So on March 1st I got a new Ipad2, wife had kindle fire, took one look at my Ipad, and started hinting, and then outright saying, "I want an Ipad!". So yesterday, Ipad 3 launch day, we went and got the Ipad2, yeah, I know, should've got the latest and greatest, but the wallet isn't bottomless.

The nightmare began when we were going through the first sync with itunes on her windows 7 computer, she has an Iphone 4, so had been using Itunes for a few months now. Upon usb3.0 connection, itunes runs and syncs, no problem, all devices in the Apple kingdom of our house are happy. Being the Ipad expert, (yeah, little over 2 weeks experience) I knew that ioS 5.1 is out, and decide to update the wife's new ipad. So, minutes after her new ipad had successfully used itunes on her pc, we're now updating to ioS 5.1 using itunes. Itunes shows about 6 minutes left to finish the update, so I walk away, while my wife answered the phone. 10 minutes later, she's off the phone, and askes if the update is done. "Probably", I say, and we go to check......

Her pc is now in sleep mode, and the ipad has a graphic of a usb plug, with an arrow pointing to an itunes logo...... Wake up the pc, itunes is still running, but no sign of the ipad AT ALL! Nothing about the update, no ipad in the device list, NOTHING! So, I did a lot of things, unplug the ipad and replug to see if windows detects it, rebooted windows, then plugged in the ipad, etc. Nothing! Tried a different usb port, nothing worked. Worse, the ipad wouldn't even shut off, press and hold the power button, screen would go blank, but no "powerdown" slider. Press the button again and the usb/itunes graphic comes back.

Get Apple customer support on the line, big wait time, (well, it was Ipad 3 launch day, remember?) Tell the story, guy says ok, first, he wanted me to press and hold both power and home buttons for 8 seconds, then let go of the power button only. I did this, and then THE CALL GOT DROPPED!!! After a little bit of R-rated screaming, back on hold to apple again. Ipad was now blank, so while waiting I hook it up to MY pc, run I tunes, and immedietly it tells me that an Ipad was hooked up in "recovery mode". I watched as it did things like, "restoreing firmware" When it was done, I disconnected it, so it didn't restore My software on her ipad. Just then an Apple tech picks up our call.

I give both my home and cell phone number to the Apple tech, in case we get disconnected, and she walkes me through updating itunes on my wife's pc, we find out that the usb 3.0 still won't connect the ipad, so I try another usb, regular, port. It worked! She tells me that sometimes Apple devices work with usb3.0 "intermittently". Huh? All the software settings and apps re-install, and when finished, 5.1 was even updated.

Wow, I was scared I had "bricked" a brand-new Ipad. Does anyone have an idea what went wrong? What I learned, so far, is: 1. Keep itunes updated, 2. Never, NEVER, never let windows go into sleep mode while itunes is doing anything with an ipad! 3. Never let the wife see a cool, new device, unless I'm planning to buy her one........

Sorry for the long post!

Scott

Welcome to the Forum. I'm glad you found us and shared your upgrade experience. While your first post was long, it was good to read if from a learning perspective. There have been many problems with updates for the iPad. If you get a chance to do a search, you'll see many threads regarding problems with updating. Most recently many people had problems with updating to iOS5.1.

We are now in the third generation of the iPad and several upgrades of the iOS. Every upgrade seems to bring new challenges and new experiences. Some of what you experienced many forum members also experienced. In your posting, there could have been three major problems, the usb cable, iTunes, and the iPad's settings. Every time I go through an update, it seems there is a new element introduced into my iPad environment that throws a hurdle. When I upgraded my iPad Original, it took about twenty minutes with no problem. Then I updated my iPad 2 and i kept getting a 'cannot connect to server' message. I tried to update my iPad 2 over two days, then I got on the forum and found a suggestion to change my DNS server in iPad wifi settings to 8.8.8.8 (Google server), started my iPad update and it worked.

But that solution didn't work for everyone. If the Apple tech you talked to sounded a bit vague on what could be done to fix your particular problem it is because there is not a specific solution. Will you have an upgrade problem in the future? Probably not. But then again.....

Hi srg...boy as I was reading your post, my heart was racing as well! That is not a good feeling or situation to be in that is for sure!
Glad that you finally got it all worked out.


Welcome to the iPadForum! This Forum offers so much information related to the iPad (original-New), Acessories, Apps, Help, and Apple News.

The iPadForum also includes a Regional Ipad Group for international users across the world. This is a wonderful area to "find" members from your own country.
Regional iPad Groups


If you have not done so, please take a look at the iOS 5.0 and 5.1:
iTunes - Books - iPad User Guide for iOS 5 by Apple Inc.
iTunes - Books - iPad User Guide for iOS 5.1 by Apple Inc.



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Originally Posted by MattIM

Welcome to the Forum. I'm glad you found us and shared your upgrade experience. While your first post was long, it was good to read if from a learning perspective. There have been many problems with updates for the iPad. If you get a chance to do a search, you'll see many threads regarding problems with updating. Most recently many people had problems with updating to iOS5.1.

We are now in the third generation of the iPad and several upgrades of the iOS. Every upgrade seems to bring new challenges and new experiences. Some of what you experienced many forum members also experienced. In your posting, there could have been three major problems, the usb cable, iTunes, and the iPad's settings. Every time I go through an update, it seems there is a new element introduced into my iPad environment that throws a hurdle. When I upgraded my iPad Original, it took about twenty minutes with no problem. Then I updated my iPad 2 and i kept getting a 'cannot connect to server' message. I tried to update my iPad 2 over two days, then I got on the forum and found a suggestion to change my DNS server in iPad wifi settings to 8.8.8.8 (Google server), started my iPad update and it worked.

But that solution didn't work for everyone. If the Apple tech you talked to sounded a bit vague on what could be done to fix your particular problem it is because there is not a specific solution. Will you have an upgrade problem in the future? Probably not. But then again.....

Matt;
Thanks for the reply, part of the problem might have been itunes, it wasn't the latest version, so the tech had me update it. I knew it wasn't the usb cable, among the many thing I tried was switching it out with my ipad's cable, and if I needed to, i could have used my wife's iphone4 cable. The only thing that brought the Ipad "back" was hooking it up to a different pc (mine) and letting windows "discover" it as a new device, then itunes came up with "the ipad is in recovery mode" and one of the notifications from itunes was "restoring firmware", that really got my attention! I guess the ios update is like when you update a bios on a pc, don't let anything happen while the update is taking place and prey that there isn't a power failure, or surge at the time.

Originally Posted by skimonkey

Hi srg...boy as I was reading your post, my heart was racing as well! That is not a good feeling or situation to be in that is for sure!
Glad that you finally got it all worked out.

Skimonkey;
Thanks for the reply, yeah, it wasn't a good feeling! I guess it would be like getting into a car accident, coming home from the dealer after you just picked up your brand-new car!

Scott

If you have a wifi connection you a update your iOS from the iPad its self
Settings>general>software update

It's a positive experience. It shows that it is very difficult to kill an iPad, even when things go very bad in the middle of an update. Considering how you started, you'll be an expert in no time

Originally Posted by cellur111

If you have a wifi connection you a update your iOS from the iPad its self
Settings>general>software update

Yes, but isn't wi-fi a lot slower than a usb (usb 3.0 in this case)?

Originally Posted by zphone

It's a positive experience. It shows that it is very difficult to kill an iPad, even when things go very bad in the middle of an update. Considering how you started, you'll be an expert in no time

I guess you could say that, but I just hate that sinking feeling you get, when you're trying to fix something, and you're thinking, "OMG!! I screwed it up! Why couldn't I just leave it alone?!!"

Scott