So I go to the not-so-local Apple store today to replace my 7 week old iPhone. It's having an intermittent lock up problem that can't be forced to replicate and that has been happening at least once a day since I upgraded the phone to the latest software.  Tech support made me an appointment and assured me that the replacement process was simple and to just make sure I had my current phone backed up.

I get their 15 minutes early for my appointment. There are a couple of dozen people waiting for their "genius"; the wait time listed on their big screens are 3 hours to see a Mac genius, 4 hours to see an iphone/ipod genius.  yep, Mac's are definitely trouble free

Anyway, my genius tells me he has to run a bunch of tests, walks away for 10 minutes and comes back top tell me that they can't replicate the problem, but they will replace the phone (which had already been determined by the previous day's tech support call).

Since I have the attention of the "genius" I confirm that all I need to do is plug the phone back into my computer and it will go through the setup and prompt me for the restore. All of my state information (a phrase I don't think he actually understood) and email configurations will be restored, along with all of my contact information (I was only concerned about the personal number I keep on the phone that I don't sync with Outlook).

He assures me it's a no brainer and that it will do what has been described and that I have nothing to worry about (after all, it's a Mac, right?).

I get home (hour drive) plug the phone in and iTunes prompts me to register and setup the phone.  This works fine.  Then it asks me if I want to restore a previous backup. Great. This is what I want.

But wait.

I can't restore the backup

My previous phone had the most recent phone software on it. The phone the Apple store provided is running an older version of the software. iTunes tells me I can't restore the backup until it updates the phone software and firmware.

Since there is no other way to install the new software, I let iTunes do its thing. It installs the new software, which takes a bit of time, and then immediately backs it up.

I go to restore the iPhone to the state I need it and iTunes tells me there are no backups.

Disconnect the phone.  Reconnect it, now there are multiple backups; one that was just done and a couple marked "Unknown" with dates from the year 2000

Call Apple tech support. They didn't have a clue what to do other than to tell me I could reconfigure everything manually, then sync the phone. And oh yeah, all my contacts on the phone only were gone for good.


Fortunately I back up my desktop computer religiously (and automatically) and was able to recover the files that iTunes uses for backup, allowing me to restore the backup I made this morning. With the exception of the 100 or so books I had in stanza, everything seems to be restored.

And for what it's worth, state information for applications is not backed up.

Apple sucks?  Nothing new here, move along folks.

A girl I know made it 4 months with her 2 thousannd dollar mac laptop before it crashed she wants to go back to a PC again for less than 1/2 the price

just like every electronic device in history, there are always problems.


just thought I'd throw that out there before the mac/pc war really gets going

A guy I know (me) has had his Macbook for over a year without a single issue.

You're story is bad, mine is good. This thread is a wash.

But...But...But it's a mac!  It just works!

If you switched just because you heard, or believe the hardware is better, you are a fool.

WHAT???

You don't like Mac?

Then you're just stupid...right, Macker-Slacker?

You must be one of those pastie-faced pudgie PC blimps...they are SOOO not cool.






IMHO, macs are for people who are more concerned about what color their computer is and how well it goes with their "feng shui" than they are about performance and value.

I actually like the iPhone quite a bit. I replaced my Tilt with it because the Tilt was worn out after a couple of years of use and the iPhone was actually much cheaper than any other smartphone to replace it with.  The Exchange support in the current software is acceptable, and that was my main concern. Otherwise, from a device perspective, I'm perfectly happy with it.

Their tech support and phone replacement process is the suck, however.

FWIW I don't have anything against the hardware or the software that makes up Apple computers, and a lot of the owners are cool.

It's the morons that start saying stuff like "ZOMG WINDOZ MUST HAS GOT ONTO MY TEH MAX CUZ IT FROZED!!!!!!!" and then go into shpiels about how superior the hardware is to PCs, and using the term PC and windows interchangeably, etc..............  It shows me their true ignorance of computing.

I SWEAR, everytime I get a new phone, "Oh, Im sorry we cant recover your contacts."

I didn't really "switch". I just bought a Macbook because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Turns out I really like it.

I've still got 2 PC's in the house, so I don't consider myself a Mac zealot.

Wait.... so you walk into the Applestore and they replace your phone free of charge no questions asked and you are mad because it didn't save the Application states?
All of the contacts and sync information are taken from your computer. All of the application data, subscription information and program purchases are retrieved from your iTunes account.

As for the backup not working a simple Google search would have informed you that you can load previous firmware very easily (Just hold the option key when hitting restore).

Sounds like you are an extremely difficult consumer to please.

Mighty broad brush you're using there.  Just because you don't have a use for it doesn't mean the OS isn't useful.

No.

I spent an hour on the phone with Apple who decided they would exchange my 7 week old phone for a new one that should work properly, and I had to go into a store an hour from my home because I wouldn't allow them to put a $500 hold on my bank account so they could overnight me a new phone (unlike ATT who has replaced similarly priced smartphones with no questions ask or requirements that I give them a credit card).

And apparently your reading skills are challenged because the problem wasn't replacing old firmware; the "new" phone had old firmware; the one it replaced had the current version so the backup it had created was incompatible with the "new" phone they gave me (with old software).

Application data is apparently NOT backed up becuase none of the apps I had on the phone had state or configuration data saved; iTunes reinstalled fresh copies of all the apps, which is major pain in the ass, since I have to now reconfigure all of those applications.

So not being a fanboy, I would say these are all real issues.

Well, IMHO, you couldn't be more wrong.

We simply like our computers to work with a minimum of fuss. Simple, really.

Apple has gone up 800% since 2004.



MSFT   0%.



Not only does Apple make shitty products, they make exhorbitant profits on them.   Genius indeed.

Which one do you use? I've had stellar experiences with both stores' Genius bars.

One was an issue relating to a 12" iBook G4 i bought in 2001. It's mother board died in 2007, and they replaced it under Apple care. I went to see them again to see if they could pull my stuff off the drive after my sister killed it with about 2 liters of Coke.

Not bad for a 7.5 year old computer with a 30gb hard drive, 800mhz processor, and 640mb of ram.

my first generation iphone is still going strong with zero problems.

I own and frequently trade Apple stock

I won't touch their products though

With any product there can be "bad Apples".

My reading skills are not challenged. Your researching into the problem was cut short by your need to come here and trash an entire company's attempt at making things easy for you, because your new phone didn't save your high scores. I know that is frustrating, I did something similar when I first Jailbroke my phone, but you can REALLY tinker with iPhones or just keep them simple, thats what I like about them so much. Whatever firmware the phone has should not matter in relation to a Backup as you can manually control what the firmware of the iPhone easily. Unlike other phones, you can restore previous or current firmware without much hassle.

As for the customer service. I have a first generation iPhone and the first and only time I had to replace it was when I was pushed into a hotel swimming pool with it in my pocket (Yes, alcohol was involved). I think being able to walk into a store the next day that is dedicated to the service of product and walk out with a brand new product without paying a single cent is pretty uncommon when it comes to phones or even computers. Can't really do that with a Palm and I don't even know of any other phones that have a backup scheme like the iPhone, most just save your contacts on your simcard.

I don't know if you have a Mac or PC, but my suggestion would be to use a backup extractor on your previous backup and see where that takes you. There are tons of utilities that will allow you to examine the backup.db in detail. modmyi.com might be able to assist you further.

Ooo love that pic.. makes me giggle like a little girl..

Today's Friday. Bash Apple day is Thursday.

My company has more than a dozen "Blackberry Campus" experts on hand to solve problems that employees and customers have with Blackberries.

We have one guy who works with the iPhones who helps employees who have problems, but he "hardly ever sees anyone who has a problem with the iPhone, because we don't have problems with the iPhone."

You really do need to work on your reading comprehension. It will make your life much better in the long run.

At no point did I trash an entire company; I realted a single set of experiences.  And apparently unlilke you, I don't use my iPhone a a game playing device. or, like the Apple 'genius: you sinply don't understand the concpyt of "state" in reference to computer technology.  

Hving to reconfigure a selection of remote access and FTP applications because the "backup" doesn't retain those settings is a mojor inconveinience; it's not simply something like you being annoyed that your toyy doesn't remember your high score.

And you really seem to be missing the point; by following the instriuction provided by the "genius" and the iTunes software I would have lost a significant amount of information that would have been time consuming and tedious to replace.  You can only restore backup of OS 3.1 to a phone that has OS 3.1.  By giving me a phone with OS 3.0 they were giving me a device they should have known would not be able to simply be restored to it's previous state.  The average computer user, not to mention the targeted mac user, would have lost all of their data becuase of the way that the software upgrade is applied by iTunes.

My research into the problem consisted of an hour on the phone with Apple's iPhone support.  They acknowledged that had I not been able to restore the files that iTunes somehow deleted I would have been SOL.  I didn't get the iPhone to have it be a toy that I needed to screw with to make work properly; I use its features for doing business. if I wanted to play with technical gadgets I would still be doing that for a living or working as a tech somewhere; I put my time in, in the trenches, now I just use the technology to get work done.

If it pisses you off that I'm not a fanboy of Apple, frankly, who cares?