iOS5 iFail?   They said, and I don’t quote this verbatim, that iOS5 was the smartest operating system for iPhone ever. I’m sure I read that on a pop up in iTunes. However, when “they” said this, I was a nervous puddle of lost hope dreading the worst.

 Let me start by explaining that technology and I are not the best of friends. We’re not strangers by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re not bosom buddies. I don’t fear technology but I do doubt that the command I’m giving is going to get the desired outcome every time. This is never more evident than when I update my iPhone.

It had been awhile since I connected my phone to iTunes. I knew I should do it more often, but the fear of losing all my contacts, losing all my calendar dates or worse, losing all the photos of my beautiful girls meant that I didn’t update as often as I should. Don’t get me wrong, I updated my apps all the time but I avoided the big system overhauls. Lately though I’ve noticed that the number of apps that required updates were growing and I just hadn’t bothered to do anything about it. And with all the talk about the recent release of iOS5, I was reminded that I probably should look into updating the system soon and update my apps.

I scheduled a time when I knew I’d be around home for most of the day, because I’d heard the update could take ages. About lunch time I plugged my phone into iTunes and hoped for the best.

Syncing In Progress

So far so good.

Backing up your iPhone

That sounds good, still happy.

New updates to install

Ok that sounds important, let’s do it!

2 hours later (or there about) everything seems to have backed up, updated and installed as it should. I was still fairly nervous but mildly confident that things were working out as they should.

Your computer needs to be restarted

Sure that seems fair

Restoring factory settings

What?! Wait a second! I never authorised or requested factory setting restoration. That sounds bad. Very bad. Why didn’t you just hit cancel, I hear you ask. Good question and I thought about cancelling, but the fear of having a phone that didn’t work at all freaked me out more than having a phone without all my personal settings.

Factory Settings Restored

(This is when I got very worried) It seemed I had a brand new iPhone. Everything needed resetting. Everything. It was a brand new, straight from the box iPhone. Crap.

Back up options: From your computer or from iCloud

The computer!! Back up from the computer! Thanks be to whoever was watching over me that before this all went horribly wrong I backed up my phone.

Your Phone Has Been Restored

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Phew! So the crisis was diverted. I should have my lovely iPhone all updated and back to the original settings with the added bonus of iOS5. Wrong.

Where the hell is Twitter? Where did Facebook go? Where are my apps?! Quick, check the contacts, check the photos, check the calendar. Phew, all good. But where are my apps?? It seems after my update that all I’m left with are the standard apps. No!!! I had 4 or 5 pages of apps, I’ll never remember all of them. What am I going to do?

Breathe. Approach this in a different way. Consider this as iPhone spring cleaning. An App cull, if you will. It’s refreshing….or so I kept telling myself. I slowly started reinstalling the apps I needed (Twitter, Facebook, Google all the important ones first etc.) all while tweeting about my iPhone update fail.

Jane tweeted suggestions and sympathy at the waste of time all this reinstalling was taking. Evan tweeted directions to my Purchased apps at the App Store – and there were my apps! Still requiring reinstalling, but all there in a list just waiting for me to pick and choose which ones I wanted. Hooray!!

 I immediately tweeted my love to Evan, who with that one single tweet gave me the gift of confidence, knowledge and inner peace. Sure that might seem an over exaggeration to some, but I’d be lost, curled up in a corner somewhere, without my phone and you don’t want to see that!

So in conclusion, iOS5 seems fine to me. I’ve come through this system update with most of my emotions intact and new knowledge. I can’t recommend you update or not to iOS5 but I’m happy with what I’m seeing so far. Except the iCloud. I don’t trust it, but I haven’t read much into it either. For now, I’m happy just to have my app lighter phone to organise my life without too much change.

About Beth:

Beth is a wife to one lovely man, a mummy to two little girls and a friend to many. She likes red wine, burlesque dancers and punk rock and blogs about her life and misadventures at Not Jemima Bateman

You can also follow more regular updates at @_beth1 on Twitter