iPhone wechat APP stuck trying to update

[soldar]

As if I didn't have enough unwanted problems...

Yesterday my Wechat APP on my iPhone 4 decided to update (I guess) by itself and without asking my leave. Then it got stuck in "Installing" and just shows a partially filled circle just stuck there "installing".

I have tried tapping here and there, restarting the phone, but nothing works.

What can I do? (Besides dumping the phone which I will soon have to do anyway because it only supports 3G which is on its way out here.)

[soldar]

Nuke iOS from iTunes?

I have no idea what that means. I have the latest iOS. I do not know if I have iTunes but I do not use it in any case. I have no idea what it is or what it's good for.

I only use my phone as a phone and little else, mainly Wechat.

I tried deleting Wechat and it didn't work. Even then I am afraid I do not know what password I used when I installed it.

The icon just says either "loading" or "installing".  I am tempted to just let it keep trying some more and see if I get lucky.

If everything else fails I might take the advice from a friend who says I can unblock the icon by putting the tip of a 16d nail right in the center of the icon and giving the nail a sharp blow with a 4lb hammer. It might work.

[soldar]

I think you can factory reset an iPhone using iTunes. Basically to nuke the OS and reinstall one.

The OS seems OK. It is wechat that was not working right. Fiddling some more I managed to delete the Wechat APP and when I tried to reinstall it I got an error message saying I need a new phone and wechat will not run on my phone anymore. Without warning I lost use of Wechat! Fuck! I hate all this "software as a service" and "cloud" BS.

I have an unused Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge and I tried to install Wechat but I need to open an account with Android/Google first which I don't want to do.

Can I get around Googlesnooping?
 

[Bud]

You said you use an iPhone 4. That was likely the culprit causing the update to hang. Chances are that model is not supported anymore.

[soldar]

You said you use an iPhone 4. That was likely the culprit causing the update to hang. Chances are that model is not supported anymore.

Well, yes, but why would they try to push an update that would not work? And without warning?

It was working fine until they tried to make things better! Argh!

I am now trying to install Wechat on the Samsung Galaxy and it is an ordeal.

[rrinker]

 Simple - because under Settings, iTunes and App Sore, you have Updates under Automatic Downloads turned on. Turn that off and it won't update things.

Of course, at some point you will then have an old WeChat app, and WeChat will no longer allow the old client to connect, so it doesn't really help all that much.

[soldar]

  Simple - because under Settings, iTunes and App Sore, you have Updates under Automatic Downloads turned on. Turn that off and it won't update things.

Of course, at some point you will then have an old WeChat app, and WeChat will no longer allow the old client to connect, so it doesn't really help all that much.

App Sore, captures my mood exactly.

I guess you are right, that it was set to update automatically but you would think the process would check first rather than screw up so badly without warning.

As the iPhone 4 is 3G only the time has come to retire it anyway.  A pity as I was fond of it.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and will need to load and configure everything. I am not looking forward to that and I will probably open another thread on how to do it and how to best keep Google's nose out of my phone.

I will say that I have never bought a mobile phone in my life. I have a collection of those that my friends and family are getting rid of and when I need a replacement I just get one from the pile.

[drussell]

I have no idea what that means. I have the latest iOS. I do not know if I have iTunes but I do not use it in any case. I have no idea what it is or what it's good for.

You do not have the latest version of iOS.  That would be 13.1.2 from 10 days ago.

The last version that you can run on an iPhone 4 (non-S) is 7.1.2.

You might have it up to 7.1.2 if you've been doing all the over-the-air updates but even then the OTA versions don't always end up being the same as updating or re-installing the whole image using iTunes (or a third-party utility like irecovery or idevicerestore)

You can see the version histories of the various iPhone Software blobs (which are actually just .zip files, by the way) at:
https://ipsw.me/product/iPhone

... not that any of that has anything to do with your app ceasing to function. 

Without warning I lost use of Wechat! Fuck! I hate all this "software as a service" and "cloud" BS.

Automatic updates, software as a service...  CLOUD!... 

ARGH!! indeed!

[drussell]

I will say that I have never bought a mobile phone in my life. I have a collection of those that my friends and family are getting rid of and when I need a replacement I just get one from the pile.

LOL.....  Ditto!  I have a whole pile of iPhones and Blackberries, other "smartphones" and random "feature" phones.

I still use a Nokia 5300 as my daily driver. 

I would still be using my beloved 6160 if they hadn't shut down the TDMA network.   

I have three of these 5300s.  I think this is the last one in working order right now but I'm sure I could make another working one with the parts from all three.  Just got a new battery for it in the spring, (cost $7, shipped) to replace the stack of original BL-5Bs which understandably don't hold much of a charge anymore after the 10-12 years they've been in service (especially when cold in the winter!), so now it is even back to lasting a week on a single charge.  Sweet! 

I've just been fixing a trio of iPhone 6,6S,6S from a friend who asked me to to take a look.  The first 6S was the most important as it is her son's and it's been down for several weeks!  That one was just the lightning port/charge assembly...  Easy enough to swap out.  Fixed.  Updated iOS to 13.1.2 at their request, tested the battery, still 72% of nominal but have recommended that they will soon probably want to swap in a new one but we can plan ahead and order one inexpensively.  (I'm not a phone repairman per se.  I don't "stock" extra parts, only what I happen to have on hand from other "parts" phones or extras of very common inexpensive items ordered in multiples.)

The next 6S was hysterical.  Someone who did NOT know what they're doing tried to put an aftermarket replacement battery for a 6 into the 6S.  The connectors are different, so they just smooshed it in there and then tried to screw the little metal plate back over the battery connector (which only went on part way at one side, of course, because the wrong connector won't seat fully).  They had then obviously proceeded to try to snap the screen back in, cracking the screen right in front of where the poor little (now very bent) metal cover is.   Oh, my! 

After bending back all the various pins they bent on the battery and screen connectors on the mainboard, I have a feeling it would work if we put a new screen and battery in it but will have to see what my friend wants to do with that one.  She needs a better working phone, her Samsung somethingorother only holds 17% battery charge so is only marginally useful, and essentially only when plugged in.  She's gonna want to fix something.

The 6, (non-S) is stuck in recovery mode.  No clue what version of iOS was on it, unknown history.  Attempts to reinstall iOS (12.4.2 is the latest, and now of course, only version you can install) fail at the "verifying upgrade with apple phone-home procedure).  It will pull itself out of recovery OR DFU mode, load the iBSS and iBEC update routines, boot to the apple logo with bar, but of course iTunes won't recover it.

My best guess?  Someone tried to carrier unlock it and bricked it somehow.  I can't seem to ever even pull the IMEI out of it with irecovery, although I'm not sure if that always happens with phones with a borked iOS install or not.  Either that or a hardware issue (bad flash?), blacklisted serial number, or some other software glitch.  I think there was a bricking glitch on lots of model 6 phones right around the time of iOS 10 or 11 updates or something....  The new checkm8 may be able to restore a lot of those perfectly valid phones to functionality, even though apple declined to repair any of them.

I think I'm going to wait for the released checkm8 jailbreak implementations to support the T7000 processor platform without having to do it myself, although I think I probably do have a working 6 around here somewhere I could pull the stuff out of to implement it myself if I needed to.  Once the T7000 is supported, I'll try to bring it up using the jailbroken bootloader and then can try an older unsigned iOS closer to the version it was probably running.  Maybe I can get it back functional if I can get it booted with an older iOS.  Funny that you can now download a working jailbreak an iPhone 10 but not this 6.  I suppose it made sense to release support for the newer ones first, since that is what most people who would be interested in playing with it are running now.

I would never pay hard earned money for one of these iDevices.  [/rant] 

[drussell]

Anyway... On to your wechat issue.

According to the wikipedia entry, the last version from March 2019 is supposed to run on iOS 7.0.4 or higher.  Are you running iOS 7, or are you still on 6 or earlier?  The iPhone 4 originally came with iOS 4.

Either you are still on 6 or older (quite possible if you've only ever done OTA updates and never plugged into iTunes which is also, unfortunately, the iPhone "god" software) or wechat has a more recent release that no longer runs on 7.

What version does the about screen say you're running? 

That will answer many questions. 

Edit: P.S. What is the actual Axxx model number on the back of your phone?

[drussell]

I just looked through my stash... I have an A1332 here in front of me, that's the most common GSM version of the iPhone 4.  Let me dig up a 30-pin cable and put some charge into this thing.

Maybe I can help you through your problems by following along here. 

Give me an hour to charge it up and we'll see what's loaded on this one.   

(I know where this came from and that it still works, just not what SW version it is on, etc.)

[soldar]

According to the wikipedia entry, the last version from March 2019 is supposed to run on iOS 7.0.4 or higher.  Are you running iOS 7, or are you still on 6 or earlier? 

The phone reports iOS 9.3.6 and "Up to date"

When I try to download Wechat it says "not compatible with this phone".

The phone is A1387.

I think at this point I just give up and switch to the Samsung Android because 3G is being shut down and the iPhone 4 will no longer work with data.  I wish I could find some use for the iPhone rather than putting it away in a box.

= = = =

The first mobile phone I ever had was a Nokia 5110 my then girlfriend gave me when she didn't need it. I still have that one and a couple more 5146 and similar ones. They are the same except on different bands and minor differences.

I have had quite a few others and kept most of them but a couple years ago I send a shoebox of old phones to some charity that recycles them.

That girlfriend became my wife and she has a family who love to show off the latest and bestest so I get last year's greatest and bestest.

[drussell]

The phone is A1387.

That's not an iPhone 4 then, it is a 4S.  The 4S is actually a totally different beast. 

The 4 is known internally as phone version 3.1
The 4S is known internally as phone version 4.1

I have one of those A1387 models here also, but it is in pieces, with multiple hacks and power wires soldered onto it to make it run just enough to get the person's photos, etc. back, so that's no help. 

The phone reports iOS 9.3.6 and "Up to date"

When I try to download Wechat it says "not compatible with this phone".

Yeah, for the 4S, you can still either run 6.1.3 or 9.3.5/6, so yours IS actually up to date, on the 9 branch.  (It COULD also say it was up to date on the 6 branch, depending on what OTA update stream your carrier was sending you.)

According to wechat's system requirements, the latest version requires iOS 9, which you have, BUT for whatever reason, the 4S is now explicitly excluded from their supported hardware, even though it runs 9.x....

Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPad Air, iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (12.9-inch), iPad Pro (12.9-inch) Wi‑Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch Wi‑Fi + Cellular, iPad Wi-Fi (5th generation), iPad (5th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (2nd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 10.5-inch Wi‑Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (6th generation), iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (3rd generation), iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (5th generation), iPad mini (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation), iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th generation) and iPod touch (7th generation).

Notice the conspicuous absence of the 4S, even though it is the earliest phone that will run 9, so it looks like you're SOL for that app on there for some unknown reason, unfortunately.  Who knows why they blacklisted it from their app.  It probably doesn't support some tracking feature.

I think at this point I just give up and switch to the Samsung Android because 3G is being shut down and the iPhone 4 will no longer work with data.  I wish I could find some use for the iPhone rather than putting it away in a box.

It would just fall back to 2G/EDGE if they do totally shut off your 3G.  I don't think 2G will be going anywhere for a long time because there are too many embedded devices that use it, at least around here there are, anyway.  Everything from cars to home alarm systems.  The A1387 supports 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz 2G/EDGE.  Actually, the 4S is one of the few iPhone models that (as far as I know) was only made in a "world" variant, except perhaps some Chinese-market-only variant.  I believe they usually all support both CDMA AND GSM, in the following bands:

UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (3G) @ 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
GSM/EDGE (2G)  @ 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
CDMA EV-DO A  @ 800, 1900 MHz

That actually makes it one of the most system-compatible phones unless you are in some area that turns off everything except 4G/5G, but that would leave a lot of stuff other than phone handsets unable to connect to anything.

You can always use an old phone via wi-fi only, like a mini-mini-iPad of course, but when you lose access to the only apps that you care to run (like wechat in your case) it becomes somewhat pointless.  If I need a small portable device at some site for something, I grab an appropriate phone from my stash and use it for whatever I need, on the local wi-fi...  They do make nice little "iPod" devices, or remote controls with the appropriate app or some customized website access or whatnot.

I would never stick my SIM card in one of those dirty things, though. 

[soldar]

Strange that the 4S is excluded. And it ticks me off that they would not give me some warning.

I think Samsung it is. I will have to learn me some Android and maybe some rooting if necessary.

[drussell]

Strange that the 4S is excluded. And it ticks me off that they would not give me some warning.

But, but...  That's the "modern" way for "user convenience!"   

This is the one time were it would have been nice if you HAD plugged it into iTunes at some point recently and done a full local backup image.  Then you could just restore to your image and block the update, at least be able to use your wechat until the phone becomes unusable (or wechat blocked their older clients, whichever came first.)

It isn't strictly the 4S that they've blocked it is all (internal version) 4.x and 5.x.  It is apparently NOT allowed the iPhone 4.1 (4S), 5.1 (5 GSM) 5.2 (5 Global version), 5.3 (5c GSM) and 5.4 (5c World), even though they can run iOS 9.  The 6.1 (5S) is the first one that they will now allow.  I'll have to think about what they added in the 6.x hardware that wechat would care about.  Some kind of tracking/spying ability, no doubt. 

They only support iPhone 6.1 and higher (5S and newer.)  The S is often kind-of like a preview hybrid model before the next major marketing version bump, but with apple, you never know.  The "iPhone 6" is actually internally known as a 7.2.  The 6S is an 8.1.  Go figure.    

Apple.  That's why.   

I think Samsung it is. I will have to learn me some Android and maybe some rooting if necessary.

Just don't crack the screen on that Edge model and expect to replace it for a reasonable price like the $30 iPhone screens.  Those silly curved assemblies are like $200! 

[soldar]

They only support iPhone 6.1 and higher (5S and newer.)   

Do you believe my 4S has any residual value that I could realize? I hate to put it into a box, to be in the way for years to come.

Just don't crack the screen on that Edge model and expect to replace it for a reasonable price like the $30 iPhone screens.  Those silly curved assemblies are like $200! 

You know, I kinda noticed the curved sides last night but I thought I was tired and just went to sleep. Now that you mention it, it is neat.

Having spent long time on boats I am used to securing on a lanyard anything that could get away and fall in the water, like keys and phones. The iPhone 4S has such a lanyard and I will need to see how I do it for the Samsung.

I will probably open a new thread on the topic of Samsung Galaxy S7 and Android. Ugh! I hate having to start all over again with new phone and OS.

[drussell]

Do you believe my 4S has any residual value that I could realize? I hate to put it into a box, to be in the way for years to come.

I use that 4 for things like on-site remote control of control4 home automation systems, bar/restaurant video switching systems, etc. where you need an Android/iOS app to control them.  Since I don't normally carry a smartphone for phone use, when I'm working on something like that for someone, I'll usually take that iPhone 4 with me because it is tiny and convenient, etc.

There is always something you can do with a physically tiny little portable computer with wireless networking ability.    You just have to run into a use for it.  Many people use an old phone essentially as an iPod but we technically minded people should be able to be a tad bit more creative. 

You know, I kinda noticed the curved sides last night but I thought I was tired and just went to sleep. Now that you mention it, it is neat.

Having spent long time on boats I am used to securing on a lanyard anything that could get away and fall in the water, like keys and phones. The iPhone 4S has such a lanyard and I will need to see how I do it for the Samsung.

I will probably open a new thread on the topic of Samsung Galaxy S7 and Android. Ugh! I hate having to start all over again with new phone and OS.

I don't think there is any provision for a lanyard on most modern phones.  (My good ol' Nokia 5300 has a loop for that.)  I think it fell the way of other convenience factors that are only used by a small minority of users in favor of "sleek" design over functionality.

Note that the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are different phones.  The former has a standard, flat, more reasonably priced screen.  The latter has that gimmicky wrap-around display that breaks if you look at the edge of a table the wrong way.  The only time it is somewhat neat is that you can see the time or a message indication on the side of the phone while it is in one of those book-cover type protector cases that is in the closed position, so you can still see one edge.  The problem is that one of those cases is pretty much mandatory for those phones because the screen edges are so fragile. 

Unless you are very careful and gentle with your phones, I highly suggest you use one of those cases.  Sometimes it will only be the outer touch glass that breaks (which is reasonably affordable) but separating it from the uber-expensive curved LCD is almost impossible compared to replacing just the outer digitizer glass on most phones.

Just be careful of that screen!    Included in my parts order yesterday was an new replacement complete front screen assembly, including the digitizer and LCD screen, already pre-mounted to a new frame for an iPhone 6S yesterday.  $22...  CANADIAN, including shipping from here in Canada.  Doesn't even have to take the slow-boat from China.

You will NOT be able to replace that S7 Edge screen for $22, so treat it nicely and you'll probably enjoy the phone once you get used to Android instead of iOS.  It is much more flexible and capable, but does lack some of the polish that iOS has.

[rrinker]

 As the 4S is the oldest phone that got iOS9, that's probably why it was excluded. The oldest phone on a given release's compatibility chart is mostly there so people stop complaining about their otherwise perfectly good 5 year old device not working, ie, it will run the latest operating system, but barely, and usually with some limitations and some features not available. Plus many carriers, at least in the US, continue to sell the older models as the 'budget' option, but of course obsoleted that much sooner.
 I keep my device, usually as long as practical. I don't run out and get the latest one every year, frankly that's an idiotic waste of money and I have better things to waste my money on. When I do get one, I get the model prior to the latest and greatest, and then hang on to it. I skipped many - I had a 5S that only just recently started showing signs of a battery going bad and not holding a charge like it used to, back at the beginning of the year. So I upgraded to an 8. 

[drussell]

As the 4S is the oldest phone that got iOS9, that's probably why it was excluded.

The 4S, 5 and 5C aren't exactly underpowered for running a chat app.

Something else is afoot on that one.

The oldest phone on a given release's compatibility chart is mostly there so people stop complaining about their otherwise perfectly good 5 year old device not working, ie, it will run the latest operating system, but barely, and usually with some limitations and some features not available. Plus many carriers, at least in the US, continue to sell the older models as the 'budget' option, but of course obsoleted that much sooner.

Yeah, but that is more Apple's game, trying to get you to buy more hardware.  It doesn't explain wechat blocking those models.  Apple still supports things back to 9 on the software side, so for an app to explicitly exclude these models, it must be some capability on the phone that they want to use.  For a chat app, the only possible thing that I can think they could be requiring is some sort of spying/tracking ability, as I've said before.  Whether this is a China-induced thing or not would be pure speculation, but they do pretty much require Chinese companies to comply with the state surveillance apparatus.  If anyone else has an idea why a messaging app would need specific hardware capabilities not found until the 5S, I'm all ears.

I keep my device, usually as long as practical. I don't run out and get the latest one every year, frankly that's an idiotic waste of money and I have better things to waste my money on. When I do get one, I get the model prior to the latest and greatest, and then hang on to it. I skipped many - I had a 5S that only just recently started showing signs of a battery going bad and not holding a charge like it used to, back at the beginning of the year. So I upgraded to an 8.

Indeed.

As an aside, you do know you can replace the battery in that 5S for under $10, right? 

I get decent quality batteries within 2-3 days for those for $9 Canadian, shipped.  Insane.

[rrinker]

 It's not that a 4S is underpowered for a chat app, it's that a 4S is underpowered to run the OS version needed because the chat app developers decided to support only a newer OS. Pretty sure WeChat works on the 5, 5S and 5C, and that's likely because of something in iOS9 that the 4S can't do (perhaps an artificial limitation, in that the 4S COULD handle those features, just slowly).

 You can say that about pretty much any app on any platform, apart from specialized computer or image processing apps, just how big dos an email program need to be? How much system resources should a word processor actually us, considering that 99% of the time it should be just sitting there waiting for you to type something. Heck you can say the same thing about the OS itself. But hey, even a basic machine has multiple CPU cores and multiple GB of RAM, so bloat away.

 Maybe it's to implement some tracking, maybe it's just some features they just had to add in there to keep the app 'fresh' even though it does nothign to enhance the actual functiona, namely to be ablt to chat with other users. Good luck getting  any answers to that.

 Yes, I know I can just replace the battery in the 5S. It's a backup plan, although since the 5S can't do iOS13, it's more or less already orphaned. I actually have all my phones, except the 4S - I gave that to a friend to needed a phone, when I got the 5S. And within a week, my completely unscratched 4S had a smashed screen - I do not know what women do to phones. My GF went through TWO Samsungs in a year - the first, she dropped getting out of her car and didn't even realize she didn't have her phone with her until the next morning when leaving for work and something crunched under her tires. The second, she had stuffed in the built-in storage area most women have, and then walked into a pool - not pushed, not thrown in, didn't fall in, walked into a pool and didn't remember she had it in there until completely underwater. I made her get the toughened 'Active' model as a replacement so it's waterproof and less likely to be drop damaged. I actually pulled out my old 3G and charged it up, connected to my wifi and I was able to open web pages. No, the ancient UI did NOT look better than the new ones. Pretty crude looking, by today's standards. But it still worked.Lost the chargers for the two Palm-basd smartphones I had before getting an iPhone, I'll have to look up the specs and make a cable so I can charge them from my lab power supply and see if they still work (or if I can remember how to use them - the one has a keyboard, physical like a Blackberry, but the older one uses Graffiti character recognition.