MacFlaunt

Upgrade to iPhone OS 3.1.3 proves problematic

Apple’s iPhone OS upgrade riddled with installation package faults - no thanks to iTunes.

Apple blogs have been inundated this week with stories of how the upgrade to OS 3.1.3 has been crashing iPhone 3GS’ and iPod Touches. Stories tell of how installation packs have been corrupted in the download stages through iTunes, more than often prompting restores.

The update was due to address several specific bugs as well as offering fixes for a handful of security issues. Most notably:

- Accuracy of battery life percentages on the iPhone 3GS

- The ability to make third-party applications not launch

- Fixes a bug that may cause applications to crash, when used in conjunction with the Japanese Kana keyboard.

Relevant or not to what you need it for, MacFlaunt was not able to utilise any of these god-saves features as it happened to one of our staff reporters.

When things trying to download to the new OS update the iPhone decides to lock up. On consulting Apple forums, it was clear that the CRC-free version of the file would have failed to be applied and prioritised in iTunes.

Things were made worse by the fact that the phone failed to restore -

“Error restoring iPhone, iPhone. Error Code [14].”

So where is the troubleshooting option? Where is the hyperlink to a solutions page? - Nowhere. Therefore, for the next 3 hours our reporter researched how to fix the common “Error Code [14]” problem.

Recommendations:

Apple do not check the integrity of the update package before wiping the current directory, on your Mac or PC. This is why iTunes will start an update with a bad package and will inevitably lead to the iPhone retreating to its useless ‘safe-place’ of recovery mode.

Sadly, following the steps outlined by Apple will no longer safeguard you against such things. Prioritising directory components with freeware like ‘Object Fix’ really can’t hurt your chances to really safeguarding against something like this happening. Run this clean-up program, ridding your HD from incomplete and obsolete files, and this problem will go away.

Further recommendations:

- Restarting your computer

- Reinstalling iTunes (make sure you delete all components with something like ‘App Zapper’)

- Using someone else’s computer to reconfigure and restore.

Sources:

theappleblog.com

macrumours.com