I, like many other people who tried to install iOS 4 from Apple, got stuck in backup hell where the new OS downloaded quickly but then a backup started and that is where I got stuck. And stuck and stuck. The backup progress bar moved slower than BP doing something about this horror in the Gulf. After three hours of this backing up, I gave up and started looking for workarounds. I found one. It wasn’t seamless and it wasn’t even that quick but it did move along, which is more than what I can say for the backup process after I’d downloaded iOS 4. I have found two ways around this. I used the first one but wish I’d tried the second (although I read conflicting reports about success with the second one). NOTE: I am just telling you what I did. Anything you decide to do with your device, you do at your own risk and I’m not recommending any one way of getting iOS 4 on your iPod Touch or iPhone.

1. My way was to restore the phone to factory settings and use the downloaded OS to restore from. Then restore my backup. To do this (in Windows) I,

  • synced and did a  back up first
  • I had already downloaded iOS 4 by using the update process in iTunes and then cancelling once I got stuck in backup mode so I had the new update on my laptop. (If you haven’t done that, the fab folks at Gizmodo have some links so you can download the update directly–remember where you save it because you’ll need it later.)
  • Once that was done, I restored to factory settings by pressing Alt and Shift at the same time I clicked on the Restore button in iTunes. Then I was given the option to choose the file to restore to (in this case, my new iOS 4). Mine was located in “C:\Users\Tina\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates”. If you’ve downloaded the update and can’t find it , you can  just search for *.ipsw and make sure it says 4.0 near the beginning of the file name.

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  • My iPod Touch was restored. This took about 5 minutes maybe.
  • Then iTunes said I had a new device attached and asked me  if Iwanted to set it up as a new device or use a backup from my old device. I chose the backup and then waited while all that happened.
  • I had never used a backup before so I was disappointed that none of my apps or music were there when I started my Touch. I had to go to iTunes and checked which apps I wanted then did a sync and got all the settings back and even all my books on my various reading apps. That’s how it worked for me anyway.

2. I read in a number of forums that some people are having success unchecking sync for apps, music, videos, etc. in iTunes. Then they’ve done a sync.  Then once they have the new OS, they’ve checked sync for each of these again and did a sync.

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