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Is your iPhone or iPad stuck on ‘Slide to Upgrade’ after updating to iOS 9? Here’s the fix (update: iOS 9.0.1 now available)

Update 2: Apple has now released iOS 9.0.1 which — according to Apple — fixes the stuck ‘Slide to Upgrade’ problem for good.

Update: Apple has now added more steps to try and get your iPhone unfrozen …

Apple’s iOS 9 release went pretty smoothly all things considered, apart from initial server glitches and some performance issues on older devices. There was one big bug however, affecting a lot of people. After updating, the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch would freeze or get stuck on the ‘Slide to Upgrade’ screen. There was seemingly no way to get around it. Apple has now acknowledged the issue and published a fix … here’s the solution:

Apple’s fix isn’t convenient, it involves connecting your device via cable to a computer, but at least it works:

  • Connect your iPhone or iPad to a computer. Open iTunes.
  • Choose your device in the iTunes window. You may have to force restart (hold power and home button for several seconds) to reboot the iOS device. This should make it show up in iTunes as usual.
  • Restore from a backup made before iOS 9. If you haven’t got a recent backup, make a backup now and then restore from that.

Please note: if your device is protected with Find My iPhone, you are in more trouble and should likely seek official Apple Support. However, before the first step, try logging in to iCloud.com and removing your device from the Find my iPhone portal. In some circumstances, your frozen iPhone will be able to detect the protection has been removed and allow you to continue as normal. If this does not help, call AppleCare or visit an Apple Store.

Although backing up and immediately restoring to that same ‘buggy’ backup seems redundant, it actually flushes out the weirdness and when the phone boots again it will be able to complete the upgrade. Happy iOS 9!

Update: Apple has now provided additional recovery steps. If after following the above, your iPhone is still stuck on the upgrade screen, try restoring your device in iTunes. If you don’t see your device in iTunes, you need to hard-reboot your iPhone to stop it from freezing. To do this, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home Button together for 10 seconds or more. When your iPhone reboots, it should now be selectable in iTunes. Restore your device to factory settings and then set your iPhone up as new. Again, you lose all your data this way but it’s Apple’s latest advice on how to resolve the ‘Slide to Upgrade’ bug.

Apple has also announced a software update is coming soon to address the ‘Slide To Upgrade’ iOS 9 bug.

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Comments

  1. I did this with a tech support person’s guidance (via my landline), and it did not work. T-Mobile is sending me a new phone. I am very hesitant to try iOS9 now, after the inconvenience of having to buy a cheap interim phone and learn a new system until my new iPhone arrives! No thanks!

    • Matt Nelko - 9 years ago

      All the more reason why people should never … EVER … give up their landlines. Thank goodness for that 1920s technology that came to your rescue when your 2015 “technology” failed. AGAIN.

      • Johnny Dangerously - 9 years ago

        Where do you get the idea that “1920s technology … came to (her) rescue”? Susan didn’t say she returned to an old-fashion land-line phone, just that she got “a cheap interim phone”, most likely a cell phone so she could continue to make and receive calls.

      • Johnny can’t read.

    • Hannah Peck - 9 years ago

      Mine did the same thing, and now I must purchase a new phone till my next upgrade (next month). Needless to say I’m not very hay with apple products at the moment and will probably refrain from purchasing another.

    • Joe Moreno - 9 years ago

      – Solution to Slide to Upgrade:

      Step 1: Plug device into PC or Mac with iTunes. You will likely see a message that states that iTunes can not connect to your iDevice because it is locked or it will say that you need to turn off Find My iPhone. To get around this issue, you will place your device into Recovery Mode. (The reason this is important is because when you have the Slide to Upgrade issue, iTunes can not communicate with the device. The only way around that is by placing said device into Recovery Mode. Think of it like a pseudo back door that iTunes can sneak into to fix the issue.)

      Step 2: Set device to recovery mode by pressing the home button and the lock button at the same time for about 15 seconds or until you see the red iTunes logo appear on the phone.

      Step 3: On your computer, in iTunes, you’ll see a pop up message that says something like “There’s a problem…” On that screen, choose restore and then Restore and Update. This will start the software download in iTunes. This process typically takes between 15-20 minutes depending on your internet connection.

      ***Side Note*** iDevices will only stay in recovery mode for about 15 minutes. After that, they will reboot and you’ll likely see the same Slide to Upgrade message appearing on the device’s screen. When this happens, move on to Step 4.

      Step 4: When device exits recovery mode (you’ll see the Slide to Upgrade message on your phone again) reset it back into recovery mode by pressing the lock button and the home button together again for 15 seconds or until the red iTunes logo reappears.

      Step 5: Click restore in iTunes a second time, and then Restore and Update; (this is not starting everything over again, it’s just setting the device back into recovery mode) this should allow the system to complete the setup.

      Step 6: After the device has fully restore, you’ll see “Hello” on your iPhone screen. Go ahead and go through the full setup of the device and choose setup device as new. Only move on to Step 7 if you you know that you have a backup either on iTunes or iCloud that you want to restore from.

      Step 7: If you have a backup of the device stored in iCloud or iTunes, you can follow the normal steps for restoring from one of those two sources. Through iTunes, simply plug in the device to the computer using your USB Cable. When iTunes connects to the device summary page, you can select restore from backup, then select the backup that you wish to use. If you’re using iCloud, then plug your device into a power source (not a computer). Go to Settings; General; Reset; Erase All Content & Settings; Enter your passcode (This is the code you typically use when you ‘Slide to Unlock’ your device.) This will cause your device to go through the reboot process. When it says “Hello” again, you can start the setup process as normal. When you get to the screen that asks if you want to set up the device as new or restore from an iCloud Backup, choose the iCloud Backup and then click continue. It will ask for your Apple ID and Password for that iCloud account. If entered correctly, the process should begin.

      That’s it. Yes, I realize that it’s sort of a long process. But this will fix the Slide to Upgrade issue. I’ve done this on countless phones and it’s worked on every single one of them. Anyone who runs into any sort of numbered error message on iTunes will need to turn off their Security Software or Firewall temporarily to allow iTunes to communicate with Apple’s servers.

      • eariati - 9 years ago

        Will it work with update or only with restore?

      • Worked perfectly! And your side note on having to refresh the Recovery Mode was a key issue. Thank you!

  2. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Another smooth iOS release……sigh

  3. airmanchairman - 9 years ago

    I encountered this issue with my iPad 3, which has been perceptibly struggling to run iOS since version 7, but a couple of forced restarts brought me to the “Slide to Upgrade” point (I chose to upgrade via iTunes for my iPad and OTA for my iPhones 5 & 5S) and thankfully it was plain sailing form then on.

    My iPad 3 now runs perceptibly better than it did on iOS 7 and 8, and I am well pleased with the richer text (Notes & Safari) and search options and markedly faster and more accurate Siri.

    In contrast, my iPhones 5 & 5S upgraded without incident just within the hour mark, with perfectly intact folder structure (I have hundreds of 3rd party apps in 3 pages of folders!).

    My explorations are now moving on to the Apple and 3rd party applications, so far so great!

  4. Gavin Wrigley - 9 years ago

    Well, tried it, works if you don’t load any back ups, as soon as a back up is applied to the device it either goes to “slide to upgrade” with an iCloud back up or flips between an install progress bar and home screen on a loop if backed up from iTunes.

    Regarding possible hardware fault, went via Apple support pages and had a diagnostic run, recommendation from that was to send the phone in for a service! So looks like it’s a possible hardware issue. 4 devices in the house, 3 upgraded without any problems. Apple Store for me!

  5. Meghan Scott Molin - 9 years ago

    I am stuck on the swipe screen… but… it’s also not showing up in iTunes when I plug it in, which negates this fix… any ideas?

    • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

      Force it into DFU mode. (see: google)

      • Jennifer Doust - 9 years ago

        what do I do after it is is dfu mode? File>devices>Restore is still greyed out. There is a button to “Restore ipad…” but don’t I need to make my backup first?

  6. Triston Gajadhar - 9 years ago

    I cannot restore my iPad from the back up because “Find My iPad” is on. What do I do now…

    • Rodrigo Napoli - 9 years ago

      Same problem here…

      • Bruce Webb - 9 years ago

        Go to a different computer,. Login into iCloud.com via a browser. Click on Find my iPhone, find device and turn off feature for your device. Will not work in all circumstances, especially if your phone or device doesn’t have access to the Internet (and some devices are stuck in a place that they won’t.. But for most people will work wonders.

        But yes there should be a gazillion notices to turn off this feature on your phone or iPad BEFORE updating.

  7. Kathleen Ford - 9 years ago

    This absolutely doesn’t work.

  8. Nathalie Brassard - 9 years ago

    Help – iTune says that “Find my iPhone must be turned off before my phone can be restored”… But I can’t turn anything off since the phone is frozen…

  9. Catherine Smyrski - 9 years ago

    Same issue as others, I have Find my iPhone on and iTunes will not restore from back up with that program running. Not happy

  10. Rodrigo Napoli - 9 years ago

    That would be a great fix, if my iTunes didn’t ask me to turn of the “find my iPad” on my locked iPad…

  11. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    Not to say “I told you so” (I lied, it is just that), but here is clear proof that iDevices are not standalone devices. They require a real standalone computer to function properly. Getting one before having a Mac or Windows computer is like buying a car before you have a place to live.

  12. Darcy Delaney - 9 years ago

    does not work

    • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

      Backups are extremely important. In fact one of my favorite features of the Macintosh is that you can boot from almost any storage device or even any properly formatted partition. Even if you don’t have a bootable drive, you can even boot over the Internet and reinstall the operating system and if you have a Time Machine backup you can reinstall all your files.

      iDevices can’t do that. If you’ve never backed up to a computer you tend to lose a lot of information. ICloud can be of some assistance for recovering data files, but I don’t know about recovering apps, music or videos, and I know any audiobooks are toast.

      I have a friend who has a 16 GB iPad who gave up on it because it’s full. She refuses to buy a real computer so I’ve thrown up my hands and given up. She’s convinced that the iPad is a real computer and won’t hear any differently.

      It’s like a religion that says you’ll be lifted up to heaven on a particular date if you’re standing on a particular mountain, and when it doesn’t happen, they make excuses and continue to believe while the rest of us ignore them and get on with life with far less disappointment.

  13. Kc Amador - 9 years ago

    Your suggestions, while appreciated, don’t work. My phone is password protected… I log into itunes but as soon as it reads my phone it gives me the following pop up window: “to allow access, please respond on your iPhone”

  14. I’ve tried this several times on my 4S, and it doesn’t work. Seems to get closer each time, but after trying about 9 times, I still just have a nice little paperweight where my 4S used to be.

  15. Cedric Williams - 9 years ago

    If your device is saying “Find my Device” must be turned off before you can restore. Navigate over to http://www.icloud.com . Sign in with the same Apple ID that you use for the “Find my Device” feature. After you sign in select the “Find my Device” icon then select “All Devices” from the drop down menu and remove your device from icloud.

  16. Neil Greene - 9 years ago

    I tried upgrading though iTunes, failures on both iPhone6 and iPad. Trying to even recover to factory reset would not succeed on computer or alternate computer. Finally took devices to the Apple Genius Bar and they were able to reset them, upgrade and I then restored my files back at home. Problem solved, painful. I will say this, a testament to how good a company is is NOT just in having flawless delivery, but in how they handle and service your needs. How many vendors out there have stores I could have just ran to and then fixed my devices and handled everything with white glove service.

  17. Michelle Davies - 9 years ago

    it is so frustrating to be stuck at this point. It has been hour with Apple on the phone and on chat.. Still not resolved.

  18. Tomáš Vele - 9 years ago

    doesn’t work at all :-( After an hour spent restoring from backup – the same freeze screen :-(

  19. Brenda Habshush - 9 years ago

    IPAD “stuck” on request for passcode….never had one and cannot move IPAD to previous situation

  20. When the iPad is restarted you must hold down the power and home button until you see the iTunes and cable on the iPad screen. Otherwise, iTunes will not be able to connect to the system. Then iTunes will see the device and ask for restore and upgrade. you will see a progress bar on the top right hand corner of iTunes window. when complete the system will restore and apply upgrade. It’s up to you if you want to turn on location services and then restore from cloud, iTunes or fresh install.

  21. Mine screen stopped responding after about 10 minutes using iOS9. I had to hard reboot, and it’s been working for a few days since, but that was really weird. The touch sensor just didn’t register anything, so I couldn’t “slide to power off”

  22. Tommy Mikalsen - 9 years ago

    Upgrading to 9.1 beta solved it for me. Just download the ipsw and upgrade with iTunes.

    • Simon Walker - 9 years ago

      Earlier today I upgraded my iPhone 5 from iOS 7.1.2 to iOS 9. Since then I’ve tried every possible combination of things including what the Apple customer care suggested and no luck at all.

      That was…until I saw Tommy’s comment about iOS 9.1 Beta. Once I’d restored the phone back to “new” again I was then able to sign up to the Apple Beta program and update to 9.1 over the net…after that I was able to “restore from backup” that had been created prior to the iOS 9 upgrade. Working perfectly now so 9.1 definitely addresses the problem. The only downside to using Beta is that it isn’t the finished product so you could be introducing other problems as a result…but hopefully the risk is small and the benefit big to have your data back.

      Tommy…thanks for the tip.

    • edisonyan (@edisonyan) - 9 years ago

      Thanks Tommy! upgrading to the IOS 9.1 Beta worked for me!!!!
      I was experiencing the same issue as everyone here… stuck on the slide screen. Tried restoring in itunes… and nothing worked. But thanks to Tommy’s response, I got it working. YAY
      :)

  23. Darcy Delaney - 9 years ago

    I tried everything but ended up going to an Apple store for help- here’s what they did to fix: open iTunes, turn off your ipad, plug ipad into your computer and depress the “home” button on your ipad simultaneously.

  24. Nikolas Dohig - 9 years ago

    my i pad was on 2% and it died when it was updating it and now it has staded on install progress bar

  25. Roland (@roleli) - 9 years ago

    Here is a solution that works. http://goo.gl/H6JOk0. It uses the Apple fix with a twist. You will have to be patient. Follow the steps and let me know. It bypasses the “Find my iphone/ipad” issue as it is a downgrade then an upgrade.

  26. Vili Nsv - 9 years ago

    I have the solution here guys!

    So what you need to do first off all :
    1. download the latest version of Itunes ! reboot the computer

    2. try to download Icloud on your computer ! now is avalabile for Windows !
    log in Icloud : deactivate Find Iphone mode!

    3. do what on this page is showing you ! exactly the same !
    https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201263

    4. now try to restore the Ios 9 on your Iphone / Ipad

    hopefully is working for you to !

  27. Theera Gjks - 9 years ago

    Run away from iOS 9.0 as fast as you can! Had slide to upgrade error and has cost me all my information! Apple help desk, after two hours last night and two hours this morning, had me restore iPad at factory settings with no restore of photos, documents, or data.

  28. Gail Robertson - 9 years ago

    My phone is stuck on te screen with itunes showing and a charger plug shape at the bottom. Can’t get it to turn on please help

  29. Hello guys,
    I have the same problem but when I connect my ipad with my Itunes in my pc, a ‘do you want to allow access information on this Ipad?’ message appears, when I press ‘continue’ a message ‘to allow access please respond to your ipad’ appears BUT i can’t press anything in my ipad because of this bug!! I need help asap pleaseeee! :(

  30. Juliet Karn-Smith - 9 years ago

    Have tried Apple fix – it HAS NOT solved the problem. Furious – time wasted attempting fix over and over again and that Apple have released yet another ios with glitches. So I suppose I will now be expected to visit an Apple Store at my own expense!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

  31. Phillip Perez (@MrPtoZ) - 9 years ago

    My sister encountered the same problem, I told her to try this but iTunes notified her that she needs to respond to her device before she could continue doing whatever fix she wants to do with it, please help. She needs to use her phone because she’s going to Indonesia tomorrow

  32. Emiliano Flores - 9 years ago

    I have a ipad mini is stares then is shut of then i have to restart i try and the iTunes thing is said respond on device and i can’t so what can i do screen is also broken can that be a problem

  33. Sara Perez-Stokes - 9 years ago

    Restore to factory settings as per the Apple support page. The above didn’t work for me as iTunes wasn’t picking up my phone. I did turn off Find My Phone via iCloud.com. It took about 5 times before it actually worked but my phone was restored and also updated with the new ios9. Lost all contacts but better to have a functioning phone than not. Hope this helps.

  34. Yaki Grossman - 9 years ago

    I have tried the whole procedure and ended up in the point where I’ve started. I have an iPad2 and i tried to restore from backups that I’ve previous to the upgrade, this too failed with an error. so I stuck with a dummy device called iPad :(

  35. Collyn Tan Moscoso - 9 years ago

    So I tried the hard reset one and it didnt work. It resets but when I slide to upgrade it, a scree with an apple logo appears and looks like its loading or something and the after the load, it goes back to the slide to upgrade screen. I also connected it to my laptop but it said that it has 0 items. I dunno hown to fix this

  36. Maureen Cowcill - 9 years ago

    Trying to plug in my mom’s ipad mini to her computer. She’s never used iTunes so when I plug in the iPad, the iTunes screen says To allow access, please respond on your iPad.

    It’s frozen. It doesn’t respond. I’ve tried doing a reboot and it will then go through some of the set-up screen before the unresponsive Slide to Upgrade pops back up again. None of this registers with the iTunes.

    So going to need another fix, or another iPad—preferably free from Apple since this is their screw-up.

  37. I tried to update to ios9 on my ipad 2 and it has frozen on ‘swipe to ugrade’. I tried to connect it to my mac but it won’t recognise my ipad on i-tunes and keeps asking my ipad to allow access, which i can’t do as i can’t swipe….anyone got any ideas?

  38. Dara Kelly - 9 years ago

    Have done as suggested above, and removed my iphone from Find my iPhone on iCloud. Pointless. I am phoneless and frustrated and faced with the cost of a new phone (not insignificant!) which will come with…. iOS7. Progress? I think not. Apple you need to do something about this – NOW!!!

  39. lori (@LeissnerArt) - 9 years ago

    We had two phones in two days get stuck. We had to complete factory restore on both. You cannot use the backup because it reinstalls the glitch.

  40. Theodis S. Bell - 9 years ago

    So, my problem is after the iOS9 download it’s asking me for my passcode. I never had a passcode on my iPad in the first place. Now I am using the iTunes but it’s asking me, “to allow access please respond to your iPad”…Hello, I can’t get into my iPad so now what?

  41. kinemastik - 9 years ago

    remove the findmyiphone function from your iCloud and do this http://www.imore.com/tip-put-iphone-ipad-dfu-mode

  42. Akshi Darda - 9 years ago

    this was really helpful.
    thank you so much!

  43. Tejprasad Adhikari - 9 years ago

    I recently formatted my computer, so i lost old backup of my iPhone5s’s backup. Now i want backup my device after stock on slide to upgrade mode, my computer says it can’t backup my device because my device is not setup yet. how can i make backup my device now ? any idea…???

  44. Nits Nits - 9 years ago

    totally sucks. not able to do anything. stuck after installing ios 9

  45. thecookieandthecrunch - 9 years ago

    The following worked for me and should work for everyone who has a backup made prior to the IOS 9 upgrade through iTunes.

    If you enabled the ‘Find My iPhone’ feature previously, login to iCloud via icloud.com and remove your iPhone.

    You will then need to put your iPhone into Recovery Mode and restore it using iTunes.

    1. Hold down both the Lock Button and the Home Button until you see the Connect to iTunes screen. This is the recovery mode.

    2. On iTunes, click “Restore iPhone”. This will re-install IOS 9 on your iPhone but will erase all the data. This is the reason why you make backups. At this stage you should select which backup you wish to restore.

    3. Allow iTunes to reinstall IOS 9. During this process, you should see ‘Restore in Progress’ on your iPhone. The reinstall took 30 minutes on my device.

    Now this is the important bit!

    4. When you see the ‘Hello’ message on your device, you may be prompted to enter your passcode, so key it in to allow the installation to finish.

    5. During the installation process, your device may be restarted several times, please be patient.

    6. You will then be prompted several messages;

    – Passcode: tap ‘Passcode options’ and select ‘Don’t Add Passcode’ at the bottom of the screen, then ‘Continue’
    – Join Wifi network: if you are prompted, DON’T join, skip this step
    – Enter your Apple ID for iCloud: DON’T, just skip this step. Once your iPhone is up and running you can enter your details later.
    – Use Find My iPhone: DON’T (never ever at this stage or on further upgrades)
    – iCloud / iCloud Drive: Turn it off
    – Tap ‘Don’t Send to Apple’
    – Tap ‘Get Started’

    7. Allow iTunes to copy all the apps and finish the restore. The Apple logo with a progress bar flashed several times during this process.

    8. IOS 9 home screen should then appear during the sync. You may see the Apple ID verification message quite frequently on the unlock screen. Slide it to unlock the phone and enter your Apple ID if it bothers you – tap ‘Settings’ or alternatively go to Settings on your iPhone and log into your Apple ID if you don’t see this. You will need to join a WiFi network at this stage.

    9. At this stage, you should see the unlock screen functioning, slide to unlock it and you see your apps being installed.

    10. Allow syncing to finish. Continue to be patient!

    11. Hit Sync on iTunes to copy across all your stuff; music, photos, podcasts etc. That horrible Apple logo and the progress bar keeps flickering during the sync.

    12. It should eventually sync everything from your iTunes. Slide to unlock and check your stuff.

    13. Last thing you need to do is to enable all the things you skipped during the install process, like;
    – Sign into iTunes
    – Add a passcode
    – Sign into iCloud and enable iCloud Drive
    I hope this works. It took me 8 hours to recover from that horrible ‘Unlock to Upgrade’ bug.

    One last word, Apple continues to be useless!

  46. Richard Bates - 9 years ago

    Had this problem couldn’t restore the iPad from the back up. Itunes wanted to have the find my device turned off. Couldn’t get to it on the Ipad. Catch 22
    What worked for me was going into DFU mode (Device firmware upgrade) which worked a treat It.
    THIS WIPES EVERYTHING this is okay if you have a backup which you can restore later. It gives you a clean empty Ipad.
    These are the steps follow them exactly

    Entering DFU Mode on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
    Plug your device into your computer with a USB cable.
    Turn off the device.
    Hold the Power button for 3 seconds.
    Hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds.
    Release the Power button but keep holding the Home button.
    After about 15 seconds you will be alerted by iTunes saying that it has detected a device in Recovery Mode.
    There will be a usb to device logo on screen
    In Itunes you will see the device is in recovery mode
    Restore and update from Itunes wait for 10 minutes

    Hope this helps

  47. how can i uninstall the iOS9? who can help me.

  48. im stuck in “slide to upgrade” by upgrading iOS9. how can i fix it? can you help me? pleaseeeee :/

  49. Jeff Friedlander - 9 years ago

    If I lose all my data because of this glitch I will swear off all apple products for the rest of my life. It is just inexcusable to lose a valuable part of your life because of an online upgrade. Fuck apple. I’m going with Android or Windows. I’m done with this stupid phone.

  50. Jeff Friedlander - 9 years ago

    Is there any kind of class action lawsuit pending? I definitely want to be a part of that.

  51. Rattus Patrolus - 9 years ago

    What an absolute DISGRACE!!

    Where do Apple get off using their customer base as a test bed – First, my Iphone 6 wont even re-boot…gets stuck on the upload screen. Take it to Apple…”oh no problem..we’ll reload the Op system…two days later, I try to pair it…crashes…same glitch.

    Back to Apple – this time they change the phone over…”Should be no problem now sir”..get it home..restore from my back up….ZINGO….”Slide to upgrade’ glitch!

    Do Apple seriously think Ill ever buy another Apple product again after this? Give me a Samsung phone and a Windows tablet ANYDAY!

  52. Hi, got a big problem with updating my iphone with IOS 9. After spending 3 hrs trying to figure out a way to have my phone work…I had to ask Apple Assistance to call me. I can’t install IOS 9, can’t switch off my phone, can’t restore or reset my phone…it is a bug in the IOS9. Apple Technicians are working on the matter since last w-end…So I guess we have to wait for the new version of IOS 9 to have our phone to work again….

  53. Sebastian Koylerian - 9 years ago

    Apple has ditched all of you including me !!! The most complicated device ever made with i tune and i cloud traps. Free yourself from these bonds and chains and switch on to Android phones.

  54. Jeff Friedlander - 9 years ago

    I posted some nasty statements about apple the other day when my phone froze after the iOS9 update. I want to take back those statements because I was so impressed with the tech support that I got at the Apple store. Also, I never new that my phone was automatically backing up on iCloud every week. The tech helped me to reformat my phone and reinstall my backup on it. It works better than new now. It was an inconvenience but everything worked out better in the end. I’m not sure if I could say the same for my old Samsung galaxy phone. Had a lot of problems with that one too but the tech support was nonexistent. Overall, I must recant my prior statement that I will never buy an apple product again. On the contrary, I am more inclined to do so after this experience.

    • Rattus Patrolus - 9 years ago

      So you’re public.y thanking them for:

      – Fixing something that shouldnt have glitched;
      – being nice about fulfilling their responsibilities
      – and helping you correct something they SHOULD have told you about.

      ….talk about easily pleased……

  55. Andrew Lazaro - 9 years ago

    I have 9.0.1 AND IT STILL DOESN’T FIX IT!!!!!!!. I DON’T HAVE AN iCLOUD ACCOUNT SET UP. MY POWER BUTTON DOESN’T WORK. I ONLY UPDATED CAUSE IT RANDOMLY SAID MY SIM CARD CAN’T BE FOUND. Internet’s solution, update to iOS 9. WTF!!!

  56. Anjala Krishanthi - 9 years ago

    I have gone through same issue with iOS 9 upgrade and couple of forced restarts took me to the “Slide to Upgrade” point and stuck.
    Each force restart time, it will get stuck after I select the wifi network which is my home network with 25MB speed.

    I went apple store for getting help and their I performed one forced restart and connected apple store wifi network… Unbelievable… Upgrade was success in 3 – 4 seconds!! No one attended to fix the issue.
    So, my observation here is we need to have high speed network connection.

    I might be wrong when it comes to technical explanation, but this is what I have gone through :) Hope it may help to someone.

  57. I can not restore my IPAD 2 even with the IOS 9.1 !, it still freezes ..

  58. Vincent van Rooijen - 9 years ago

    The following worked for me:

    Turn on iTunes and connect phone to computer
    Hold both the home and power button till you see the apple logo. Then stop holding the power button!
    You might get the message
    ‘iTunes could not connect to the iPhone “PHONE NAME” because an invalid response was received from the device’, but it will install anyway.
    If iTunes doesn’t see your device, disconnect the iPhone from the computer and connect again.

  59. Brien Sherman - 9 years ago

    Basically what I did to get past this was to hard reboot my phone and go thru the setup steps until it got to the wifi setup screen, then I left it, logged into my iCloud account via chrome on my laptop and deleted my device from find my phone, then connected my phone to iTunes and was then able to upgrade to iOS 9.0.1, after which I was able to get past the slide to upgrade step and complete the setup process, then was able to actually restore my phone from backup and everything is good to go. But it was definitely the most painful apple unboxing experience I’ve ever had…

  60. Laura Hansen Schauer - 9 years ago

    I had the issue of not being able to restore because of the Find My iPhone feature. No matter what I did i couldn’t figure out how to get past that to restore the phone. I ended up using the info from this link which worked so passing along (maybe it was just luck but for some reason it worked for me): http://www.iphonehacks.com/put-iphone-recovery-mode

  61. Fm (@Fmacedo72) - 9 years ago

    I still have the same problems I had with IOS9, so IOS 9.0.1 is a new fake shit launched by apple. This reckless IOS launch is driving me crazy

    • achavezcsp - 9 years ago

      After watching my hubby struggle with his iPhone 6 upgrades, I have ignored both ISO 9 upgrades and will NOT allow these crapy upgrades to waste my time and limit my phone use. If I run into problems down the line, I’ll simply replace the phone. It’s easier than paying for something I can use. So if you can, Don’t Upgrade! It doesn’t fix bugs, it brings bugs!

    • achavezcsp - 9 years ago

      After watching my hubby struggle with his iPhone 6 upgrades, I have ignored both ISO 9 upgrades and will NOT allow these crapy upgrades to waste my time and limit my phone use. If I run into problems down the line, I’ll simply replace the phone. It’s easier than paying for something I can’t use. So if you can, Don’t Upgrade! It doesn’t fix bugs, it brings bugs!

  62. Mia Arora - 9 years ago

    I switched from my reliable iPhone 4S to 6S last evening and while transferring my backup data into the new phone, it went into ‘slide to upgrade mode’ :( We tried everything mentioned here but it has not worked. Best buy said they will give me a new phone. But the problem is I was initially able to load my phone data into it. So now am worried that when they finally fix the phone, all my stuff is still in it, including photos, videos and not to mention numerous email accounts! Any recommendation?
    Thanks!

  63. gblinzer - 9 years ago

    I upgraded my iPhone 5 directly to 9.0.1 last week and have experienced temporary freezing while scrolling switching from one open app to another, and in several specific apps. Mail has crashed on my a couple of times. And the phone rebooted suddenly at least twice. It also seems less responsive when touching the screen to open an app or click a link.

  64. tbconrad - 9 years ago

    I dodn’t have a problem updating from the Public beta to the A340 GM release everything was golden. I updated to the 9.01 patch and the slide to unlock was ever present. I have a new 6s and was hesitant to upgrade since it shipped with A3041 which worked good but I saw that 9.02 was released today and well, the slide to unlock is still present here as well. Now I’m playing find the firmware so I can get a working phone again.

  65. me! - 9 years ago

    Unbelievable hassle. Don’t they test thees upgrades before issuing to 200,000,000 users????????????????????????????

  66. Joe Moreno - 9 years ago

    – Solution to Slide to Upgrade:

    Step 1: Plug device into PC or Mac with iTunes. You will likely see a message that states that iTunes can not connect to your iDevice because it is locked or it will say that you need to turn off Find My iPhone. To get around this issue, you will place your device into Recovery Mode. (The reason this is important is because when you have the Slide to Upgrade issue, iTunes can not communicate with the device. The only way around that is by placing said device into Recovery Mode. Think of it like a pseudo back door that iTunes can sneak into to fix the issue.)

    Step 2: Set device to recovery mode by pressing the home button and the lock button at the same time for about 15 seconds or until you see the red iTunes logo appear on the phone.

    Step 3: On your computer, in iTunes, you’ll see a pop up message that says something like “There’s a problem…” On that screen, choose restore and then Restore and Update. This will start the software download in iTunes. This process typically takes between 15-20 minutes depending on your internet connection.

    ***Side Note*** iDevices will only stay in recovery mode for about 15 minutes. After that, they will reboot and you’ll likely see the same Slide to Upgrade message appearing on the device’s screen. When this happens, move on to Step 4.

    Step 4: When device exits recovery mode (you’ll see the Slide to Upgrade message on your phone again) reset it back into recovery mode by pressing the lock button and the home button together again for 15 seconds or until the red iTunes logo reappears.

    Step 5: Click restore in iTunes a second time, and then Restore and Update; (this is not starting everything over again, it’s just setting the device back into recovery mode) this should allow the system to complete the setup.

    Step 6: After the device has fully restore, you’ll see “Hello” on your iPhone screen. Go ahead and go through the full setup of the device and choose setup device as new. Only move on to Step 7 if you you know that you have a backup either on iTunes or iCloud that you want to restore from.

    Step 7: If you have a backup of the device stored in iCloud or iTunes, you can follow the normal steps for restoring from one of those two sources. Through iTunes, simply plug in the device to the computer using your USB Cable. When iTunes connects to the device summary page, you can select restore from backup, then select the backup that you wish to use. If you’re using iCloud, then plug your device into a power source (not a computer). Go to Settings; General; Reset; Erase All Content & Settings; Enter your passcode (This is the code you typically use when you ‘Slide to Unlock’ your device.) This will cause your device to go through the reboot process. When it says “Hello” again, you can start the setup process as normal. When you get to the screen that asks if you want to set up the device as new or restore from an iCloud Backup, choose the iCloud Backup and then click continue. It will ask for your Apple ID and Password for that iCloud account. If entered correctly, the process should begin.

    That’s it. Yes, I realize that it’s sort of a long process. But this will fix the Slide to Upgrade issue. I’ve done this on countless phones and it’s worked on every single one of them. Anyone who runs into any sort of numbered error message on iTunes will need to turn off their Security Software or Firewall temporarily to allow iTunes to communicate with Apple’s servers.

    Go enjoy your device again.

  67. Nick H (@iDrinkBeerHere) - 9 years ago

    Good advice, removing the phone from Find my iPhone online worked the issue out to get updated and past the frozen slide to upgrade screen.

  68. Even 9.0.2 doesn’t fix this issue, and my backup from iOS 8.4.1 is useless according to Apple due to iTunes bug.

  69. Michel de Breyne - 9 years ago

    +1 9.0.2. gets stuck on my 4S at “Enable / Disable Location Services” (like 9.0 and 9.0.1) and can’t complete the update. Need to rollback to 8.4.1 again:(

  70. Carol Stubbs - 9 years ago

    I guess I should have gone online to see what these new upgrades were gonna do. I definitely would not have done it. I don’t like the fact that my keyboard changes to lower case letters. That was just a stupid thing to do. Your computer keyboard doesn’t change, why should the phone. If Apple wants to make things better, especially for iphone 4S owners, do something that makes the pictures you take have better clarity. And add a key on the keyboard that locks it into all caps, just like the keyboard on your computer or typewriter. Just in case I want to say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”!
    Seriously looking into changing my phone for something that isn’t Apple affiliated, unless they find a way to undo it.
    Signed,
    A VERY UNHAPPY customer!!!

  71. Luke Dragstra - 9 years ago

    What a piece of shit, this is my business phone with my and the customer service number for my Webshop… Not impressed… Took them a whole week to send it in the first place. What a nightmare.

  72. Naween Nalbo Limbu - 9 years ago

    recently I bought Iphone 6 and tried to update ios 9.1 but it hung up. What should I do?

  73. Rachel Raymont - 9 years ago

    My mums has done this and she doesn’t have iTunes account or a computer so what do you suggest now then 🤔

  74. Jacquie Chorley - 9 years ago

    After trying the above it didn’t work. I found before restoring to factory settings I clicked on UPDATE I was then able to restore to factory settings. Jacquie chorley.

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.


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