While I was updating the Firmware on my Nokia E65 the other day I thought about a problem I had with my iPod Touch a while back. I had connected the iPod up to my laptop to Sync some podcats up to listen to on the drive home from work. The Sync started up without a hitch but when i looked back at the device a few moments later it was stuck. I ejected it from iTunes and unpluged it and it was still stuck on “Sync In Progress” or something along those lines. It looked like I’d created an iBrick.
Not to worry though as iTunes usually fixes things like this. I hook the Touch back up and try to restore it and the process seemed to work. Seems I spoke too soon, no dice when trying to re-sync with iTunes throwing up “error (-18)”. I figured I was screwed and had broken the Flash Drive and lost everything on the device. The music that was mine wasn’t a problem but I had music from other peoples computers on there along with manually added contacts, photos and all my bookmarks in the browser.
I decided to try to restore the Touch from the device instead of iTunes so I went into setting and reset the device removing all content and settings. Finally the device boots back up and seems to be able to Sync to iTunes again. A few minutes later and the Sync is done and I check out what’s on the Touch.
Everything was there, literally everything. All the music on my laptop, all the music I’d taken from other sources, all the photos and all the contact I’d added in manually. Even the Safari settings like the Bookmarks and WiFi settings were intact and the wallpaper I’d set was still being displayed. Needless to say it was a great surprise especially as I’d never told iTunes to back-up everything for me, it just did it. Every time I plug the device in it Syncs automatically (as long as you don’t turn that default setting off) and it really *just works* like Sync should.
Back to the E65 and the Firmware update is done. I’m going to restore the backup that Nokia recommended I make but in the back of my head I’m already thinking of all the Applications I’ll have to re-install despite having done the back-up as well as all the personal setting I’ll have to re-apply. It’s such a shame Nokia don’t *get* Sync in the same way.
Discussion
5 comments for “Apple Just *Get* Sync”
Yeah, historically Nokia sucks at updating the firmware. However, with the N82 (and reports of the N81) and moving forward, they feature ‘User Data Preservation” which accomplishes exactly what you’re wanting.
Ricky: who cares what the feature is called, whether it’s “User Data Preservation” or “Back My Shit Up.” It just has to work. You never hear Apple touting this “feature” or non-feature. It’s just such a basic part of what the iPhone/iPod is that it just has to work.
Hey Ricky, yeah I’d heard of that feature on the N82 and Stefan has confirmed that it works (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/01/23/new-nokia-n82-firmware-version-110117.html).
Still seems to kill J2ME apps but a great improvement for sure. I hope this will be common practice with all FW updates from now on
[...] — Other mentions this week — Tarek Esber shares his thoughts on how Apple gets sync. [...]
It seems to me that the difference is that Apple preserves the whole state of the device, so that when you’ve completed your upgrade or restore, it’s exactly as it was before. This is what Nokia needs to work on. Your average user doesn’t want to know about “User Data Presevation”, they don’t even want to have to think about it.
What Apple gets is that backup needs to be sublimated - just like the Time Machine feature in Leopard.