Updating to iOS 4 on any iPhone 3G or 3GS should be easy-as-pie, and it is. However, after having read this report by the good folks at TUAW this morning, I figured I should take heed and do things the proper way. It seems as though many folks running the iPhone 3G are getting ‘3002’ errors when attempting the update. To avoid this, it was suggested one restore their iPhone 3G first. Makes sense to me… So that’s what I did. With my trusty old iPhone 3G in hand, I set off to install iOS 4 goodness.
Ready to rock? Have your iPhone 3G in-hand? OK, this is what you’ll need to do.
First, connect your iPhone to your desktop via your sync cable. iTunes should pop open, provide you have ‘Open iTunes when this iPhone is connected’ ticked off in your summary tab.
Once in and iTunes finishes backing-up and syncing, if you are not greeted with an update alert, hit the ‘check for updates’ button. You should be greeted with a notice that iOS 4 is available. Cancel this. Before you install you’re going to want to ‘restore’ your device. All this does is wipe your device clean, so that iOS 4 can be installed on a spick-and-span iPhone 3G. It’s a good thing to do. Just make sure your backup has run before you initiate the restore!
To make things even easier, if you’ve already been greeted with the iOS 4 update option (you should have seen this when you checked for updates), when you click the ‘restore’ button you should notice a ‘Restore and Update’ button. What this will do is not only restore your device, but update it to iOS 4 as well. It’s an all-in-one deal!
After the restore takes place, you will of course need to reboot your iPhone. When this happens, you’ll notice the ‘set up your iPhone’ screen in iTunes. This is where you can set things straight, and restore your backup. Tick the ‘Restore from the backup of…’ option and click continue. Your data, apps, contacts and everything else should be restored. That’s pretty much it, you’re good to go on iOS 4!
If you’re concerned about ‘restoring’ your iPhone, you shouldn’t be. As long as you’ve backed up your device, a restore and update will do nothing more than wipe your device clean, install the new OS, and then slap your backup right back down on your device. For whatever reason this method is needed when installing iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G… So, if it’s not too much trouble for you, I suggest you give it a shot. I did, and I’m up and running on iOS 4. It’s all good.
iOS 4 up and running on my iPhone 3G. Note the new Calculator icon. Yum.