1.8.1 Update wiped my library
Fri, 04/24/2009 - 07:31 — jfritsche
I ran the 1.8.1 update from the App Store updates on my iPhone, and for some reason when I opened Stanza later in the evening to read some of my book before bed, my entire library was wiped out. All that was there was the sample book and the Stanza guide. I am not sure what could have happened...any clues? Obviously it isn't the end of the world, since I can just reupload everything, but it is a big pain (and I lost my place in the book I was reading!!).
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There is occasionally a
There is occasionally a problem with the App Store such that when updating iPhone/iPod applications that all of the application's data gets wiped out. For many applications, this loss isn't a big deal (e.g., you might just lose your high scores for a game application), but since Stanza stores all your books on the phone, a failed update can result in losing your entire library and having to download all your books again.
However, if you haven't synchronized your phone since you updated, you may be able to restore Stanza 1.8 from backup and regain all your books by following the instructions at http://www.lexcycle.com/faq/restoring_from_backup. Once you have done that, you can try to upgrade to 1.8.1 again and hopefully you won't get hit by the App Store bug again.
It's refusing to update for
It's refusing to update for me - it's stuck with a SWOD on the status bar, that will appear once in awhile. The icon for Stanza is darkened, as you'd expect during an update. However no progress bar ever appears.
How do I stop this cycle of nothing? How can I read a book if the damn update won't ever complete?
It's been 10 minutes now.
I loaded iTunes and managed
I loaded iTunes and managed to interrupt the download. Perhaps I'll try to update it through there.
Library is still intact - still on version 1.8
Nope - same damn problem.
Nope - same damn problem. iTunes throws an error, and refuses to update, and attempting again via the app store on the ipod touch causes the status bar to get approx 75% complete, then disappear and sit there with an empty status bar.
Great update. I can see that I'm going to have to delete the app and hopefully a reinstall fixes this.
The updating process is
The updating process is outside developers control and is completely managed at the Apple level. Although it is unfortunate, you are correct in that you may to first uninstall (thus losing all current books downloaded to the iTouch/iPhone) and then re-install.
It always seems safer to update via iTunes rather than OTA as this seems to suffer from such issues less frequently.
I fixed it. Thankfully I'm
I fixed it. Thankfully I'm running a jailbroken device, otherwise I would have had to add my books back one by one, or the alternative, which is not an alternative at all - dreaded restore.
I ssh'ed into var/mobile/Applications/ Found the folder containing my current Stanza 1.8 - copied the entire thing to my 'puter. Then fired up iTunes, deleted Stanza, then downloaded the new version via itunes and synced it to my machine.
Then, ssh back into my device. The folder I copied earlier contains all of Stanza's books. The only two folders I copied back were the documents and library folders contained within the Stanza folder. I overwrote what was on the device, from the folder from the previos version.
Success! I'm now running Stanza 1.81, with my entire library intact. This was fun to solve, and no real risk as a restore was likely in my future anyway, if it failed.
I tried but I was too late ..
.. looks like stanza's latest update has already wiped all of my books.
This is absolutely terrible since there's no bulk upload book option and it, therefore, took literally HOURS of my life to install the 50+ books or so I had on there before. Still, now that my time has been wasted I can't feel too bad about wasting some more looking for something less treacherous.
Very very disappointing :(
Oh, and I am running iPhone
Oh, and I am running iPhone OS 2.2.
I suspect it was some sort of
I suspect it was some sort of glitch at the Apple level during the upgrde process. It went fine for me and my library stayed intact.