I tried to upgrade my iPhone 5s 64 GB this morning via iTunes on OS X Mavericks. Everything on the Mac was updated to the latest version, including iTunes. Once iTunes downloaded the iOS and backuped up the phone, it was stuck on "Preparing iPhone for software update". I decided to unplug the iPhone and then plugged it back in. At this point, the iPhone went black and then - after a few seconds - a saw the dreaded "Connect to iTunes" screen. However, a few seconds later, the screen went away, and iTunes finally started upgrading the iPhone. A few minutes later, the iPhone was running on iOS 7.0.6.
However, I also tried to upgrade my iPad Mini retina Wi-Fi only 32 GB - using a different Mac, but also running the latest OS X with all the latest upgrades. I experienced the same exact problem - once iOS was downloaded, iTunes was stuck on "Preparing iPad for software update" message. The same trick - disconnecting the iPad and reconnecting it to the Mac did not kick off the update process. Instead, the notification of a new iOS update popped up on the iPad Mini. No matter what I tried, I could not kick off the update via iTunes. Finally, I went to Settings in iOS and updated over-the-air to 7.0.6 from there.
Once over-the-air update was finished, I wanted to restore to iOS 7.0.6 via iTunes so that iOS 7.0.6 running on the iPad Mini is not an over-the-air update. Now iTunes is stuck on the "Preparing iPad for restore ..." message. The iPad is still usable running the over-the-air iOS 7.0.6.
There's something seriously wrong with iOS 7.0.6. There's no doubt in my mind that both the update and the restore processes are broken. I have been upgrading iOS devices both over-the-air and via iTunes multiple times since 2009, and I have never seen this issue before. This time I tried two different Macs with two different types of iOS devices, and both of them had issues. I have two more iOS devices to update - an iPhone 5s and an iPad Air. I'm not going to update them until I understand what's happening here. Maybe Apple's servers are hammered with everyone trying to update at the same time - I don't know.
None of my iOS devices have been jailbroken. The reason I want to have iOS 7.0.6 updated via iTunes is that I may want to jailbreak some of them in the future, and the current evasi0n jailbreak has been patched in iOS 7.1, which will be out soon.
However, I also tried to upgrade my iPad Mini retina Wi-Fi only 32 GB - using a different Mac, but also running the latest OS X with all the latest upgrades. I experienced the same exact problem - once iOS was downloaded, iTunes was stuck on "Preparing iPad for software update" message. The same trick - disconnecting the iPad and reconnecting it to the Mac did not kick off the update process. Instead, the notification of a new iOS update popped up on the iPad Mini. No matter what I tried, I could not kick off the update via iTunes. Finally, I went to Settings in iOS and updated over-the-air to 7.0.6 from there.
Once over-the-air update was finished, I wanted to restore to iOS 7.0.6 via iTunes so that iOS 7.0.6 running on the iPad Mini is not an over-the-air update. Now iTunes is stuck on the "Preparing iPad for restore ..." message. The iPad is still usable running the over-the-air iOS 7.0.6.
There's something seriously wrong with iOS 7.0.6. There's no doubt in my mind that both the update and the restore processes are broken. I have been upgrading iOS devices both over-the-air and via iTunes multiple times since 2009, and I have never seen this issue before. This time I tried two different Macs with two different types of iOS devices, and both of them had issues. I have two more iOS devices to update - an iPhone 5s and an iPad Air. I'm not going to update them until I understand what's happening here. Maybe Apple's servers are hammered with everyone trying to update at the same time - I don't know.
None of my iOS devices have been jailbroken. The reason I want to have iOS 7.0.6 updated via iTunes is that I may want to jailbreak some of them in the future, and the current evasi0n jailbreak has been patched in iOS 7.1, which will be out soon.
