iOS 5 Release..

[BrianSW99]

I upgraded my phone about an hour ago (took about 2 hours to get the update downloaded). ALL of my apps that I've used over the last 2+ years are gone. I suppose that's my fault, because I regard the iTunes software as something like a virus, so it stays off my computer (I'm ont of those heretics that doesn't use my iPhone for music or videos, so iTunes on my computer is a complete waste of disk space). Apparently, there's no such thing as a centralized knowledge source at the App Store that knows what I've purchased/installed, so now I'm in the "guess that app" mode as I try to recoever 50+ apps, one-by-one

So, for all of you eager to upgrade: Make sure you are on the computer your iPhone is "tied" to, make sure you've done a full backup, and THEN upgrade.

P.S. -- Oddly, i'ts only the apps that got trashed. All my photos, notes, email setup, etc were all nicely preserved and ready when I finished upgrading.

Go to the App Store on your phone, then go to the Updates tab at the bottom. Then select "Purchased" which should be at the top of the list. That will let you download all of your previously purchased apps in one place.

Brian

[OldCannon]

I upgraded my phone about an hour ago (took about 2 hours to get the update downloaded). ALL of my apps that I've used over the last 2+ years are gone. I suppose that's my fault, because I regard the iTunes software as something like a virus, so it stays off my computer (I'm ont of those heretics that doesn't use my iPhone for music or videos, so iTunes on my computer is a complete waste of disk space). Apparently, there's no such thing as a centralized knowledge source at the App Store that knows what I've purchased/installed, so now I'm in the "guess that app" mode as I try to recoever 50+ apps, one-by-one

So, for all of you eager to upgrade: Make sure you are on the computer your iPhone is "tied" to, make sure you've done a full backup, and THEN upgrade.

P.S. -- Oddly, i'ts only the apps that got trashed. All my photos, notes, email setup, etc were all nicely preserved and ready when I finished upgrading.

Go to the App Store on your phone, then go to the Updates tab at the bottom. Then select "Purchased" which should be at the top of the list. That will let you download all of your previously purchased apps in one place.

Brian

Yup, you would THINK that's what should happen. Turns out it's ONLY showing me 18 crappy apps I bought 3 years ago, vs the 50+ apps I actually own. Not good.

[Thomas]

Call up Apple on the phone. When they try to ask tell you that phone service or whatever costs, just ignore that and keep asking them about the issue (in this case getting all of your Apps back). It helps if you do this way outside of normal business hours. Apple products are expensive because you're paying for a service. They don't want any disgruntled (within reason) customers.

... Which is why for example if the warranty expired and something's broken, you can go to an Apple store and after they explain the problem or whatever, you can loudly ask "What do you mean Apple's hardware is defective. It shouldn't break/crash/whatever." As long as you aren't unruly, they will usually accommodate you without charging. If they do charge you in the end, you didn't agree to any charges and you can politely, but loudly fuss about that. Don't abuse the system, but if something doesn't seem fair or it seems outrageous, don't play victim to Apple's tactics.

Apple likes to put on a facade where they pretend their products are perfect, and they want to quiet anything that ruins that facade as quickly as possible. BTW, their products aren't perfect. My first iPhone 4 had battery issues, and I've had Macs crash on me more than PCs, and I rarely use a Mac.

[The Annoyed Man]

...and I've had Macs crash on me more than PCs, and I rarely use a Mac.

You must be doing something wrong. I currently own 4 Macs right now (not counting iPhone and iPad), consisting of two MacBook Pros and two iMacs, and we leave them turned on for weeks at a time without rebooting sometimes. They never crash. Ever. I've had nothing but good luck with Macs for 7 years now.

Now, my old 5 year old 24" iMac did lose its hard drive fairly recently, but I've been a good boy and backing up several times a day. Had a new drive installed, and restored my last backup, and I was back up. I gave that one to my wife, and bought another one for my production machine.

Last new years day, I dropped my 17" MacBook Pro. Apple not only covered the internal repairs at no cost, but they replaced the bent case with a new one at no cost.....and that was after my warranty had expired.

I've never had a virus or any kind of malware. My machines have been as stable as the rock of Gibraltar. I'm not trying to push Macs, but I don't understand how others can have bad experiences with them. Yes, they are expensive; and yes, the stores are insufferably snooty, but I have had nothing but good experiences with Macs. I've owned a total of 7 of them over a number of years; and used them for work both as a self-employed website designer for the past 4 years and as a pre-press graphics production employee for the previous two decades.

And finally, the "good housekeeping seal of approval" comes from my wife. She was incurably mired when we owned PCs. She never could get the hang of using one. Various iterations of Windows operating systems were never intuitive enough for her to master. But her 15" MacBook Pro is her constant companion now. Whenever I threaten (jokingly) to buy her a new PC, she gives me the stink-eye. No Windows machine is worth that.

[Thomas]

Apple computers must be out to get me then

I've never had any major problem with my original iPhone or iPhone 4. Except for the time the Mail app tried to download my whole Gmail inbox. It got to over 16,000 before I re-installed the OS. Now that I think about it, Mac or not, I'm surprised the Mail app still functioned with over 16,000 e-mails.

[gigag04]

That's not a mac issue - the software, in this case mac mail, is doing exactly what you tell it to.

[BrianSW99]

I upgraded my phone about an hour ago (took about 2 hours to get the update downloaded). ALL of my apps that I've used over the last 2+ years are gone. I suppose that's my fault, because I regard the iTunes software as something like a virus, so it stays off my computer (I'm ont of those heretics that doesn't use my iPhone for music or videos, so iTunes on my computer is a complete waste of disk space). Apparently, there's no such thing as a centralized knowledge source at the App Store that knows what I've purchased/installed, so now I'm in the "guess that app" mode as I try to recoever 50+ apps, one-by-one

So, for all of you eager to upgrade: Make sure you are on the computer your iPhone is "tied" to, make sure you've done a full backup, and THEN upgrade.

P.S. -- Oddly, i'ts only the apps that got trashed. All my photos, notes, email setup, etc were all nicely preserved and ready when I finished upgrading.

Go to the App Store on your phone, then go to the Updates tab at the bottom. Then select "Purchased" which should be at the top of the list. That will let you download all of your previously purchased apps in one place.

Brian

Yup, you would THINK that's what should happen. Turns out it's ONLY showing me 18 crappy apps I bought 3 years ago, vs the 50+ apps I actually own. Not good.

Are you sure you're logged in using the same Apple ID that you used to purchase the 50+ apps? If so, you definitely need to contact Apple. Actually, I think it would be the iTunes support that normally handles issues with purchases and Apple ID's. I know my Purchased list has everything I've downloaded from the very beginning.

Brian

[Thomas]

That's not a mac issue - the software, in this case mac mail, is doing exactly what you tell it to.

This was with the original iPhone running iOS#. I called up Apple, and their guys couldn't figure it out. They had me go through the Mail settings, which I already did of course. They were astonished with no answer, so I just reset the thing.

So I guess the software was doing what the Apple programmers told it to, except it wasn't something they planned. See, Apple is not perfect

[Thomas]

Sometimes I wish I knew how to "tweet"... http://twitter.com/#!/BenThePCGuy/statu ... 4096946176

Tweet why you want to upgrade from #ios to #windowsphone - I'm giving 25 away!

[JJVP]

I upgraded my phone about an hour ago (took about 2 hours to get the update downloaded). ALL of my apps that I've used over the last 2+ years are gone. I suppose that's my fault, because I regard the iTunes software as something like a virus, so it stays off my computer (I'm ont of those heretics that doesn't use my iPhone for music or videos, so iTunes on my computer is a complete waste of disk space). Apparently, there's no such thing as a centralized knowledge source at the App Store that knows what I've purchased/installed, so now I'm in the "guess that app" mode as I try to recoever 50+ apps, one-by-one

So, for all of you eager to upgrade: Make sure you are on the computer your iPhone is "tied" to, make sure you've done a full backup, and THEN upgrade.

P.S. -- Oddly, i'ts only the apps that got trashed. All my photos, notes, email setup, etc were all nicely preserved and ready when I finished upgrading.

I had the same issue with my iPAD. All my apps gone, also my photos and other docs (PDF's I had on iBooks, etc) Found all the deleted apps in the Apps Store on the "Purchased" tab. I am manually re-installing everyone of my apps as we speak. Probably will take all day. Not happy with Apple right now.

[gigag04]

I've literally has zero issues installing iOS 5 across two iPhone 4's and an iPad 2, and icloud is running on our two MacBooks.

Ar y'all backing up the devices and restoring from the computer for the initial setup or trying to do it from the cloud (or worse, as a new phone)? Restoring locally after install is the only option to get your apps back.

[esxmarkc]

Mine upgraded without a hitch and the notification center is really a nice addition.

You must be doing something wrong. I currently own 4 Macs right now (not counting iPhone and iPad), consisting of two MacBook Pros and two iMacs, and we leave them turned on for weeks at a time without rebooting sometimes. They never crash. Ever.

I can't say we are doing any better here. My daughter's Macbook AIR is one of the nicest computers we have ever owned. However the frequency at which apps hang and require killing off is about the same frequency as they are on our XP desktops. We were building a presentation on it last night and a copy/paste hung it up and we had to kill it off and just try it again. It also pines for updates at about the same frequency as our XP desktops. I honestly don't find the OS on the Macs to be any more robust than our XPs. It is however a much faster and slicker machine. Exceptionally nice hardware.

[gigag04]

Fwiw looks like iCloud backup servers are acting up this morning.

[RottenApple]

Tips for making your upgrade as painless and as easy as possible while minimizing the possibility of data loss:

1) Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes (10.5) installed. If you are a developer or got a copy of iTunes 10.5 beta from a different source, make sure you uninstall the beta and install the full version from http://www.itunes.com (or http://www.apple.com/itunes if you prefer).
2) Open iTunes Preferences (PC: Edit > Preferences; Mac: iTunes > Preferences) and go to the Devices tab. Place a check in "Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically". Click OK.
3) Connect your iOS device.
4) At the top of the menu bar click Store > Authorize This Computer. Enter your Apple ID & password and click Authorize. If you have apps installed from more than 1 iTunes Store account, you will need to repeat this for each account.
5) Click File > Transfer Purchases From <name_of_device>
6) When the transfer of purchased items is complete, right click (Mac: Option + click) the name of your device in the source list on the left and select Backup. This will manually create a backup of your device.
7) When the backup is complete, select "Check for Updates" in the main screen. If you are having problems updating your phone choose the Restore option instead. (NOTE: If you have a version earlier than iOS 4.0, I would strongly recommend using the Restore option instead of update.)

If you had to restore: When completed, iTunes will ask if you wish to "Set up as a new <device_type> or "Restore from the backup of <former_device_name>". Choose the option to restore from the backup. iTunes will put all your settings back on the device, restart the device, and then sync your content back over.

[RottenApple]

Yup, you would THINK that's what should happen. Turns out it's ONLY showing me 18 crappy apps I bought 3 years ago, vs the 50+ apps I actually own. Not good.

Soulds like you are signed into the wrong Apple ID. You should check your emails for the most recent iTunes Store receipt as it will show you what Apple ID was used to purchase those items. Also, you can go to AppleID.Apple.com and use the "Find Out" link to locate any and all Apple IDs you may have. And if that doesn't work, please don't call Apple as iTunes Store support is done via the web. Trust me, the advisors and senior advisors on the phones do not have access to any iTunes Store account information and will only be able to refer you to iTunes Store support on the web. Instead, go to expresslane.apple.com, chose iTunes > iTunes Store and fill in the rest of the info as you go.