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Apple Fixes FaceTime on Older Versions of OS X, iOS 6 Still Not Working

In terms of iOS devices, the earliest devices to support FaceTime are the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4th generation, and the iPad 2.

The iPhone 4 and iPad 2 can be updated to iOS 7.x, and that's a solution. The iPod touch 4th generation cannot, at least not unless Apple changes its mind and gets an iOS 7.x out the door for that device. It appears to be the only FaceTime-capable device unable to upgrade to iOS 7.x.

As I write this, Apple is still selling refurbished 4th generation iPod touch devices in many of Apple's online stores around the world. These devices are prominently advertised as supporting FaceTime. In many countries Apple's failure to fix FaceTime would be illegal especially given these continuing sales direct from Apple.

I think Apple is going to fix FaceTime on the 4th generation iPod touch and rather quickly. I don't think Apple wants the lawsuits they'd probably lose. It'd also be at least the polite thing to do to add FaceTime Audio to the 4th generation iPod touch to set a common, baseline service level. Or at least figure out how to produce a more sensible error message ("You are trying to contact a person with a device that does not support FaceTime Audio. Would you like to try FaceTime Video instead?") on iOS 7+ devices attempting to contact 4th generation iPod touch users via FaceTime Audio.

Live by the cloud, die by the cloud. If you go into the utility business, Apple, you better act like a (premium) utility. And it's not as if there aren't competitors on Apple's own platforms. Microsoft with Skype, notably -- and Microsoft would be delighted to welcome FaceTime refugees.

Steve Jobs himself did not tolerate this sort of fumbling with MobileMe, and I'm sure he wouldn't tolerate these FaceTime failures either.
 
BBCWatcher said:
If you go into the utility business, Apple, you better act like a (premium) utility.
Click to expand...
I guess this is exactly the point. At a minimum, I would expect Apple to pro-actively inform their customers on a service change. No matter if this was a planned downgrade or a technical incident.

No information at all around breaking FaceTime on older releases simply destroyes trust in Apple as a service provider. Highly unprofessional.

And it's now absolutely clear it won't get fixed for the majority of iOS6 devices. That would require to offer the user a choice between patching the current OS or upgrading to the latest. Not going to happen... iPod4 might indeed be the only device that gets patched.
 
Parasprite said:
Because it probably wouldn't reach the majority of their customers, limiting it to a small minority who surf Apple websites like this or happen to follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

I mean what do you expect, a banner on Apple.com? A push notification?
Click to expand...

That's an interesting point... Apple doesn't really have any sort of way of notifying their customers about something. Although if they made a press release I suppose anyone that's concerned enough about their Apple TV not working to do a Google search would probably find out.
 
Hahaha, so Apple makes the software itself, makes the hardware itself, and it still breaks.
Have the ios team all fallen apart without Forstall?

As its Apple we will never know.

----------
SMIDG3T said:
It's really time users running iOS 6, update to iOS 7.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes that's right, its time all those people threw their iPod Touches in the bin and upgraded :rolleyes: how dare they keep them and complain about something that worked perfectly fine last week is broken this week.
 
apolloa said:
Yes, yes that's right, its time all those people threw their iPod Touches in the bin and upgraded :rolleyes: how dare they keep them and complain about something that worked perfectly fine last week is broken this week.
Click to expand...

Yep, throw them all out of the window :)
 
Rogifan said:
So does this apply to devices that cannot upgrade to iOS 7 or is it just those devices that can run iOS 7 but users have chosen not to upgrade? If it's the former they for sure need to fix it. If it's the latter you're probably screwed. But staying on iOS 6 indefinitely is pointless IMO because the ship has sailed and you're not getting an iOS 6 style UI back. So if iOS 7 bothers you that much then I guess it's off to Android or Windows Phone for you. Or you keep the phone you have and don't upgrade.
Click to expand...

If someone wants to stay on ios6, then good for them. A software upgrade dosent automatically mean better to everyone. Its the magical word "choice".
 
Parasprite said:
I mean what do you expect, a banner on Apple.com? A push notification?
Click to expand...
I guess a clear statement on the FT Support and the Service Status page would have been the least they could do. Things break, need to get upgraded, can no longer be supported etc. All maybe painful, but typically justifiable and acceptable.

The real pain is that there was and is no clear communication in any way from Apple around this. Not something you would call professional and customer centric. It impacts trust in their service offerings.

If it was clear that this will not be fixed, I would have assisted my family and friends already over the weekend to get them upgraded.

And these are mainly non-computer savvy people that are happy with the iPhone/iPad the way they bought it and learned how to use it. An upgrade to iOS7, no matter if it is better, nicer, more secure etc is especially for older people a disruptive change.

I was hoping till now that all of that could be avoided and Apple would fix this on the server side.
Looks like it is not going to happen...
 
OLDCODGER said:
These stubborn old IOS 6 users! :)
Click to expand...
Or as my mother would say:
"Why can I no longer call you with my Apple?
iO what??? What does than mean, upgrading?
But it worked perfectly yesterday?"

Yes, definitely a stubborn old lady.
Obviously not designed for AppleCare..
 
Of course...

Apple's recommendations are always going to favor upgrading to a later iOS to "fix" the issue... But then people don't like iOS7 which is why they are running iOS6 or prior in the first place, or the fact the phone can't be upgraded. (worse case)


Apple's got you ...... This is a way to force those people off iOS6.. Just break stuff in an update or whenever it stopped working, and never fix a key Apple app..

Simple...

It's wrong that they are allowed to do that, because its the user's choice, but well .....


It's the Apple eco-system. MS is going the same way by the way with Windows 8.1 not being supported security fixes...

Seems you have no choice anymore moving forward.
 
My reaction to this is 'Upgrade to iOS 7, and get over the new UI' but then I remember that it's not supported on the 4th gen iPod touch, which sucks.

I wonder what percentage of iOS 6 users can't upgrade to 7?
 
Dave.UK said:
Why is it that people on here hate choice so much!
Click to expand...

It's not that, it's the fact people seem to dislike iOS 7's user interface, to the point where they will stick with an OS that has a major issue.

Take a deep breath, upgrade, and before long you won't even notice. And it will WORK.

The problem, of course, is that not everyone can upgrade.
 
BBCWatcher said:
In terms of iOS devices, the earliest devices to support FaceTime are the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4th generation, and the iPad 2.

The iPhone 4 and iPad 2 can be updated to iOS 7.x, and that's a solution. The iPod touch 4th generation cannot, at least not unless Apple changes its mind and gets an iOS 7.x out the door for that device. It appears to be the only FaceTime-capable device unable to upgrade to iOS 7.x.

As I write this, Apple is still selling refurbished 4th generation iPod touch devices in many of Apple's online stores around the world. These devices are prominently advertised as supporting FaceTime. In many countries Apple's failure to fix FaceTime would be illegal especially given these continuing sales direct from Apple.

I think Apple is going to fix FaceTime on the 4th generation iPod touch and rather quickly. I don't think Apple wants the lawsuits they'd probably lose. It'd also be at least the polite thing to do to add FaceTime Audio to the 4th generation iPod touch to set a common, baseline service level. Or at least figure out how to produce a more sensible error message ("You are trying to contact a person with a device that does not support FaceTime Audio. Would you like to try FaceTime Video instead?") on iOS 7+ devices attempting to contact 4th generation iPod touch users via FaceTime Audio.

Live by the cloud, die by the cloud. If you go into the utility business, Apple, you better act like a (premium) utility. And it's not as if there aren't competitors on Apple's own platforms. Microsoft with Skype, notably -- and Microsoft would be delighted to welcome FaceTime refugees.

Steve Jobs himself did not tolerate this sort of fumbling with MobileMe, and I'm sure he wouldn't tolerate these FaceTime failures either.
Click to expand...
These systems are very complex in the way that they work. Finding a Bug can take a long time to find , and sometimes even longer to fix. It could be a problem caused with testing of IOS8/OSX10.10 (yes these can crash older systems as they may change something by accident. Apple haven't said that they are NOT going to fix it, which is requrired in some countries to do.
For someone who works on the web I do feel that yes there is a problem BUT we just need to be patient. its not like a phone, and that if it didn't work you could lose millions in business, FaceTime on the iPod touch is mostly used by teens or by people where facetime inst that important (financially or what ever - anyway iMessage seems to work and Skype is - you sometimes need to look at alternatives.
 
I suspect this is Apple's way of trying to force us to upgrade to iOS 7. Being a loyal Apple customer for more than 33 years (my first computer was an Apple Il+), I am sad to note that the company is starting to look more and more like Microsoft in the way it arrogantly treats it customers. And Tim Cook ain't no Steve Jobs. Maybe it's time to start to take a closer look at the competition ...
 
My wife uses FT almost daily and it's frustrating that it hasn't worked on her iPhone or iPad in days. She's still on iOS 6 and doesn't want to upgrade to iOS 7 since she has an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2. I think upgrading will just slow her devices down even more than they already are.

iOS is supported on both devices so she might have to bite the bullet and upgrade until we she can get a new phone. She's been off contract for years but doesn't feel like spending another $200-$300 bucks on a phone. Same with the iPad 2. It's more than adequate for her needs and spending another $400-$500 for a new iPad to get FaceTime is crazy.
 
They're probable migrating their systems to make room for the "next" thing!

I bet they require some combination of legacy software and server hardware in order to support older devices.
 
Confused a bit.....

I am looking to do a from scratch install of osx on my MacBook 2,1 soon (only has windows boot camp now.). My plan is to put Lion on the machine, although if it runs too slow I may downgrade to snow leopard. (lion is the maximum osx for this machine.)

To get this update on snow leopard I just purchase FaceTime from the App Store. That version is updated.

How do I get the latest version for lion? Since the lion version was built in, is there a software update, or do I purchase the App Store version as well (or is that app a snow leopard version only?)
 
diddl14 said:
I guess a clear statement on the FT Support and the Service Status page would have been the least they could do. Things break, need to get upgraded, can no longer be supported etc. All maybe painful, but typically justifiable and acceptable.

The real pain is that there was and is no clear communication in any way from Apple around this. Not something you would call professional and customer centric. It impacts trust in their service offerings.

If it was clear that this will not be fixed, I would have assisted my family and friends already over the weekend to get them upgraded.

And these are mainly non-computer savvy people that are happy with the iPhone/iPad the way they bought it and learned how to use it. An upgrade to iOS7, no matter if it is better, nicer, more secure etc is especially for older people a disruptive change.

I was hoping till now that all of that could be avoided and Apple would fix this on the server side.
Looks like it is not going to happen...
Click to expand...

Considering there was multiple stuff broken over the week (FaceTime, Apple TV 1 not connecting to iTunes), most of which was fixed already, I don't see any reason that they won't fix this as well.
 
captain cadet said:
These systems are very complex in the way that they work. Finding a Bug can take a long time to find , and sometimes even longer to fix. It could be a problem caused with testing of IOS8/OSX10.10 (yes these can crash older systems as they may change something by accident.
Click to expand...

If you roll something out into production (on the server side) that breaks a significant chunk of Apple devices in the world, you roll back the change. Then you spend time finding the bug.

----------
Apple2PlusUser said:
I suspect this is Apple's way of trying to force us to upgrade to iOS 7. Being a loyal Apple customer for more than 33 years (my first computer was an Apple Il+), I am sad to note that the company is starting to look more and more like Microsoft in the way it arrogantly treats it customers. And Tim Cook ain't no Steve Jobs. Maybe it's time to start to take a closer look at the competition ...
Click to expand...

On the other hand, "you're holding it wrong" was a pretty arrogant response to Antennagate.
 
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