iOS 4.2.1 Available Now - Yes, Really

[chandar]

Updated successfully

Update took total of an hour - mainly due to my low internet speeds at 2mbps. Went smoothly. I did not back up anything before I updated (have back off!). When things work in Apple, they work really well.

Spent an hour organizing apps about 200 apps in folders, renaming them.

Just to make sure rebooted a couple of times -things still work well!

Not so good things - miss the hardware orientation lock switch!

I am worried a bit about leaving apps running - will they drain the battery quickly? - I wish there is a switch for killing each app (in the app itself rather than going to the taskbar) when you are done!

 

[Grandad]

Patience pays off!

So yesterday about half an hour after release I tried to download 4.2 .After nearly three hours it kicked me out. As it was around 10pm GMT by then I gave up. Not helped by all the posts going on about playing with the new folders and multitasking and me not able to enjoy all this!! So this morning at about 7.50am GMT plugged it in, pushed the "button" and went off to do the washing up, came back about seven minutes later........all done!! So I am now "off to play". Will post my thoughts (for what they are worth. Remember when I got my first computer it would take 20 mins to load Word!) from an historical perspective of having experienced numerous upgrades of OS!
Somewhere there is a thread saying we should have a slogan/s. How about " I am off to play" ............?

 

[donka]

Got up at 6am this morning UK time and got my Ipad, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch all upgraded within an hour. All working good so far but work is stopping me from giving things a full check out.

 

[w1ngman]

Since this particular 4.2 thread seems to have the most eyes/posts on it (gosh...how many 4.2 threads *are* there!???!!!)...I'd like to ask some questions here if ya'll don't mind.

First, let me say that my 4.2 upgrade experience wasn't the *most* pleasant experience it probably could have been, but all in all, it wasn't a catastrophe either. Like some others, I can report that the initial upgrade effort failed. But at least, after having upgraded iTunes to 10.1, I had deliberately performed a backup prior to pulling the trigger on the 4.2 OS upgrade! Still, when the iTunes > USB cord displayed on my iPad and indicated on my PC within iTunes that the 4.2 OS upgrade failed, as a 'just in case', I opted to swap the cable I was currently attempting to transfer data through (an older ipod cable that has long been in a USB port on my PC)...to the 'new' USB cable that came with the iPad. I then proceeded to follow screen prompts and successfully restored my iPad back to the earlier backup. And again, I am pleased to report that my iPad then successfully upgraded to 4.2.

With that said, the answers to my questions most likely revolve around that very same Restore from backup that I had to perform...but I'll leave it for more experienced folks to confirm . The iPad is new to me (purchased ~ 2 weeks ago now), and I am a willing student . FWIW, I run iTunes from a PC on Windows 7.

Apps question: Pre-4.2 upgrade I had ~ 67 legitimate apps installed on my iPad. Post 4.2 upgrade, my iPad has re-applied (for lack of better words) my [few] previously purchased apps. However, when I look in my iTunes LIBRARY > Apps...I can still see the schload of FREE apps (as well as the [few] paid for apps) that I'd downloaded/installed to my iPad over the past 2 weeks of ownership. Again, the paid for apps seemed to synced over to my iPad...but the ones that were free (such as Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Zinio, DirecTV, USA Today, etc) won't come back over to my iPad after syncing. I don't see how I'm suppose to get them back onto my iPad exactly . Within iTunes, I see 'Check for Updates' and 'Get More Apps' in the bottom right corner when displaying the Apps Library...but connecting my iPad and having it re-sync to iTunes doesn't 'pull these apps back to my iPad' again.

So...is this simply (hardly simply...I'm talking ~ 65 free apps!) a matter of me having to re-download / re-install all these same 65 apps I had previously freely received from iTunes??? That will prove tedious if that is the case! But regardless, to that end, in the case of my Kindle, Kobo and Nook apps...what of the books/magazines I'd previously had with them? Although the books I'd previously purchased (free) via iBooks became available again once I re-downloaded the iBooks app from iTunes...will that prove true of my other book/reading-related apps post re-download / re-install?

...obviously, under the circumstances...I am not experiencing the post 4.2 OS upgrade joy of creating folders yet...since my many apps blew away like dust in the wind ...

Photos: Well, it probably makes sense...but would having performed a Restore to my 1:30-ish am backup have wiped my photos off my iPad as well? These photos had been on my iPad for ~ one solid week. Photos don't seem to be managed by iTunes (as I recall...and I only brought them in as an exercise one time...I had downloaded them into my iPad via my home network wifi. But that was again a week back, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on how I'd even done that ). So is it simply a matter that Restore does, indeed, wipe them...and I'll have to re-do that exercise again as well?

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice.

- Dave

PS. One owner noted in one or another 4.2 thread that they had experienced problems with Snag-It on their PC post 4.2 upgrade. Hmm, while their experience was that their Windows 7 PC had 'locked up'...mine did not. However, I did find it strange that...post 4.2 upgrade...when I double-clicked my Snag-It icon from my PC desktop...it began to reinstall the Snag-It application on my PC. Weird... But once it went through that...all was fine with Snag-It (I did *not* experience any PC lock ups). As to *why* I thought to touch Snag-It post-4.2 upgrade???...well, I needed to 'snag' a screen print of my friggin' iPad apps that iTunes is teasing me with by displaying within LIBRARY > Apps. I figured it best to snag a record of all the apps...that...I believe I'll have no recourse but to redownload/reinstall onto my iPad all over again

PPS. I can add as an update to this post that my Safari browser retained all my bookmarks. Also, I went ahead and re-downloaded/re-installed my Zinio, Kindle, Kobo and Nook apps...and I'm happy to report that any magazines & books previously purchased/downloaded are back in their respective 'libraries'

 

[iPadster]

Backup started 10 hours ago and it is 3/4 done. I have not backed up since the last update and have added allot of apps, but this ridiculous!

 

[RoadPilot]

That would be because itunes didn't use up every byte on your c:

Of course it didn't -- that's because I don't store my iTunes media on the C: drive.

 

[RoadPilot]

Spent an hour organizing apps about 200 apps in folders, renaming them.

Gotta love the folders feature, eh?

Not so good things - miss the hardware orientation lock switch![/quote]It's in the taskbar. Slide left to right, and you'll see the orientation lock icon.

I am worried a bit about leaving apps running - will they drain the battery quickly? - I wish there is a switch for killing each app (in the app itself rather than going to the taskbar) when you are done!

Depends upon what the app is doing, I suppose. If you're just editing a document, then I'd say, no. But if it's doing something interactive (e.g., a Weather application that auto-updates), yes.

 

[gentlefury]

That would be because itunes didn't use up every byte on your c:

Of course it didn't -- that's because I don't store my iTunes media on the C: drive.

Backup goes to c:/users/username/appdata, and there is no way to change it! And every time it screwed up it would write another 9 GB backup folder.

 

[Digikid]

Sure there is a way to change it. You just create a redirect in Windows. You just need to spoof the location.

 

[gentlefury]

Sure there is a way to change it. You just create a redirect in Windows. You just need to spoof the location.

I already tried that, it didn't work. Windows just ignored it and instead created a Temp directory for user data.

 

[DaveSt]

Sure there is a way to change it. You just create a redirect in Windows. You just need to spoof the location.

I already tried that, it didn't work. Windows just ignored it and instead created a Temp directory for user data.

I'm glad you reminded me, I almost forgot!

I asked our systems guy at work about the mklink command and did a little research at MS and it appears to work as follows. If you want to link to a directory on the same volume, you can use the /j (junction) command. If you want to link to a directory on either a separate volume or a network drive you need to use the /d (directory symlink). I noticed you used the /j command when you tried it, but I am guessing you need to use the /d command. It seems this is a bit of a change that came about with Vista, as the junction method was preferred in earlier Windows versions.

HTH.

 

[gentlefury]

Sure there is a way to change it. You just create a redirect in Windows. You just need to spoof the location.

I already tried that, it didn't work. Windows just ignored it and instead created a Temp directory for user data.

I'm glad you reminded me, I almost forgot!

I asked our systems guy at work about the mklink command and did a little research at MS and it appears to work as follows. If you want to link to a directory on the same volume, you can use the /j (junction) command. If you want to link to a directory on either a separate volume or a network drive you need to use the /d (directory symlink). I noticed you used the /j command when you tried it, but I am guessing you need to use the /d command. It seems this is a bit of a change that came about with Vista, as the junction method was preferred in earlier Windows versions.

HTH.

I actually used /j and it didn't work, so I deleted that link and used /d and it still didn't work.

 

[DaveSt]

That would be because itunes didn't use up every byte on your c:

Of course it didn't -- that's because I don't store my iTunes media on the C: drive.

Backup goes to c:/users/username/appdata, and there is no way to change it! And every time it screwed up it would write another 9 GB backup folder.

This is another fine example of how poor a program Itunes is.

(1) Why doesn't Itunes remove the old and/or incomplete backups?

(2) Why couldn't Apple put a simple option dialog in Itunes to allow the user to choose the directory for local data? This is lazy programming.

(3) Why did Apple decide that a hidden, locked directory was the proper place to put the backup files in the first place? Because Apple was too lazy to address either (1) or (2) above, users have no easy way to clear unwanted or old data. Heck, most users probably have no idea how much space Itunes is wasting on their hard drives. Do I really need to keep all of my old firmware images stored locally on my hard drive? I can download the latest version if I need to wipe my device. Maybe that is why they chose this directory in the first place ....

(4) Why does Itunes force me to do a full backup before updating my device? And, after a successful OS update, why can I not be given the option to remove the now unneeded backup from my hard drive?

 

[NumbLock]

Of course it didn't -- that's because I don't store my iTunes media on the C: drive.

Backup goes to c:/users/username/appdata, and there is no way to change it! And every time it screwed up it would write another 9 GB backup folder.

This is another fine example of how poor a program Itunes is.

(1) Why doesn't Itunes remove the old and/or incomplete backups?

(2) Why couldn't Apple put a simple option dialog in Itunes to allow the user to choose the directory for local data? This is lazy programming.

(3) Why did Apple decide that a hidden, locked directory was the proper place to put the backup files in the first place? Because Apple was too lazy to address either (1) or (2) above, users have no easy way to clear unwanted or old data. Heck, most users probably have no idea how much space Itunes is wasting on their hard drives. Do I really need to keep all of my old firmware images stored locally on my hard drive? I can download the latest version if I need to wipe my device. Maybe that is why they chose this directory in the first place ....

(4) Why does Itunes force me to do a full backup before updating my device? And, after a successful OS update, why can I not be given the option to remove the now unneeded backup from my hard drive?

To use the old school term: Werd!