173 - Sawing Toothpicks
I learned my lesson.
Never install beta software.
Numerous articles were encouraging me to install a beta version of Mac’s iOS 18 on my iPad so I could “enjoy” all the new features before the official release.
It wasn’t difficult.
As part of the process I was encouraged to back up my iPad first, which, luckily, I did.
Installed it but wasn’t really all that sure I was noticing much in the way of new & improved, in fact, just the opposite. I noticed my battery was draining much faster.
That evening I composed the piece that was supposed to go up yesterday. I wasn’t all that satisfied with it but it was at least reasonably okay (my minimal standard).
The following morning (yesterday) when I awoke the iPad informed me it was full, no more free space! Since I knew there had to be at least 32Gigs of space, I was surprised / dismayed. When I checked all that space was lost to “system data,” which accounts for why the battery was draining so rapidly.
Not quite sure how to delete these files I tried, for my first step, simply rebooting.
Whoops! I was now stuck in a reboot loop. Apple logo - black screen - Apple logo - black screen - over and over.
A little research revealed the next option was to reinstall the iOS ( an “update”) so I hooked it up to my laptop to proceed with said update.
Whoops! Because I’d installed iOS 18 my laptop wouldn’t download iOS 17. Instead of a download progress bar I got the equivalent of a horizontal gray barber pole showing it was “trying” but getting nowhere. That’s when I called apple, where they helpfully informed me my next step was to restore the iPad, wipe it clean and restore it from that backup I made, but if it wouldn’t do that either, then I was stuck until iOS 18 came out, and THEN my laptop would download it fine.
Whoops! I couldn’t restore the iPad either for the same reason I couldn’t “update” it.
At this point I told apple had anywhere along the line I read anything vaguely indicating trying a beta version would turn my virtually new iPad into a brick for several months while I wait for the official release of iOS 18, of course I wouldn’t’ve installed it. Who would?
Taking pity on me the Apple representative made an appointment for me at the Apple Store on the Country Club Plaza where, maybe they could erase it for me, she then wished me to have an “Applelicious Day,” I kid you not. I feel sorry for people that have to repeat stupid stuff like that on the phone.
Long story short they did fix it, however, I’d lost the piece I’d composed for yesterday’s post. It was really the only data I lost thru the entire debacle. Since I wasn’t that thrilled with the piece anyway, I wasn’t that upset
And that was a long, convoluted way to get around to saying today’s piece is a better one anyway.
