iOS 10 UpdateGate averted, here’s what to do if affected

If you want to update your compatible iOS device to Apple’s latest and greatest iOS 10, then it is now safe to do so.

However, for about an hour after the update became available (at 3am AEST in Australia), some users reported their phones becoming ‘bricked’ with a graphic showing the device needed to be plugged into iTunes.

Apple says it fixed the update within that hour and all is now safe to update.

{loadposition alex08}

The episode is a great reason why it always pays to back your iOS device up first before any update, and even to wait a few hours or even a few days before updating first, just to see if any issues are reported.

Apple emailed various tech news outlets with the following message:

“We experienced a brief issue with the software update process, affecting a small number of users during the first hour of availability.

“The problem was quickly resolved and we apologise to those customers. Anyone who was affected should connect to iTunes to complete the update or contact AppleCare for help.”

On a personal basis, I must have been lucky, because I didn’t start updating until 4am AEST in Australia, as you can see from the screenshot below. 

I had wanted to stay up to 3am AEST to start updating, but just decided to go to bed and do it in the morning.

However, after waking up in the wee hours of the morning, and seeing it was 4am, I reached for my phones and started the update process.

For the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and SE, the update was approximately 1.1GB in size. The update appeared to be the same size for the iPad Pro 9.7, but for the iPad Pro 12.9-inch model, the update was 1.7GB.

The update for the Apple Watch was approximately 500 or so megabytes.

The update process went smoothly for me, if I hadn’t seen reports of update issues, I wouldn’t have known there was a problem, so clearly, it was lucky that I awoke at 4am and not any earlier.

Thus far, iOS 10 looks fantastic. The notifications bubbles look different, the control centre area is improved with sliding screens, the lock screen is more detailed than ever (if you allow lock screen notifications) and there are no slowdowns that I can see, although I am using the most recent devices (although not yet any iPhone 7 models which aren’t yet available).

I’m only still just exploring iOS 10 in its various iterations across iDevices and will have a fuller review later.

However, while this is all great news for me, and likely for the vast majority of people reading this article, what do you do if you updated immediately and now have a bricked device?

Instructions online say the following procedure is needed:

1. Connect your iOS device to your computer and start iTunes.
2. If your device isn’t still showing the ‘plug into iTunes’ graphic, or is off, then press the power and home button on your device simultaneously and keep holding until you see the recovery mode screen - the ‘plug into iTunes’ graphic.
3. iTunes will ask you whether you want to update or restore your iOS device. At this point, choose ‘update’.
4. If nothing is happening within 15 minutes, repeat steps 1 to 3.
5. When complete, set up your iOS device as normal - you will see the ‘Hello’ screen and you have to do things like enter in your Apple ID password, set up Apple Pay (which isn’t available to all Australian banks yet, so you can choose to skip this if needed), set up two-factor authentication if desired (you can also skip this), restore your iCloud passwords (again this can be skipped if desired) and then you’ll be taken to the home screen.

Now that the issue has been resolved, you shouldn’t need to do any of these things, but if affected you now know what to do when you are able to get back to your computer.

Once again, before doing any updates, be sure to back your iOS device up to your PC, Mac or to iCloud just in case. If you haven’t updated yet, it should be safe to do so now, but waiting a few more hours or a few days doesn’t hurt either if you want to be extra safe.