How to Fix – iOS OTA Updates Not Working

OTA – over the Air – updates are the latest way of upgrading your iOS firmare. This is a slick, simple and easy method because the previous method of plugging in your device to the Mac, running iTunes and getting the w hole thing done via your broadband connection was all – a bit tedious. Yeah, it involved time and stuff. The OTA aims to clear all that – and bring in a very easy and simple method of upgrading the firmware of your iDevice.

Of course, many people have reported iOS over the air not working for them – but this is just a small glitch and nothing big to worry about. If you try out some steps mentioned here, you can fix iOS OTA updates not working issue easily. But first, here are certain things you should know about OTA for iOS:Compatibility and Requirements for iOS Over the Air Update

The OTA updates are available only for iOS versions greater than 5. Yes, that means the recent update, iOS 5.0.1 is the only update which is available OTA. You should think about upgrading to iOS 5.0.1 though – there have been reports saying iOS 5.0.1 has not fixed battery woes as yet.

•  Anyway, as regards the requirements for carrying out the iOS OTA update:
•  You should be connected to a WiFi connection. 3G or GPRS data plans won’t work for OTA updates. It’s WiFi all the way.
• You should have at least 50% battery power or be connected to a power source
• You should be running iOS 5 – and that’s quite obvious. The OTA only works with iOS 5 and above.

Important Note: The OTA update is not supported for beta version firmwares. This means if you are running a beta version of the iOS firmware, you would not be able to carry out the OTA update. You’ll have to restore to a non-beta version IPSW file and then try the update over the air.

If iOS OTA is not working, try out following steps to fix iOS OTA updates issue

• Switch off WIFI from the Settings and then switch it on back after a while.
• Wait for a while – may be the Apple servers are down because of the load. This happens quite rarely, but it’s safe enough to wait for a while.
• If that doesn’t work, switch off your iPhone and then wait for a while. Switch it back on again and then try the OTA update.
• Make sure you are not running a beta version of the iOS firmware.
• As a last resort method, reset your WiFi settings (network settings). This will erase the passwords and information, so you take this as the last step to try. Reset the settings, put the information and password in again and then try the OTA update.

Advantages of iOS OTA Update

On the OTA update, you get to save a bit on data. This is because it does not download the whole firmware – but only the updates and changes, so that means you get to use up only a little bit of data. Comparing this with the usual update process – that would download a whole lot of files – which means a whole lot of data.