restoring my iBrick to an iPad

This week, I updated my iPad to OS 3.2.2. It didn’t go well.

What happened:

  1. Plugged in iPad to laptop.
  2. iTunes noted there was an OS update and suggested I backup the iPad before applying it.  I did.  Whew!  This turned out to be a blessing.
  3. Selected option to update.
  4. Got error that could not update.  With error code 14. Apple lists the error codes which is nice.
  5. Tried again but iTunes said my iPad needed to be restored to factory state to work again.  Not happy at this point.
  6. Got a different error code on restore.  Now really nervous.  Tried unplugging and replugging USB.  Seemed to help.
  7. Restore worked

Ok now I’m “restored” to factory settings.  How do I get back to using the iPad.

  1. Synced with iTunes.  This gave me most system settings and some data back.  (It didn’t put my password back, but that was the only thing noticeably missing.)
  2. Most of my apps aren’t here at this point and they have data of their own.  I’m a little nervous at this point.
  3. iTunes as the list of apps that were installed, but I don’t see an easy way to put them back.
  4. Went through the app store and re-downloaded them one by one.  At least iTunes recognized they were bought (thanks to an up to date backup) and didn’t charge me again.
  5. Tried some of the apps.  They do still have the data from the iTunes sync.  That means iTunes does sync data even if the app it goes with isn’t currently installed.

Summary

  • Best thing – I didn’t lose any data
  • Worst thing – re-downloading each app is tedious.  Can’t iTunes send a list to the iPad and have the app store download everything on that list?