 minutes in I got an error saying the activation server is unavailable. The phone still works.

Doomstalk

#3 – 12:49 PM June 17, 2009

@Paul Coleman: I think the step is iPhone specific, since you don't activate your iPod.

Paul Coleman

#4 – 1:17 PM June 17, 2009

Ah...that makes sense.

DTPhantom

#5 – 1:18 PM June 17, 2009

haha isn't this the same thing that happened the past 2 times? Maybe at some point apple will learn how to plug in a couple of extra servers, or maybe people will just stop buying apple products till they fix it.

Anonymous Anonymous

#6 – 1:23 PM June 17, 2009

Too bad it wasn't permanent.

Bevatron Repairman

#7 – 1:31 PM June 17, 2009

When I got to the final screen -- telling me to connect to iTunes even though I already was -- I just unplugged and replugged and it cleared the problem.

Matt J

#8 – 1:55 PM June 17, 2009

I feel that I'm fighting a losing battle here but, if it is temporary, it is not bricked. The whole point of something being 'bricked' is that it is in an almost unrecoverable state, which can only be fixed by messing around with the circuit board, not through software.

Spike Curtis

#9 – 1:57 PM June 17, 2009

Don't unplug and replug -- on Windows at least -- you can get it to retry the servers just by clicking another iTunes screen and then back on your iPhone.

Zan

#10 – 2:12 PM June 17, 2009

Thanks MATT J. I was just about to post about how saying "my iPhone was temporarily bricked" is like saying "my iPhone was temporarily crushed into a fine powder by a Blendtec Blender", but you beat me to it.

Halloween Jack

#11 – 3:20 PM June 17, 2009

Maybe at some point apple will learn how to plug in a couple of extra servers, or maybe people will just stop buying apple products till they fix it.

...or, alternatively, not all try to log in at once, like ye proverbial Black Friday shoppers trampling each other to save $5 on the latest overhyped bit of kit. FFS, I've waited nearly a year for cut-and-paste, it won't kill me to have it tomorrow.

Joel Johnson

#12 – 3:44 PM June 17, 2009

If it makes you feel better, I did pause on the "temporarily bricked" line, but I sort of figured it was a useful, if less-than-accurate shorthand. But I could be convinced never to use it again!

DTPhantom

#13 – 5:00 PM June 17, 2009

Halloween Jack

No this is squarely apples fault. You don't release a much anticipated software update and then say to people "please don't download it". Maybe a small company could say that but when you are a massive computer company there is no excuse for not having enough power to handle the rush, especially when this same thing has happened for the past 2 years.

tros

#14 – 5:26 PM June 17, 2009

DTPhantom: Rational choice.

They could either:

-Beef up servers by 100% for one day, and pay for twice as much server-side than they need for the days following.
-Crap out for a day, go with efficiency for the rest of their life.

Seeing as how the latter is cheaper, and even Microsoft has had predictable failures (Win7 RC release), I can't blame either company for not being infallible every day.

Nelson.C

#15 – 6:11 PM June 17, 2009

I don't know, if it's acting more like a brick than like a phone, then 'bricked' seems like a reasonable word to use. I wasn't aware that the Academy of English Usage had already decided that the word was limited to a particular technical state.

DTPhantom

#16 – 7:49 PM June 17, 2009

Tros

They don't need to buy servers there are lots of ways to add capacity for a few days. You can rent temporary servers. I just think that for a massive company like apple to have the same problems 3 years running is unacceptable.

thundercheese

#17 – 5:47 AM June 18, 2009

Upgraded two phones last night with no problems. One took 15 minutes and the other took three hours.

Halloween Jack

#18 – 6:39 AM June 18, 2009

Yeah, I went home, plugged my phone in, hit the "Update" button, took a short nap... no prob.

dculberson

#19 – 6:50 AM June 18, 2009

Nelson.C is right.. there's nothing wrong with using 'bricked' in this circumstance.

Anonymous Anonymous

#20 – 7:09 PM June 18, 2009

First, apple makes computers, they have enough computers to add server capacity. Second why does the iphone default to accusing you of stealing? That is asinine. The software update is only usefull on an iphone. You already bought the iphone. You own it.

Matt J

#21 – 3:37 AM June 19, 2009

I don't know, if it's acting more like a brick than like a phone, then 'bricked' seems like a reasonable word to use. I wasn't aware that the Academy of English Usage had already decided that the word was limited to a particular technical state.

Andrew

#22 – 8:33 AM July 1, 2009

I'm trying to update the software for my iTouch but every time I go to buy it, it tells insufficent store credit remaining when I have $10+. Please post an answer or email me at aviscosi@optonline.net