Update: iPhone woes continue: iPhone software 2.0 upgrade bricking first-gen iPhones

Update: After several hours of waiting, the iPhone 2.0 software update finally resolved itself. It recognized where it left off in the installation, re-started it, and finished. I now am running the 2.0 OS on a first-gen iPhone.

While I expect the installation process to improve — as demands on the servers decrease — I have one word of advice for those who have yet to upgrade: patience.

Patience is something we need for the entire iPhone experience — from MobileMe, to the App Store, to the 2.0 OS upgrade, to waiting in life to buy and activate an iPhone 3G.

My original post

It’s happened to me. My iPhone is bricked.

The iPhone 2.0 software upgrade bricked my iPhone.

And here I thought I was home free.

I started the morning by checking for the software upgrade. Cool. It was there. It took a while to download the 218.2 MB upgrade, then the iPhone went through its various installation tasks.

When it went to connect to the iTunes Store for what I presume was re-activation, the phone hung. I got the follow error message, which continues to plague me.

At first I thought iTunes was down with all the upgrade activity going on today. I disconnected, check iTunes — it was there — and then reconnected.

I’m still bricked.

But I’m not the only one. The blog Crave notes that the iPhone 2.0 update is wreaking havoc on first-gen devices.

I expect the iTunes servers are being bombarded with requests. I’m sympathetic to the problem. But I really don’t care. My phone is bricked and unusable. I need it.

What’s going to happen next? Will this fix easily? Today is NOT the day to go visit the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.

Update: If I leave my iPhone connected to try re-connecting later, my computer crashes. So the process is now: connect, hang, disconnect, reconnect, repeat.

See also Apple’s MobileMe problems: Surprisingly, Apple botches the debut of MobileMe. Where is it?

Update II: But, hey, MobileMe is now working! At least I can play around with it until the iPhone woes are solved.

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

3 Responses to “Update: iPhone woes continue: iPhone software 2.0 upgrade bricking first-gen iPhones”

  1. kat says:

    Ya, it happened to me too, but I got 2 different error messages. the (-4) was my last one. About 4 or 5 hours after receiving that message I was able to update by having itunes open on my computer, and then putting the turned off iphone in its cradle and manually turning everything on. I did have trouble getting what I wanted from the app store last night, but this morning everything was fine.

  2. jake says:

    what does it mean when an iphone is bricked

  3. kat says:

    Bricking your hardware leaves you with a new paperweight. Can be the end effect of a faulty flash or firmware update, a modification (mod) gone bad. But in this case I think as long as he had it synced to itunes prior to update of firmware, if he turns it off, attaches it to his computer has itunes up when he turns it on again it should update.

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