He Shares My Pain

Yesterday was roll-out day for iOS 5, the long-anticipated major operating system upgrade for all things "i'. In preparation I had dutifully upgraded my iTunes installation to the required ver. 10.5. Through the day I periodically launched iTunes and plugged my iPad or iPhone in. A check for version updates indicated it was still iOS 4.3. Finally about three in the afternoon, I got the long-awaited "A new operating system upgrade is available. Do you want to upgrade to iOS 5?"

After a warning the back-up, upgrade and restore could take as much as an hour, I clicked on the go-button. I watched the progress as first a massive download took place then a system restore of all my apps and settings and then finally about forty minutes into it, "Upgrade failed".

Whoa! What now? I read the detailed error message. It asks if I've got iTunes 10.5. I have. It cautions that my security software could interfere. I turn off my firewall. I try again. Same result. Failure.

Now I'm in retrench territory. I click on the "Restore" option to go back to where I was. System grinds away for about twenty minutes and then "Restore Failed. Error 3200."

So I get out the trusty customer support web-page for Apple. You fill out a short problem form, enter your product ID code and iTunes account then choose whether you want an immediate phone call, a call at a future time, or an email contact. I chose immediate call-back. The phone rang within a few seconds.

I describe my problem to the clearly American tech support person, obviously not in a phone bank in Bangladesh with a phrase book. He listens and then says, "The same thing happened to me when I tried to upgrade. I don't know the answer. I plan to try again tomorrow." Well, at least I know my problem is not isolated. We converse and finally agree that it might be that Apple servers are over-loaded. I suggest they might tell you that earlier in the time investment process or more clearly in the error message. He agrees. We commiserate for a few minutes and then hang-up.

Try again about twenty minutes later and upgrade goes smoothly. I thought I should call the tech support guy and maybe help him out.