The iOS 4 Upgrade Help Thread

Since it was suggested I figured I might as well start a thread addressing the common issues that newbies seem to be encountering with iOS 4. So let's hit briefly on the major topics:

Should I upgrade?
This seems to be a popular question, and the answer is: There's little reason not to. It's free upgrade for all iPhone and iPod Touch devices, second-generation or newer, and at the very least, you'll get folders. Folders alone make this upgrade worthwhile as it allows you to organize and clean up your device, reducing the clutter and making things easier to find without having to flip through so many pages. I went from 11 pages down to 2-1/2, and it's made a huge difference in ease of location and access and the tidiness of my device. There's now a place for everything and I have it all organized and categorized nicely.

But if that's not enough you'll get other neat features like faces/places (for iPhoto users on the Mac), album art in album view, on-device playlist creation, the ability to turn off data roaming (I know at least one person here really wanted that feature), persistent Wi-Fi (no more disconnects) and more. And if you're a 3rd gen Touch or iPhone 3GS user, you also get home screen wallpaper and multitasking.

There are a very few compatibility issues that I and others have run across, but the vast majority of apps should work without a hitch, and those that don't likely will receive updates soon.

So yes. You should upgrade.

NOTE: If you already updated using the iOS 4 GM that's been floating around, you already have the final version, so if iTunes is informing you that you already have the most current version, you should probably believe it.


Upgrading
Before you upgrade, be sure to run a backup: Right-click on your device in the left pane in iTunes and select "Back Up." Let it do its thing. It may take a while, so go grab a bite, a beer or read the forums or something.

When it's done, click the Check for Updates button and download iOS 4 (if you haven't already) and let iTunes install. This should be a completely automated process for Windows and Mac users, and for me took about 10-15 minutes from start to finish.


Trouble Upgrading?
Some people are encountering errors when trying to apply the update. That's not very uncommon -- in fact I'm surprised my own update went so smoothly. But there are those whose upgrades started, and then stalled out giving some error code and leaving your iDevice in an unusable state. If nothing you try works, then the last resort is putting your device into DFU mode. But first, lets run down a checklist of things you should make sure of before we continue:

- Make sure your device is plugged into a USB port, preferably directly on your computer rather than a hub so as to ensure there's a clean, close signal from the device to the computer.

- Make sure iTunes is running when you enter DFU mode, and make sure that you keep power+home held down until iTunes tells you it has found a device in restore mode. Your screen should stay black -- no "Connect to iTunes" icon or anything else should be displayed. Your device should appear to be off.

- If you are on Windows and just upgraded iTunes to 9.2, make sure you rebooted your computer so the driver works properly.

- If you are using a powered case (eg. Mophie JuicePack or similar) or a dock, remove the device from the case or undock it and connect it directly to your PC or Mac using the standard 30-pin connector.

If you checked all of the above, then follow the simple instructions in the link above to the letter to enter DFU mode and it should get you back on your feet. Note that this does a complete, full restore of your device. You did do a backup, right?

But what if restoring doesn't work? One possible cause could be driver issues. When upgrading to a new version of iTunes it's possible for the driver to malfunction, especially for Windows users who don't reboot after installing the new version. To solve this problem you'll need to reinstall iTunes.

Windows users: Uninstall both iTunes and Apple Mobile Device Support, and then reinstall iTunes fresh. Don't worry, you won't lose your music; iTunes still keeps your important settings.

Mac users: First, delete the following files:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DeviceLink.framework
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework

Then restart your Mac and reinstall iTunes fresh.

For either platform this will reinstall iTunes, and by extension, the mobile device drivers that may be causing the problem.

(Thanks: starjimstar & Macrumors user nicksherb for iTunes details.)


Creating Folders
Now that you have a shiny new iOS 4 device, you're probably going to want to clean things up. Creating folders is simple: Tap and hold until the icons shake as usual, and then just drag one icon on top of another. The "bottom" icon should enlarge to indicate that you're creating a folder. Once you release the icon a new folder will created and named based on the App Store category it belongs to. You can change the name if you like. You should probably drag one app onto a related app just for the sake of organisation, but what you put in folders is really up to you.

Anything placed in a folder can be removed by opening a folder, tapping and holding until the icons shake, and then dragging outside the folder. You can release it back on the springboard, or proceed to drag it into another folder if you like. If you drag the last app out of a folder, the folder will disappear.

Folders can hold a maximum of 12 apps each, which gives you a theoretical maximum of 2,160 apps stored on your device at once. (12 apps per folder, 16 folders per page, 11 pages, and 4 folders on the dock)


Multitasking (3rd gen Touch/3GS and iPhone 4 only)
Multitasking is largely transparent, but you should pay attention to what's running. Double-tapping the home button brings up the task bar from the bottom. Swiping left will reveal your iPod controls and orientation lock, while swiping right will page through active tasks (assuming you have more than 4 open). This task bar can be accessed from anywhere, within any app.

However, contrary to what some seem to think, multitasking is not automatically active for every app. Apps have to be written to support it, and apps that are not will not resume where they left off if you switch tasks; they will reload the same as if you'd pressed the home button. There are very few apps at the time of this writing that support it, but within the next few weeks and months we will likely see a flurry of apps updated to do so.

When an app that's written to support multitasking is running, keep in mind that it takes up memory even when you're in another task, and you only have so much of it to go around. 3rd gen Touches and iPhone 3GS have 256MB, while the iPhone 4 has 512MB. 2nd gen devices only have 128MB, which is why they do not support multitasking.

With that in mind you should close any tasks you aren't currently using. To do that, with the taskbar open, tap-and-hold until the icons shake, just as if you were going to move icons around or create folders, and tap the red - badge to close the app.

REMEMBER: Every single app you open will remain in the task list until you close it, or the device closes it for you. (iOS 4 will arbitrarily and automatically close the oldest task if it runs out of memory while opening a new one. If you want to exercise control over which tasks you want closed, be sure to keep your tasks to a minimum and only keep those open that you'll be needing quick access to, or that you are currently using.)


Home Screen Wallpaper (3rd gen Touch/3GS and iPhone 4 only)
I'd like to get this out of the way right now because there are a few who actually believe this: Black backgrounds do not save battery life. Putting wallpaper on your home screen will not decrease battery life. LCD screens don't work like that, and it's the backlight that's the real drain anyway, and you can't selectively turn bits of that off.

With that out of the way, I'm sure you're all familiar with changing your lock screen wallpaper. Well, adding home screen wallpaper works pretty much the same way, except that when you finally move and resize, you'll be given a choice of whether to set the wallpaper as home screen, lock screen, or both. You can also access your wallpapers from the settings app.

Okay, so why don't 2nd-gen devices get home screen wallpaper? Because those devices only have 128MB of RAM to play with, and with apps as memory hungry as many of them are, they need every kilobyte they can get, and homescreen wallpapers consume 2.4MB when uncompressed for display. (320x480x16)


GameCenter
GameCenter won't be available until the fall, so versions of iOS 4 downloaded through iTunes won't have the icon for it. However, people who updated using the GM version that was floating around do have the app in firmware -- not that it does anything yet.


Okay, that should cover the basics. If anyone has anything else they think I should add, or you have any questions you need answered, suggest/ask them in the thread and I'll add them to this post.