Wednesday, July 30, 2008 -- 9:59 p.m. -- at my desk

iTunes 7.7.1 is out, which, according to Apple, promises to fix stability issues. No specific mention if it's iPhone related or what.

Sadly, from the early reaction on some support forum boards, this is not the update that's fixing the hours-long backups/syncs and the buggy general iPhone slowness.

I think we're going to have to wait for iPhone 2.0.1 or 2.1 or whatever it ends up being called before we can even hope for some relief in that realm.

But for now, it's probably a good idea to update iTunes -- or, if you prefer to wait a little while and be cautious, make sure you update it before it's time for the next iPhone software update.

If you do download it and notice anything new, exciting or improved, please do let me know in the comments.

Thanks for calling.

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Not as brave as I used to be - must be getting old. I'll wait a day or so.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I just posted caller Michael's comment ... he did not have good luck with the upgrade to 7.7.1 and his first subsequent sync.

Hey, Apple! Get this right! It's absolutely unacceptable.

Scott, I installed this and as I was syncing, iTunes got hung up and the iPhone crashed. From what I could see, the program got stuck as it attempted to reinstall an app that I already had installed and updated on my iPhone. One fiasco after another.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Oh no! Did the iPhone reboot at that point? Is it functional? Man, that's just crazy!! I've only synced one time and it took 68 minutes. I fear doing it again. iTunes always tells me I have 11 updates and half of the updates are the originals!!

I waited 15 minutes for the iPhone (classic) to reboot, to no avail. So I reset it holding the home button and power button on top at the same time. I've been waiting for 15 minutes again. I can't even restore the iPhone through iTunes because iTunes won't recognize it in this state. Stay away from 7.7.1! It has bricked my iPhone. I'm sitting here stunned in disbelief. What in the world are they doing in Cupertino?!?

SCOTT'S REPLY: For now, I'm with Michael. Don't use iTunes 7.7.1. I'm sorry to hear about this, Michael. You may need to do the level beyond restore ... recovery. It's a complete wipe pretty much.

Here's how, if you need it and don't already know:

1. Turn off your iPhone, unless it's already off.

2. Once off, press and hold the center home button and plug the iPhone into your computer. Keep holding home as you plug in until you see "Please Connect to iTunes"

3. Release the home button.

4. If iTunes isn't open, open it. You should get a message that iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.

5. Click OK

6. Click restore and that should be it. If recovery mode works, you should get a clean rewrite of the iPhone OS. If the backup from before was successful, all your settings will be in tact.

Good luck. Let me know what happens.

Now I'm trying to reboot the iPhone with it connected to my Mac. After a few minutes of that, iTunes crashed. And upon restarting iTunes, I received an error message: iTunes could not connect to the iPhone "" because an unknown error occurred (0xE8000035). This can't be a good thing. I guess I'm taking a trip to the Apple Store first thing tomorrow. Sigh.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Michael, if you are still awake, see my previous reply to your comment with instructions on putting the iPhone into recovery mode.

Sorry to hear about this. Really feel for you, man.

I've been getting crash reports in iTunes when I plug in my iPhone but the application doesn't crash. I keep on sending the reports to Apple. It only started yesterday, and the only common thing I can think of is when I have downloaded an upgrade or an app on the iPhone and it's syncing back to iTunes.

Newly installed iTunes update made no difference.

Hmm, now I've just plugged the iPhone in for the first time since updating and realise that it's syncing all my Apps back to the phone. When I check the Apps tab they are all selected. Before I had only certain ones syncing.

Other than that it appears to be business as usual.

SCOTT'S REPLY: So I'm a little unclear ... are you able to not sync certain apps or is it forcing you to sync all the apps regardless?

Is the sync process in general working? You've probably read about what happened to Michael tonight.

I've had these crashing issues even before this iTunes update. My iPhone has crashed so many times I've developed the following habits:

1. Once every few days, I remove all the music and apps from my iPhone and do a sync and backup. That way, I know if I have to restore I won't have to wait hours and hours, I can have my phone service back in minutes.

2. Although it's a pain, I only ever get or update apps through iTunes. And app updates always seem to end in a crash, so before syncing I actually wipe all apps first, then sync the ones I want.

It's a shame to lose app data this way, but I've had so many crashes and I've found this is the only way to keep my iPhone stable. C'mon Apple, get this sorted soon!

SCOTT'S REPLY: It's so frustrating and sad for me to see that everyone is having these problems.

Scott, I attempted syncing last night with 7.7.1 with no luck as well. I waited about 10 minutes before it started to back up, and about 45 minutes into the backup, iTunes stalled. I'm with everyone else as far as Apple releasing this new software that doesn't seem to work. I haven't had any problems with my 3G fortunately but it's unbelievable how many people are having problems that should have been solved by Apple before the software was released.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I hear you, Lev. Thanks for calling. I do hope that Apple responds with 7.7.2. Seems like nothing is working.

Thanks, Scott. Your instructions were perfect. My iPhone is restoring as I type. I've been recalling the series of events in my head that led up to *the crash* but I don't think I did anything wrong. Luckily I synced my phone earlier in the afternoon and it was backed up then. When I heard that iTunes 7.7.1 was released, I got nervous because I knew I wanted what Apple promised, but we now know about what Apple promises (it really pains me to write this). Well, I'm a sucker for software updates, so I went for it. Nothing about the update process indicated my iPhone would suffer down the road. I am all updated (of course!) on my Mac with Leopard 10.5.4 and I have had relatively minimal problems since the iPhone 2.0 release. But during that first 7.7.1 sync, when the status window in iTunes showed an app being installed, things went downhill from there. Everything froze and the Force Quit info showed that iTunes was not responding. Then the iPhone crashed and attempted a reboot. Then all the waiting. I even tried to reboot all night, but the screen stayed on the white apple boot up screen from the time I went to sleep to when I woke up. It wasn't until this morning that I read your instructions to restore.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Alright! Glad it's working. Recovery mode is the very last step, but if it works, that's really what matters. And I'm not sure you'll even be able to figure out what caused it. I doubt very much in your case that it was human error.

Scott, on the first sync after updating it forced all apps to sync to the phone by automatically selecting the check boxes next to everything on the App tab in iTunes. During they sync I just de-selected then pressed Sync again and it seemed to do the sort itself out.

Besides that, the upgrade seems to be ok.

The issue I have with the Crash Report appearing was happening before the update and is still happening after. Basically whenever I purchase an App (or an update) from the iPhone I get this crash report when I plug the iPhone into iTunes. Neither iTunes nor the iPhone actually crash so I'm not sure what the report is for. I just keep on forwarding it to Apple

SCOTT'S REPLY: I can only imagine how many of these crash reports Apple has received -- millions!!

Apparently I have some sort of mutation!

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: '*** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: mutating method sent to immutable object'

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yikes! I have no idea what that means. Is your iPhone operational???

oh yes, iPhone is fully operational. I just send the crash report to Apple and carry on. I found a thread on the Apple support forums and I'm not alone. Others think that it could be the iPhone sending back crash reports which are themselves causing a crash. I looked at my crash log in Console and boy it's scary.

Just for shock value go and have a look at how many crash records you have under MobileDevice!! (assuming you have Apps that have crashed)

I had lots of App updates come through on 29th and this is the day it started happening. So it could be one of those upgraded Apps crashing and causing a problem, or some other App I've downloaded that crashed on that day.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Plenty of crashes here, Kim. I will have to look for sure.

After spending 5 hours restoring the iPhone, I'm now syncing my content back onto it. For some reason, restore was really slow. But it's back in action, and I won't sync again after this until I see the update after 7.7.1 (and I hear positive reviews about it here!). Thanks again, Scott. (BTW, I totally understand the skeptics who would conservatively blame the messengers than Apple when isolated reports about crashes and bricking bubble up from the masses. But because Apple products are supposedly designed to be consumer friendly/'idiot proof' -- and I have many years of experience with technical matters enough to avoid most newbie errors -- these sorts of very basic technical glitches should not be happening. And with all the controls Apple insists on maintaining over even third party software, we reasonably assume that they are doing so to minimize these sorts of common issues from popping up. Unfortunately, the issues have become quite common and numerous -- without forthcoming solutions. So, common sense would dictate that we all practice caution until Apple demonstrates they've resumed some semblance of control over the situation. In the meantime, I wait in anticipation for evidence of this more sane future...)

SCOTT'S REPLY: I'm really happy that you are up and running, Michael. Hoping for 7.7.2 soon. Or just make it 8 and overhaul everything.

I had a really bad experience today...
I updated to iTunes ver 7.7.1 and did a sync.. eveything seemed normal (I say normal, but its not good normal) i.e. apps being reported as "update available" more than once etc... But all of a sudden iTunes crashed on me.
Not thinking anything of it - i rebooted (winXP) and carried on.

I also installed a few new free apps I saw on the apps store, and was having a play on some of them etc etc...
Then a little later, I was using my phone, and all the apps I had installed stopped launching...
They launch the start screens, then it just fades back to the iphone home screen... all the appstore apps stopped working... only the native apps worked.
I rebooted (hard and soft) many times, but nothing fixed the problem... I deleted many apps off my iphone 3g too..still nothing.
I've completed a full restore of the phone now, and going to sleep while my entire library of movies and music are re-synced.
I've also trimmed down the amount of apps installed, just in case this was the problem.
I'm not happy overall I must say, anyone else had a problem like this?

SCOTT'S REPLY: I heard of one similar problem where the entire app didn't finish downloading and it caused everything to crash, but it's not exactly like yours. I hope the restore goes well for you, Muneesh. I always cringe when I read stories like yours.

Cannot access iTunes Store
I've installed 7.7.1 and it ALWAYS crashes when I try and go to the iTunes Store. Being in Australia with a new iPhone 3G I cannot purchase apps from the US store and I need to switch stores using iTunes - which promptly crashes - so this completely sucks!
pple support tried to be helpful and suggested completely removing and re-downloading and re-installing iTunes - but I get the same result ... I'm on a Macbook running 10.5.4
Really frustrated - what's the point of the store and trying to purchase apps ?

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yeah, 7.7.1 is so buggy ... I'm not surprised by your comment. You are sure you removed all preference files for iTunes before the reinstall, right?

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