Apple iPhone 2.0 Update issues
About an hour back, I checked to see if the iPhone 2.0 update is available. It was and I went ahead with the update. iTunes created a backup (thank God!) of my iPhone and then proceeded to install the 2.0 update.
After the update which appeared to proceed well, the iPhone shows the emergency call screen (indicating it is as good as a new iPhone) and would not allow me to activate the phone to start using it. I get the following error. Perhaps iStore is down? May be all the people who bought the new 3G iPhone are trying to activate their phones?

I thought that perhaps my installation of the latest iTunes was the cause for this so I went to apple.com to try and download iTunes 7.7 again but found that the download section is down!
So what do I do? My iPhone is not working. I can not undo the update. I can not install the latest version of iTunes.
I will keep updating this post as and when I have more news.

UPDATE (8:40PM): It is finally working! I got my phone activated and sync’d and it is all sweet.

13 Responses
7.11.2008
I tried system restore to last night after this happened to me and now I can’t get itunes to open at all. I haven’t lost my data have I?
7.11.2008
Did you update your iPhone to 2.0? A backup should have been taken by iTunes if you did.
7.11.2008
I had exactly this problem this morning – same error messages and everything. This actually makes me feel better. . Hopefully by this evening when they try it again they will have worked out all the issues.
7.11.2008
But what I fear is that today is Friday. Apple support does not work on the week end and if the iTunes store is not back online before the end of the day, then we can not even call in for support.
Anyway, calling support is like a 55 minute wait while being told that the next available agent will be available in 2 minutes.
Come on Apple! Don’t let us down!
7.11.2008
At least I’m not the only one. I can’t find any information on how to fix it, though.
7.11.2008
The best bet is to keep trying and hopefully Apple would have increased their server capacity or some thing like that in the mean while.
With all the money and the know how, I would have thought that Apple would have doubled or tripled their capacity 2-3 weeks in advance of this release.
Did they not see this coming?
7.11.2008
So you think it’s just that they’re running above capacity?
7.11.2008
Absolutely. With all then new 3G phone buyers trying to activate their new shiny phones and all the 2G phone users trying to update I am sure there is tremendous impact on their iTunes activation server(s).
I am sure they did have a back up plan in place but perhaps not good enough to handle all this mad rush!
7.11.2008
Bugger. I’d like to have a working phone.
7.11.2008
ok! A change in scenario! I no longer get the error message shown above. But now, the activation screen just hangs and does not respond.
At least some progress.
7.11.2008
I started my update around 9:30 am (central) and everything backed up (hallelujah). Then around 10:00 am it finally restarted and said it would restart and iTunes would continue. I got the (-9838) error around 10:15, kept trying and then got the (-4) error around 10:45. I kept trying but ultimately had to leave for class, so yay, I’m stuck without a phone for 2 hours to anywhere up to 2-3 days. (So I’ve heard.)
I’ve decided to blame the servers, so please…everybody…stop trying…so I can get mine. Thanks, I appreciate it.
HA!
7.11.2008
Seems to be working now.
7.11.2008
YES! Finally! It is working!