Thursday, July 31, 2008 -- 2:13 a.m. -- on my couch

Use caution when downloading iTunes 7.7.1 and syncing your iPhone with it.

Caller Michael reported that his iPhone crashed and is currently non-functional.

I've read all kinds of reports from around the Web of longer sync times, backups still being slow, apps doing strange things between iPhone and iTunes ... even reports of the Remote app no longer working.

Hey, Apple ... I'm really growing impatient with your craptastic quality control lately.

Care to comment, Steve Jobs? I've always wanted to talk to you ... I think you owe us an explanation for the mess flowing out of Cupertino this past month.

Anyway, just use caution when syncing with 7.7.1.

Best advice I can give you ... make sure that before you take the plunge that you have a recent and working backup -- in case you are forced to restore your phone, this way, you don't lose it all.

Do let me know what you decide to do. Please report any problems and also please let me know if there are any success stories.

Thanks for calling

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Scott,

oh well, here we go again!!
I downloaded it last night AFTER I did a wired sync so I haven't tried it since upgrading to the 7.7.1. Any way of going back to the old version of iTunes just prior? that was working well?

Neil

SCOTT'S REPLY: There are ways, but you are much better off not going backwards. Believe me, Neil. I would just hold out a little while and see if Apple responds to this latest mess and releases a 7.7.2 or something.

Scott:

After you're first report about the iTunes update I went ahead and downloaded it but fell asleep while it was downloading. When I got up at 5 this morning and read your last post I decided I'm too scared to sync my phone now. I guess I'll wait until I hear that everything is going smoothly. Heck, the way things have been going lately that may be never.
I used to trust Apple completely but, geez, I am very leery now.
Thanks for keeping me informed.

Jeff

SCOTT'S REPLY: No problem, Jeff. I wish that I could report better news today. Some folks say my warnings are irresponsible, but I disagree. I've been helping people all day with recovery mode and getting them back up after crashes. I haven't updated and won't unless 7.7.2 comes out and fixes the problem or if iPhone software 2.0.1 comes.

Just upgraded and synced the phone. No problems!

Software not buggy here!

SCOTT'S REPLY: After all the bad news today and all the crashes people have told me about, I'm always happy to get a comment like yours, Jack. Thanks.

I have had none of the problems you mentioned, and as a matter of fact I find it hard to believe you blame all the problems coming out of cupertino on your own or a select fews problems... I would suggest you tell people to troubleshoot before you go on a rant like this... It could be that they have a corrupt file or preference file, but to blatantly blame everything on a person or an entire company is just irresponsible and not journalistic professionalism... Dubious at best!

SCOTT"S REPLY: Thanks for the opinion, Jeff. It's duly noted. Sadly, it's not one I agree with, but that's fine. You don't have to agree. If you think corrupt preference files are the reasons that everyone has problems with this software and so many other aspects of the iPhone syncing process, you might want to do a little research of your own.

Since last night, in addition to all the replies you've seen here, I've received 33 e-mails reporting iPhones completely crashed and I've guided about 20 people through recovery mode -- thus, my lack of time for updates today. So I'm sorry that I can't see things from your perspective this time.

I downloaded last night, works just fine for me, no issues.

SCOTT'S REPLY: You are one of the few, Howard. I'm really glad to hear it.

I'm a little skeptical of one problem report generating a cautionary blog post. I'm sure every iTunes update has rendered at least one person's iPhone non-functional. Have there been any followup reports, or reports from others?

SCOTT'S REPLY: Uhhhh, yes.

I upgraded last night with hopes it would help my excruciatingly slow backups (some over an hour!) every time i'd put my phone in the dock. At first I thought i'd made a huge mistake as it didn't recognize my phone (3g 16gb). So I repaired permissions, restarted, then after itunes was fully up and running, I then plugged my phone in. The backs are still slow, but at least it recognized it and did a proper sync. Still quite buggy tho.

You're right, I'm a long time lover of mac (since my first in 1987) and the past few years have been rather magical, including my first iphone which was a joy to use, never a problem and as i told many "just works!" My new iphone experience is far from what so far.

I do hope they get it fixed soon, as a backup nut, it worries me to keep hitting that little "x" everytime!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Me, too, Patrick, because the one time I exit out of a backup, it's going to be the one I really need!!

I vote for, don't touch the thing, why? Cause this happened to me http://snurl.com/38b08

SCOTT'S REPLY: Wow, Justin. That's horrible, man. I'm sorry. I'm staying away ... callers, I really advise you to do the same. If you already downloaded it, well, just wait ... maybe 7.7.2 is coming soon.

Just upgraded two macbook pros and am having no trouble synching iphones with either one. Backup is still slow, but no slower than before.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Ahhhh, a bit of good news in a sea of bad. Thanks for letting us know.

I had already upgraded when I read this, but I hadn't tried syncing with my iPod Touch yet. I did, however, try to check for updated applications. It told me I had *15* updates to do. Most of them were already upgraded to that version number. After seeing this, there's no way I'm going to try to sync my iTouch with 7.7.1. I'll wait for 7.7.2. Thanks for the great blog!

SCOTT'S REPLY: You are most welcome, Josh. Thanks for calling. I'll let you know if I find out any more information.

My iPhone is operating as it should after updating. Only had that minor initial hiccup with it wanting to sync all the apps again. I've synced a number of times since then and all seems OK.

On another positive note: some of my Apps have caused no end of laughter and amusement in the office this week. There's nothing quite like shaking the crap out of your phone to make a cowbell ring :-)

SCOTT'S REPLY: That made me laugh. Glad you are up and running, Kim.

I was hoping it would fix my problems with app store updates. I had finally had the iPhone NOT reset itself in the infinite boot for a whopping 4 days. Well, that was a mistake - tried to sync with the phone, endless Apple logo. Full 24 hours later and while I was done with the restore at 4 AM (I opted to just start over again after the restore of data seemed to freeze the phone), I still do not have a full backup....
Apple, I am a LONG time fan (Apple ][+ was my 1st computer, in 1981) and a developer. The me.com, Firmware 2.0, SDK fiasco are just way out of control. Get your house in shape already!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Oh, I hear you and sympathize, Eytan. I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.

Well, I'm glad I didn't read all this until I was done upgrading and everything was ok. Of course if everything was not ok and then I read this I would probably be angree. I've had no problems with ANYTHING (knocking on wood). Well maybe the spell check not being smart enough to figure out MY poor spelling. I also thought people were exagerating claiming 1hour sync times but I guess they are not. Mine only takes 3 or 4 minutes to do the backup.

Sent from my iPhone 3G

SCOTT'S REPLY: Aloha, Jacob. Glad you are having normal things to report. Believe me ... no exaggerating. The stuff you are reading is oh so real.

No problems with 7.7.1 here. iTunes & iPhone is still going strong.

I'm curious, do you have links to the numerous reports of issues with 7.7.1? This is the first I have heard of an issue with this update.

Granted there are always posts in the Apple support discussions about "issues" with every single product or product update Apple has ever created. It's a support forum.

SCOTT'S REPLY: You can search any Mac site out there for similar stories, Mike. Lots of them.

Hey Scott,

Happened upon this from Macsurfer! I have been experiencing the crashing problems as you describe. Last night my phone was working. I go to sync my podcasts this morning and I get the Apple Logo of Death. So, I have to go to work all day with a non functional phone!

Lame.

PS I have been restarting my iPhone from a backup for a couple of hours.

SCOTT's REPLY: Oh, man, Dane ... I'm sorry. How is it working now? You back up? By the way, glad you found iPTIB. I love the folks over at MacSurfer. Great, great people and nice site.

Having a horrible time with iTunes 7.7.1 and my iPhone 3G -- syncing just stopped working altogether, a sync would start and then either the phone or iTunes would give up or the iPhone would disappear from the Devices list in iTunes.

I tried to downgrade but couldn't find iTunes 7.7.0 anywhere. Instead, I uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes 7.7.1 and things seem better -- I made it partway through one sync but it failed trying to sync a TV show that I purchased last night. Ugh.

SCOTT's REPLY: Yep, these are the problems that I've sadly heard repeated over and over again, Rik. I wish I had good news for you in this case.

To get your TV show to sync, though, I might try to hit the x when it says its backing up -- effectively skipping the backup totally -- and letting it try to sync. You'll not have the latest backup which you'll want at some point, but you'll have a better chance of getting your TV show onto your iPhone.

SCOTT'S REPLY: You can search any Mac site out there for similar stories, Mike. Lots of them.

I did, and found nothing that suggest a flaw in the update besides your article.

SCOTT's REPLY: I'm reporting that there is a flaw in iTunes 7.7.1 and I'm advising my readers not to update to it. What you choose to do with that information is up to you. Since iTunes 7.7.1 does nothing visible from iTunes 7.7 and the same errors occur in both versions, seems like a waste of time to me anyhow.

Thanks for the heads up! I usually check these things out and forgo the download until at least ".2"

SCOTT'S REPLY: I usually do too and problems like these are a perfect example of why.

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