Tuesday, August 5, 2008 -- 11:49 a.m. -- on my couch

The short answer to that question is yes, they can, if you really want to.

The problems that I'm talking about of course are the multiple versions of applications that reside in iTunes and show us differently on your iPhone. So you might have everything up to date on your iPhone and see that an app supposedly needs an update in iTunes, when, in all likelihood, it doesn't.

So what's going on?

In a nutshell, iTunes downloads the update but instead of overwriting the old version, it's adding a new version and a number to the name of the file. So a situation where Ms. Pac-Man new should overwrite Ms. Pac-Man old is storing into iTunes as Ms. Pac-Man old and Ms. Pac-Man old1 .. 2 ... 3... etc.

So each update exists in multiple places. When you update on your iPhone you don't have this problem, but you do once you sync with iTunes 7.7 and 7.7.1 because that's where the overwriting problem is happening.

App store files end with the extension .ipa ... and if you want to see this problem live, you can go to your music folder. On a Mac, you'll find that under USER/MUSIC/iTUNES/MOBILE APPLICATIONS. (I'm truly not sure where it is on a PC, but unless you intend to fix the problem, I wouldn't bother looking. Believe me, it's there).

In my example photo here, Facebook is a problem app with two versions, one with a 1 after the name. And wouldn't you know, Facebook is the app that crashes the most often on my iPhone.

The "fix" is to rename the files yourself. Take the file with a number and get rid of the number so just the name shows. Then, drag the new file to your desktop and drag it back into iTunes. That "fixes" it.

I don't recommend you "fix" it this way. My recommendation, if you really feel the need to "fix" it is to delete the files and the duplicates and just download the app again. It takes a little more time, but it's the safest way to ensure that you don't overwrite the wrong file. Sometimes, there are several versions.

However, if you successfully sync without doing it, there's no reason to add the extra steps to your workflow, especially considering I'm expecting an iTunes update pretty soon to fix it. And with the bugs in 7.7.1, it only makes sense that Apple will release a maintenance update.

Of course, my idea of when Apple should release an update and when it actually will are completely different things. I have still not updated to 7.7.1 because of all the problems and unless I'm missing something, I don't think I really need to.

So hang in there ... help is on the way ... hopefully it's fast help, although I can't promise. But as I said in a comment to someone, this is a problem that is affecting every single iTunes and iPhone user out there, including Steve Jobs. And believe me, Steve doesn't like having his apps not update.

Thanks for calling.

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Scott:

Well, well, well... I was scared to death last night to update but did it this morning. Took about 8 minutes total (including back up)! Now I have no lag time in typing and all my buttons are very responsive. No double apps either. I feel blessed at the moment. I'm waiting to see how the rest of the day goes.
I hope this brings some hope to the people out there that are having problems. Things will get better!

Have a good day. I know I am!

Jeff

SCOTT's REPLY: I love these kinds of comments. So glad to hear this, Jeff.

Hi Scott.

I've been having sleepless nights the last few weeks wondering if Apple's days as the only corporation to do things right were at an end. All the rush and bugs in everything didn't fit into the 'it just works' mantra. But as of yesterday we do have a glimmer of hope. I came across an article which made reference to one simple point: the wave of recent bugs haven't been the result of a rush to make serious cash. Rather an invaluable necessity to gain strategic leverage.

Had Apple taken more time to polish everything, they would have lost their advantage ahead of competitors in the smartphone wars. Competitors like Android will be easily deployed worldwide and will have the strength of their tried & tested handset partners. Apple needs all the time it can get to gain Market share, and has we've learnt from Microsoft's victories, the first to gain market share will likely succeed. Now that Apple has landed (& is landing) across the globe, with the biggest items (eg. enterprise support, app store) on it's list sorted, it can focus on the smaller items (cut & paste) and polish.

If this turns out to be true, I'll sleep much better knowing that there's at least still one company out there who prides its products as much as it's bottom line.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I truly don't think Apple is slacking on its quality and wanting to do things that way ... I really think that Apple is human (well, Steve Jobs is) and he took on too much with the iPhone launch and MobileMe and the new software. I think he was trying to please too many people at one time and if he focused on making one thing great instead of 3 things mediocre, the situation would be vastly different.

I still have a lot of faith, but I think he needs to realize just how much these problems have shattered our belief ... even the folks that never find a negative thing to say are and that's very telling, in my opinion.

I have 42 apps and 101 files! I'm going to try deleting and renaming one of them as a test - I'll use the date to figure out the most recent one. I don't want all those extra file hogging space on my hard drive. I have 3 x 1 app at 88MB each.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yeah, that's a lot of space. Let me know what happens when you do this -- if it works for you.

My upgrades work as designed. Mobileme works flawlessly. My gps locates me right on my roof. The phone is just the way it is meant to be.
My only "complaint" is sometimes an app is not too good and I delete it, and ATT needs to add more 3G towers.
Otherwise, I am in Apple Heaven.

SCOTT's REPLY: As I like to write in these comment replies, I love getting these kinds of comments, David.

Thanks for keeping us all updated. I have not yet updated either iTunes or my phone, but need to do a restore. I am having problems either answering (I can't sometimes) or at times, ending the call. I also don't see it backing up when I sync. Think I should do the restore without the updates?

Thanks :)

SCOTT"S REPLY: Hmmmm. Strange symptoms. I think you should do the restore first and then apply the update to be safe.

Scott,
My 2.0.1 update last night took about 20-25 minutes total to download over cable internet to my G5 and then install the update/firmware. I then powered down and restarted my iPhone as is my habit with computers after installing any new software. No issues, no problems encountered. My wife ran into an issue where 2.0.1 was taking forever to download over the same cable interface, so we stopped the download/install. We then started just a download of the software. She loaded it this morning with no issues or problems after the install. All of our applications are working fine.

Also. as far as the applications go, neither of us has had any major problems with updates, syncing, or backups. Backups are fast. Syncing runs smoothly. The only odd things we have noticed are that when my wife plugs in her iPhone to sync ... both iTunes and iPhoto applications on her iMac start up. And, of course, the icons don't go back to the same position as we had them before updates.

I checked my iTunes Music Folder/Mobile Applications folder and saw all of the versions of each application there. I then looked into iTunes (7.7 - not upgraded) and did a 'Get Info" on the applications shown there. It shows only the most recent updates for each of my apps. This indicates to me that updates are working.

So, all in all, 2 iPhone 3G users. No complaints.

SCOTT'S REPLY: 2 satisfied customers makes for one happy iPhone blogger!

Been reading the site since the 3g came out and finally got my own today through direct fulfillment. Super fun, but I'm worried about updating. It came with 2.0. Should I just stick with iTunes 7.7 before I sync & update it when i get home tonight?

Thanks for all the info, iptib's been a great help.

SCOTT"S REPLY: Congrats!! I would leave it at 7.7 and then do the sync and update.

Scott,

Well, my upgrades took only about 20 minutes each phone and everything went smoothly last night. Today everything is going well but still very few bars showing up (not many problems w/ connections though so it may be just a "bar adjustment"). Switching between apps is faster as is dialing responsiveness. The app upgrades are really weird in that there are 4 version of AIM, 3 of a voice dial and only one of some others but they sync ok and I have had no real problems. Just confusing. I only updated one of each and left the others be. Weird.

Still want a real voicedial app that works as good as my old RAZR and want to be able to dial through bluetooth and be able to listen to voicemail through it.

Still a great product. Not ready for prime time for the faint of heart.

Neil

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yeah, there's definitely room for improvement, but considering what we had, this is a step up ... not quite coach to first class, but perhaps the front row of coach where there's that little bit of extra leg room that you don't really pay for but you get anyhow.

Well, I went to do a restore and was unable to do it unless I updated the firmware for the phone. :( So, I haven't done it yet. My sister is sick in the hospital so I can't afford to be without my cell. I'll just turn the phone completely off if I can't answer or end the call until I feel more comfortable if, for some reason, I won't have use of my phone.

SCOTT'S REPLY: You should be with your phone, of course, in a situation like this. I wish you and your sister the best.

The plus side of all these Application updates is that my iPhone hardly ever crashes now. In the first few weeks most applications crashed endlessly. Now that developers have had time to see how their apps work in the real world and roll out the updates, all my Apps are far more stable.

SCOTT'S REPLY: In general, my apps are more stable too. I still have crashes, but nothing like I had before. So I agree with you there.

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