Upgrade iPhone 4S iOS 5.x or not?

[ericinboston]

As a consumer and especially a techie, I live by the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". That being said, I have loved my iPhone 4S over the past few years. However, I am finding key apps are no longer supported on iOS 5.x such as the My ATT app and my bank. I also find that Safari crashes constantly...not to mention Apple has royally ****** us iOS 5.x owners in March 2014 by disabling Facetime. Therefore, I am essentially being forced to upgrade the iOS when in fact it has been rock solid and awesome up until March 2014 beginning with the Facetime fiasco.

An iOS upgrade is not a simple, pain-free task...I would ultimately need to upgrade iTunes, would want/need to offload all my data from my 64GB 4S so the upgrade doesn't take 1/2 a day, etc.



I'd like to here some facts regarding a possible upgrade...rather than "definitely upgrade...iOS ____ is soooo much prettier!"


1)Can I actually back up my entire iPhone with iTunes, do an upgrade, and if I don't like the iOS upgrade, do a 100% revert to my backup of the older iOS 5.0.1? I am using iTunes 10.5.2.11. If the answer is yes, can you please provide an article that I can review the steps? I don't want to jailbreak.

2)As far as I can tell, some of my default apps will disappear...such as Google Maps and Youtube. Are they easily replaceable via the App Store or am I going to be pushed to browser versions rather than true thick-client apps?

3)Facetime stopped working on iOS 5.x early 2014 due to a "certificate expiration" that Apple refused to fix with a tiny download/patch. I believe Facetime works again in iOS 7.x...true?

4)Any major gotchas I should be concerned about as an iPhone user if I go to iOS 6 or 7 (I am not going to 8)?...such as horrific performance, horrific battery life, features A, B, and C mysteriously disappear or are broken?

5)Is there a way for me to ONLY go as high as iOS 7.x? Currently there is no way for me to tell because my phone just tells me I can move up to 6.1.3...I fear that after going to 6.1.3 and attempting to upgrade again, I will be told to go to 8.x instead of 7.x. Can anyone confirm this?

6)Yahoo mail, starting mid 2014, has a 90% failure rate in loading/showing my photo attachments. There is no information at all about this and all fingers to point to the iOS...anybody have this issue and upgrade to 6 or 7 and have it magically work 100% of the time again?

7)Does iOS 7 allow larger emails to be sent?...meaning, when I send a video it doesn't compress it down to a <5MB attachment because most email providers allow 25MB worth of attachments...similar example to the # of photos I can send...I believe iOS 5.x allows a max of 4 (and each pic is at most 2MB) which kills me.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[bradl]

As a consumer and especially a techie, I live by the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". That being said, I have loved my iPhone 4S over the past few years. However, I am finding key apps are no longer supported on iOS 5.x such as the My ATT app and my bank. I also find that Safari crashes constantly...not to mention Apple has royally ****** us iOS 5.x owners in March 2014 by disabling Facetime. Therefore, I am essentially being forced to upgrade the iOS when in fact it has been rock solid and awesome up until March 2014 beginning with the Facetime fiasco.

An iOS upgrade is not a simple, pain-free task...I would ultimately need to upgrade iTunes, would want/need to offload all my data from my 64GB 4S so the upgrade doesn't take 1/2 a day, etc.



I'd like to here some facts regarding a possible upgrade...rather than "definitely upgrade...iOS ____ is soooo much prettier!"


1)Can I actually back up my entire iPhone with iTunes, do an upgrade, and if I don't like the iOS upgrade, do a 100% revert to my backup of the older iOS 5.0.1? I am using iTunes 10.5.2.11. If the answer is yes, can you please provide an article that I can review the steps? I don't want to jailbreak.

No. For the 4S, you could not go back to iOS 5.x - iOS 7.x if you upgrade. You'll be getting iOS 8.1.2, with no way to revert.

2)As far as I can tell, some of my default apps will disappear...such as Google Maps and Youtube. Are they easily replaceable via the App Store or am I going to be pushed to browser versions rather than true thick-client apps?

These are, yes. Apple Maps will be installed by default, but Google Maps and Youtube are available in the App Store.

3)Facetime stopped working on iOS 5.x early 2014 due to a "certificate expiration" that Apple refused to fix with a tiny download/patch. I believe Facetime works again in iOS 7.x...true?

This is correct.

4)Any major gotchas I should be concerned about as an iPhone user if I go to iOS 6 or 7 (I am not going to 8)?...such as horrific performance, horrific battery life, features A, B, and C mysteriously disappear or are broken?

Battery life may be a problem for you. At first I thought I was okay with it, but in comparing my 4S to my wife's 4S (still on 7.1.2), my battery life is markedly worse. Performance will be slightly laggy; meaning, if you are really looking at it, you may notice it. Otherwise, you really won't see it. With iOS 8, the 4S is now the bottom of the food chain. I wouldn't expect iOS 9 to support the 4S when/if it is released.

You'll find that a lot of your apps have already been updated to support the latest iOS, so you'll find a high number of apps that would be updated in your badge for the App store, or when you sync the phone, you'll see a list of apps that couldn't be updated because of having an older iOS version installed.

IIRC, iOS 6.x and lower only allowed you to have a max of 7 or 8 tabs open in Safari. iOS 7 removes that limitation.

5)Is there a way for me to ONLY go as high as iOS 7.x? Currently there is no way for me to tell because my phone just tells me I can move up to 6.1.3...I fear that after going to 6.1.3 and attempting to upgrade again, I will be told to go to 8.x instead of 7.x. Can anyone confirm this?

I wish, but no. Otherwise, I'd drop back to 7.1.2 as fast as I could. I'm okay with iOS 8 on the phone, because I'm going to be getting an iPhone 6 soon.

6)Yahoo mail, starting mid 2014, has a 90% failure rate in loading/showing my photo attachments. There is no information at all about this and all fingers to point to the iOS...anybody have this issue and upgrade to 6 or 7 and have it magically work 100% of the time again?

Not sure on this, but this may have something to do with Yahoo going to encrypted email by default, in light of PRISM. That is something that iOS 5.x probably wouldn't know how to handle.

7)Does iOS 7 allow larger emails to be sent?...meaning, when I send a video it doesn't compress it down to a <5MB attachment because most email providers allow 25MB worth of attachments...similar example to the # of photos I can send...I believe iOS 5.x allows a max of 4 (and each pic is at most 2MB) which kills me.

Thanks so much in advance!

Depending on who you are sending it to. If the recipient has an iPhone as well, you could use iMessage to send those instead, bypassing needing to attach and send. See if they have one, then off you go.

BL.

 

[vista980622]

As a consumer and especially a techie, I live by the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". That being said, I have loved my iPhone 4S over the past few years. However, I am finding key apps are no longer supported on iOS 5.x such as the My ATT app and my bank. I also find that Safari crashes constantly...not to mention Apple has royally ****** us iOS 5.x owners in March 2014 by disabling Facetime. Therefore, I am essentially being forced to upgrade the iOS when in fact it has been rock solid and awesome up until March 2014 beginning with the Facetime fiasco.

An iOS upgrade is not a simple, pain-free task...I would ultimately need to upgrade iTunes, would want/need to offload all my data from my 64GB 4S so the upgrade doesn't take 1/2 a day, etc.



I'd like to here some facts regarding a possible upgrade...rather than "definitely upgrade...iOS ____ is soooo much prettier!"


1)Can I actually back up my entire iPhone with iTunes, do an upgrade, and if I don't like the iOS upgrade, do a 100% revert to my backup of the older iOS 5.0.1? I am using iTunes 10.5.2.11. If the answer is yes, can you please provide an article that I can review the steps? I don't want to jailbreak.

2)As far as I can tell, some of my default apps will disappear...such as Google Maps and Youtube. Are they easily replaceable via the App Store or am I going to be pushed to browser versions rather than true thick-client apps?

3)Facetime stopped working on iOS 5.x early 2014 due to a "certificate expiration" that Apple refused to fix with a tiny download/patch. I believe Facetime works again in iOS 7.x...true?

4)Any major gotchas I should be concerned about as an iPhone user if I go to iOS 6 or 7 (I am not going to 8)?...such as horrific performance, horrific battery life, features A, B, and C mysteriously disappear or are broken?

5)Is there a way for me to ONLY go as high as iOS 7.x? Currently there is no way for me to tell because my phone just tells me I can move up to 6.1.3...I fear that after going to 6.1.3 and attempting to upgrade again, I will be told to go to 8.x instead of 7.x. Can anyone confirm this?

6)Yahoo mail, starting mid 2014, has a 90% failure rate in loading/showing my photo attachments. There is no information at all about this and all fingers to point to the iOS...anybody have this issue and upgrade to 6 or 7 and have it magically work 100% of the time again?

7)Does iOS 7 allow larger emails to be sent?...meaning, when I send a video it doesn't compress it down to a <5MB attachment because most email providers allow 25MB worth of attachments...similar example to the # of photos I can send...I believe iOS 5.x allows a max of 4 (and each pic is at most 2MB) which kills me.

Thanks so much in advance!

If I were you, I'll upgrade to iOS 6 over-the-air and enjoy it. Upgrading to iOS 8 causes major slowdown for iPhone 4s.

 

[chrfr]

If I were you, I'll upgrade to iOS 6 over-the-air and enjoy it. Upgrading to iOS 8 causes major slowdown for iPhone 4s.

iOS 6 is not an option, in spite of what Software Update shows. The install will fail to verify.

 

[vista980622]

iOS 6 is not an option, in spite of what Software Update shows. The install will fail to verify.

Originally Posted by chrfr
No, doing such a OTA update is unlike updating or restoring in iTunes. It will not fail to verify as Apple intends to redirect iOS 5,0 or 5.0.1 (4s and iPad 2) users to upgrade to iOS 6.1.3 first, then upgrade to iOS 8 because of some OTA update script issue.

 

[Intell]

It is not possible to install iOS 6 on an iPhone 4S either by restoring through iTunes or through the over the air update. Both will fail and cause the device to be restored to the latest version of iOS.

 

[vista980622]

iOS 6 is not an option, in spite of what Software Update shows. The install will fail to verify.

No, doing such a OTA update is unlike updating or restoring in iTunes. It will not fail to verify as Apple intends to redirect iOS 5,0 or 5.0.1 (4s and iPad 2) users to upgrade to iOS 6.1.3 first, then upgrade to iOS 8 because of some OTA update script issue.

----------

It is not possible to install iOS 6 on an iPhone 4S either by restoring through iTunes or through the over the air update. Both will fail and cause the device to be restored to the latest version of iOS.

No, doing such a OTA update is unlike updating or restoring in iTunes. It will not fail to verify as Apple intends to redirect iOS 5,0 or 5.0.1 (4s and iPad 2) users to upgrade to iOS 6.1.3 first, then upgrade to iOS 8 because of some OTA update script issue.

 

[Intell]

The OTA.xml that informs an iOS device of what is available for updates, no longer includes the iOS 6 packages. In the section for devices with iOS 5, it has listed an update to iOS 8.1.2.

 

[vista980622]

The OTA.xml that informs an iOS device of what is available for updates, no longer includes the iOS 6 packages. In the section for devices with iOS 5, it has listed an update to iOS 8.1.2.

It does. See for yourself. Search for "iPhone4,1" which is the codename for iPhone 4s. You'll see iOS 6.1.3 update for iOS 5.0 and 5.0.1 users, while 8.1.2 for all other versions.

http://mesu.apple.com/assets/com_ap...date/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate.xml

 

[Intell]

It did, that's an older outdated cached version that Akamai hasn't yet purged out. The one directly from Apple's servers doesn't include that anymore as of iOS 8.1. When that was the upgrade path, the device wouldn't even boot into a usable iOS 6.1.3, it would go straight into the installation of the latest version of iOS.

 

[vista980622]

It did, that's an older outdated cached version that Akamai hasn't yet purged out. The one directly from Apple's servers doesn't include that anymore as of iOS 8.1. When that was the upgrade path, the device wouldn't even boot into a usable iOS 6.1.3, it would go straight into the installation of the latest version of iOS.

It is NOT an outdated plist. I just found some time and tested it on my friend's iPhone 4s today and it WORKED. It passed the verification check. The device went into a fully bootable iOS 6.1.3 with proper baseband.

 

[Intell]

Your unfortunate friend. That device could have been sold for quite a sum. Even so, when that was an option in the plist, the device wouldn't even fully boot into iOS 6, it would start the next update before showing unlock screen.

 

[honam1021]

Your unfortunate friend. That device could have been sold for quite a sum. Even so, when that was an option in the plist, the device wouldn't even fully boot into iOS 6, it would start the next update before showing unlock screen.

Sorry for bumping this thread, but would it be possible to do a DNS redirection attack to point the device to a modified plist file that neglects to update it to iOS 8 after iOS 6 installation?

 

[Intell]

Possibly, but you'd be stuck with a non-operative iOS 6 device.

 

[SuperKerem]

No you shouldn't

 

[alitek12]

Upgrade to 6.1.3 Works

Upgrading to 6.1.3 works if you are on 5.0.1 or below. It's been confirmed on Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/2vf0jt/just_got_a_4s_on_501_and_i_can_ota_to_ios_6_can_i/

 

[C DM]

Upgrading to 6.1.3 works if you are on 5.0.1 or below. It's been confirmed on Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/2vf0jt/just_got_a_4s_on_501_and_i_can_ota_to_ios_6_can_i/

One anecdotal story from a single user? Not sure that's really and indication or confirmation of anything really.

 

[alitek12]

One anecdotal story from a single user? Not sure that's really and indication or confirmation of anything really.

Here's what Wikipedia says.
Going from 5.0.x to 6.1.3

On iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, any users on iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1 must go to 6.1.3 via OTA before they can find and install an OTA update for 8.x. This is not a mistake, but was planned to keep the amount of OTA files down.

 

[Intell]

Wikipedia is not a creditable source.

 

[georgerussos]

Wikipedia is not a creditable source.

I'm the user that posted the Reddit thread a few months ago.

The phone that I had at the time updated to 6.1.3 fine, it booted fine and I was able to jailbreak, too. The update was a fully working one.

It's obviously my word against yours, but I have no reason to lie. My phone came with 5.0.1, I activated it, I left it to charge and when I went back I went to my Settings out of curiosity and it was downloading the 6.1.3 update. After that booted it started downloading iOS 8.