iPhone iOS 6 on iPhone 4 a disaster

[ZildjianLudwig]

It looks like several iPhone 4 users are reporting two major issues that I'm having as well:

• Apps cannot download or update. Attempting to update locks them in a "waiting" state, rendering them unusable
• iTunes Match won't stay activated. When it IS activated, Music app just shows a "cloud" for a while. Occasionally it will resolve to my music list, but all music is listed with a length of 0:00 and refuses to play. Also, multiple copies of each track are listed.

This is quite a debacle. Between music and my now-busted Podcast app, I have nothing to listen to on my 2-hours of daily commute.

Are there any iPhone 4 users who were NOT affected by these issues??

 

[mmp1964]

It looks like several iPhone 4 users are reporting two major issues that I'm having as well:

• Apps cannot download or update. Attempting to update locks them in a "waiting" state, rendering them unusable
• iTunes Match won't stay activated. When it IS activated, Music app just shows a "cloud" for a while. Occasionally it will resolve to my music list, but all music is listed with a length of 0:00 and refuses to play. Also, multiple copies of each track are listed.

This is quite a debacle. Between music and my now-busted Podcast app, I have nothing to listen to on my 2-hours of daily commute.

Are there any iPhone 4 users who were NOT affected by these issues??

Well, not from what I can see. I am in the middle of doing a restore from my iPhone, since trying to do it from iTunes gave me an error that my phone was "not eligible for this build" or some such nonsense. A complete fiasco. In my case, it centered around iTunes Match. Hopefully the restore will take me back to IOS 5. I haven't had so many problems since I tried to do multimedia on Windows 95...

 

[fteter]

Hmmm...no issues here. In fact, the performance of iOS 6 on my iPhone 4 has persuaded me to save my money: no need for an upgrade to 5 or even 4S here. iOS 6 was the upgrade I was hoping for with iPhone 5

Sorry ya'all are going through this. Maybe a clean install might be better?

 

[bumblehat]

I think only Maps is the unmitigated disaster, especially for city-dwellers where quick transit directions are critical.

As for iOS6 as a whole, it is definitely the least polished release of iOS we have ever seen. I have encountered literally dozens of bugs in my short time using it (app store, maps, passbook, battery, contact list, email). Apple better hustle on 6.1 or the first impression of the iPhone 5 won't be that sterling.

 

[Prime85]

iOS 6 is working much better on my iPod Touch! Much faster and smoother, fixed most the problems i had with iOS5 slowing it down. I will still be upgrading the the iPhone5 but i will have to wait for the unlocked :-(.

i did have problem with apps downloading at the beginning when they tried to download by themselves. So i stopped all the downloads and started them again and then they worked.

 

[apesta]

I updated to my 4 and i find everything runs smoothly. Im suprised there isn't any lagging. But so far I still haven't discover all the new features yet.

 

[xlost6]

No problems on my iPhone 4. It's working wonders. Faster than the the previous iOS. I was going to go buy a 4S or upgrade to the iPhone 5 because I was afraid iOS 6 would suck but proved me wrong. I love it and holding out till the 2013 iPhone. Thanks Apple.

 

[Anotoneher]

Regardless of all the issues, one thing I can big a big thumbs up to- Safari is blazing fast. I mean.... fast fast. Not sure what they did to Safari but I can't get over how quickly everything is loading and I'm loving the full screen feature.

 

[Frocktar]

My i4 got bricked temporarily by the update, had to download the whole update again from iTunes which took about 6 hours and even then it took 3 attempts to get it working again. During those 6 hours of download time my son fell down the stairs and cracked his head and broke his nose and I had no phone (don't have a house phone), and no way to call anyone to tell them I was racing to the hospital.

It was an awesome day as you can imagine!

Ps, I. Not blaming apple btw, ***** happens sometimes, this was just really crap timing..

 

[AVInc]

Reading all reviews here and elsewhere for iOS6 on iPhone4 I think it's better not to update for now. I'll just get frustrated and get the new phone in a few moths if I do.
Kind of disappointed that this kind of product came out of Apple tbh.

 

[philip in al]

There is a work around (i've had to use it). Go to the app application and choose update all. When the apps hang while trying to update, tap on the name of the app (it will pull up a page with just that app showing). Now, tap on the app name and you are taken away from the Apple app screen and to the "updating" app on your iPhone's layout page. Tap the "updating" program once, to pause the update, and then again to resume it.

It will then begin and finish the download and installation.

 

[Sital]

The update went smoothly on my iPhone 4, but there really isn't any compelling reason to move up to iOS 6 on the iP4 right now (maybe when Passbook integration increases....)

 

[D-Back]

No issues seen at all on my iphone 4 (been using it since beta 1), in fact I feel like ios6 has really made it snappier.

 

[D-Back]

I take back my comment for earlier, seeing some issues now:

Appstore not working at all (just shows a white blank screen, my other devices work fine)
iTunes match turning itself off
iMessages not being delivered to phone, despite them being sent to phone number

 

[mikkker007]

Sorry to hear of all those iP4 owners experiencing prob's. I took the Albeit longer route and did a complete restore plugged in to my MBA..... The only issue I had was intermittent WIFI issue's ( which seem to have sorted itself ) Perhaps those doing a complete restore from iTunes might be the way to go....... luck..

 

[DJLC]

Not seeing those issues; my apps are updating just fine on my iPhone 4. Wouldn't know about iTunes Match; I use Spotify. And I like Maps -- sorry.

But iOS6 definitely lags a bit in places where 5 didn't. And the battery life is awful.

 

[faroZ06]

I regret upgrading to iOS 6. I didn't read that the iOS 6 jailbreak is tethered and annoying to install

Also, I like to wait for version 6.1 or 6.0.1, whatever update they give out. I'm not sure why I jumped on 6.0. I was kinda excited about panorama photos, but I remembered that the iPhone 4 can't do those. I'll bet someone will make a Cydia tweak that will enable it.

The only big problem I've experienced with iOS 6 was that under some strange conditions, it would keep crashing when I moved a folder to a specific spot. It's not doing that anymore. After the App Store initially not working ("unable to connect"), it's fine now. I think the first-run bugs have worked themselves out.

 

[Enjoylife1788]

I regret upgrading to iOS 6. I didn't read that the iOS 6 jailbreak is tethered and annoying to install

Also, I like to wait for version 6.1 or 6.0.1, whatever update they give out. I'm not sure why I jumped on 6.0. I was kinda excited about panorama photos, but I remembered that the iPhone 4 can't do those. I'll bet someone will make a Cydia tweak that will enable it.

The only problem I've experienced with iOS 6 was that under some strange conditions, it would keep crashing when I moved a folder to a specific spot. It's not doing that anymore.

U should hurry and revert back to 5.1.1 before apple stops signing the blobs for it..

 

[faroZ06]

U should hurry and revert back to 5.1.1 before apple stops signing the blobs for it..

Signing the blobs? I can always get a 5.1.1 IPSW if I need it. I want iOS 6 though. The new Maps is a big improvement despite all of the glitches people are talking about (which don't appear to exist in my area). I also like the look and feel of iOS 6. It's even more responsive unless that's just because my stuff I installed from Cydia is gone.

 

[Mercury6]

my iphone 4 was laggy on ios 5 but it runs smoothly on iOS 6. No issues at all...

 

[NathanA]

Signing the blobs? I can always get a 5.1.1 IPSW if I need it.

Having the IPSW means nothing. Unlike OS X, you cannot install whatever version you want whenever you want. Apple has to "sign off" on any restore you do to your phone. A few days after a new version of iOS is released, Apple typically stops okaying downgrades to the previous version.

Google "SHSH blob" for more information.

-- Nathan

 

[faroZ06]

Having the IPSW means nothing. Unlike OS X, you cannot install whatever version you want whenever you want. Apple has to "sign off" on any restore you do to your phone. A few days after a new version of iOS is released, Apple typically stops okaying downgrades to the previous version.

Google "SHSH blob" for more information.

-- Nathan

There are ways to manually install your IPSW. I did it a while ago, but I forgot how. I can just live without jailbreak for a while until they make one for iOS 6 that's mature.

 

[NathanA]

There are ways to manually install your IPSW.

The "how" is all wrapped up in those SHSH blobs that we have been trying to tell you about. WITHOUT the blobs, you cannot do squat with the IPSW.

What people have been doing to downgrade is to snoop in on the conversation that iTunes has over the network with Apple's servers when they try to install a particular version of iOS (you have to be on-line to do a restore, even if the IPSW is already on your computer, so that iTunes can ask Apple's servers for the SHSH for the version you are trying to restore), *save* that conversation (the blobs), and then replay that conversation later. This is done by running a software program that "pretends" to be Apple when iTunes tries to connect to Apple's SHSH servers.

As of the 4S, this method doesn't even reliably work as Apple has closed some security holes that people were exploiting in order to make this downgrade method work, so people with iPhone 4S that upgrade to iOS 6 are currently unable to downgrade, regardless of whether they have their SHSHs saved for 5.1.1 or not.

It should be pointed out that if you do not save the blobs for a particular version while that version is the current version still being signed/"approved" by Apple for restore, you will never be able to go back to that version. So, for example, if you were at 5.0, never saved blobs for 5.0.1 when it was out, upgraded to 5.1.1, and decided you wanted to go back, you would not be able to go to 5.0.1. You would have to use 5.0, assuming you saved/kept blobs for that version.

It should also be pointed out that SHSH blobs are *phone specific*. The blobs are signed only for your phone's particular serial number. So you can't save 5.1.1 blobs for one phone and then use them to downgrade another phone. You have to save and backup blobs on a per-version-per-phone basis! If you backup 5.1.1 blobs for one phone but not another, the first phone (if it is older than a 4S) can downgrade from iOS 6, but the second phone will be STUCK.

This is all outlined in painstaking detail in several places (not the least of which is the definitive source for all of this, http://blog.iphone-dev.org/).

-- Nathan