iOS 7 officially launches today (which is to say tomorrow, thanks to that pesky international dateline), and if previous launches are any indication, it’ll be quickly adopted by the Apple faithful. Before you leap in, though, there’s one thing you absolutely must do.
Backup. No, wake up in the back there, because this is important.
I don’t care if you backup to iCloud or use a cable to backup via iTunes to your computer. Frankly, doing both would be wise. If Apple’s dotted all the ones and crossed all the zeroes, the upgrade process to iOS 7 should be seamless for most users, but there are always edge cases.
Always.
This is true, too, of upgrades for other operating systems; I’ve had Android upgrades and Windows Phone upgrades die on me, taking phone contents with them. Backup is boring, but backup is sensible.
You may not be one of the edge cases, but if you are, having a backup — which should only take a few minutes — will ensure that you actually don’t lose all that much beyond having to go through the upgrade process again. Not having a backup is a swift way to kiss your data goodbye.
I’ve started to prepare already. I’ve cleaned out iTunes from my Windows 7 64bit machine completely.. followed Apple’s guide to do in the correct order (and the order you uninstall the components is apparently very important). During this process I discovered that my QuickTime installation was actually corrupted and had to use the Microsoft FixIt service to get rid of it. With it all completely erased from my system, I installed a brand-new, fresh installation of all the required components.. all ready for the iOS 7 deployment.
I will make a full iCloud and Local backup tonight as I doubt anything is going to change between tonight and tomorrow.. hopefully everything will go swimingly.. but I am prepared at least.
3AM Tomorrow, according to:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/09/17/ios-7-release-time-expect-ios-7-download/
Here is the iOS 7 release time for your time zone.
Eastern – 1 PM
Central – 12 PM
Mountain – 11 AM
London – 6 PM
Moscow – 9 PM
New Dehli – 10:30 PM
Shanghai – 1 AM Thursday
Tokyo – 2 AM Thursday
Melbourne – 3 AM Thursday
Auckland – 5 AM Thursday
I’ve seen those figures tweeted around a lot today, and while they could well be entirely accurate, I’ve also seen no actual confirmation from Apple that they’re legit. Given the time difference, I suspect it’ll be mostly meaningless — update tomorrow over breakfast, essentially.