How to Fix a 'Slide to Upgrade' Screen That Won't Go Away

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Posted September 19, 2015 at 4:13pm by iClarified

Apple has posted instructions on how to fix a 'Slide to Upgrade' screen that won't go away during the update to iOS 9 process.

When the Slide to Upgrade screen doesn't respond, find out what to do.

Here's the steps to resolve the problem:

Step One
Connect your iOS device to a computer that you've previously synced with iTunes. Then make sure iTunes is open.

Step Two
Select your device. If you don't see it listed, force restart your device by pressing and holding both the Sleep/Wake and Home button for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

Step Three
If you made an iTunes backup of your device before updating to iOS 9, restore your device from that backup. If not, you need to make a backup of your device in iTunes, then restore from that backup.

We didn't run into this problem. If you have, let us know how you got past it in the comments!

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Sharina - September 24, 2015 at 5:36am

I cant restore my iphone 5 because iTunes detects the find my iphone app..it says i need to close it first from my device..how the hell will i close it from my device if i cant even open my phone?please,anyone help..i havent used my phone for the last week.its so frustrating..

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afreydoun ghaheri - September 22, 2015 at 8:53am

i can't backup my iPhone since it says iTunes can't backup because the iPhone is not set up

justabrake - September 21, 2015 at 10:54pm

Copy and paste has problems !

justabrake - September 21, 2015 at 10:13pm

My problem after updating is in calendar ! When I touch a date there's no response the screen is like dead ! Anyone else ?

jess84 - September 21, 2015 at 6:53pm

I read about this issue today on Macrumors as well... I must say that this makes me incredibly nervous to upgrade to IOS 9 and El Capitan.... I believe I will wait a couple weeks or months if necessary before I upgrade all my devices. Hopefully by then majority of the bugs will be ironed out.

Lyle - September 21, 2015 at 5:42am

I restored my iPhone 6 to iOS 9 without any issue, however, it's when I restored from backup that I was faced with the "slide to upgrade" problem. After numerous attempts trying to fix it, a force restart (holding in the power button and home button) while the phone was connected to iTunes worked for me.

2 updates on the same day - September 20, 2015 at 11:53am

Updated my iPad mini, I have to say, every icon were present and very quickly, even my iBooks PDF files are all present and accounted for. After ios9 install, I also had no Slide ... even touchscreen was slow and unresponsive. This is not my first wifi update, most of the time, there was a lots still download or gone. I did the power reboot, I think the Slide to update was to early and not ready to operate yet. I updated my iPhone 5, just let it do its thing, watched a tv show, and the iphone was perfect and very quick. The update is very different then in the past. Dont play with screen to quickly, let the thing do its thing..:-)

DmS - September 20, 2015 at 10:19am

i stuck exactly at the same point. my iPad Mini upgraded to iOS9 somehow after all those few steps pass (as usual), I've got stuck at "slide to Open". it was the last step before i can use my iOS9 for the first time in my iPad. i do everything with iTunes, even re-update. didn't change anything. thing that i wonder is my iPad Mini have slot for sim card, don't have problem when i put different sim card in to it. the downloaded ipsw from iTunes says mine is CDMA. (usually upgraded by OTA) . as far as i know my iPad is GSM coz have sim card tray with it. back to the problem, coz i desperate cant't do anything with my iPad so i decided to put my lovely iPad into DFU mode. than i do restore, after restored and do steps "again", no more stuck in "slide to open". my iPad was Jailbroke, but not for piracy app. now its not anymore, doesn't matter. my themes gone. and some tweaks also gone. but no regret at all. coz i still got iPad, iPhone, MacBook, MacAir, Apple Tv and my beautiful time capsule with me.

iAmMe - September 20, 2015 at 2:53am

On the contrary, upgrading directly on my phone worked every time. Even the beta firmwares. Also upgrading directly on the phones needs smaller space so it downloads faster. Haven't had a problem upgrading thru phone since iOS 7.

ushio18 - September 19, 2015 at 9:47pm

Phone is stuck on the screen, and I have the iphone5 with the power button malfuction.. is there anyway to turn off the phone without the power button?

Name14 - September 20, 2015 at 6:07am

Let battery run down...?

Techno - September 20, 2015 at 4:53pm

If het Siri is on, Ask Siri for the weather and tap the wether.

John - September 19, 2015 at 5:08pm

So a reset of all settings and then a backup on iCloud and then a restore does not fix this? I assumed that may be another solution to fix... Has anyone tried that?

rahilxx98 - September 19, 2015 at 4:56pm

How fix the slide to unlock feature: Step 1- and you're done! Congrats on your new iPhone.

Thibault - September 19, 2015 at 4:16pm

The bug is related to upgrading from versions before 8.4.1 to 9 DFU is a method to fix it but it's not guaranteed to work. Upgrading to 8.4.1 with an IPSW from Apple's website first and then upgrading to iOS 9 works.

The iDevice Pro - September 19, 2015 at 7:24pm

That is if Apple is still signing 8.4.1 at the time you try to upgrade to it....