I was lining up my blog post for Thursday when I was interrupted by my flashing iPhone as it decided it didn’t want to complete the iOS8 update and sync. So, as you can imagine, I spent the rest of the entire day – and evening – on the phone with Apple, via the Philippians. I had some lovely conversations that day, during the in between times as we were waiting for things to load. One of the guys was really into music so we discussed what we like and how we listen to it. Me, I love using Spotify and having it suggest music I might like based on a song I choose, like my own personal DJ. My friend at Apple still likes listening to actual CDs – how old school of him! Another guy, one of the higher-up geniuses, has a wife and 2 kids and a very good American accent. We discovered that there’s an Ocean Park in each of our countries but I told him the Hong Kong one is strangely ironic because it’s situated on the mountaintops, not exactly on the ocean, as you would expect.
It was this last guy (probably the 6th person I spoke with on Friday) who kindly gave me his direct email address so he can continue handling my case the next day. What service! Yes, my syncing issue had still not been resolved as much to the Apple genius, and my own, dismay. Technology is brilliant when it works but when it doesn’t – watch out!!!! These days when I have an issue it’s usually a big deal. As a rule, I’m generally clever enough to fix small to medium problems myself so I don’t end up looking like this guy here:
Google usually has a useful answer but when it doesn’t, that’s when I call the big guns and end up on the tech help line for days. So while I’m still waiting for my update and synching issue to be resolved I thought I’d finally share one of my ultimate Apple product stories with you…
Nanu, Nanu… Nano
One day, many years ago, I was working on a big mural project for a client/friend of mine in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. I had hired 2 other talented painters to work for me and the project kept us busy for several weeks. We were working on 2 full-bedroom murals and we were supposed to start in the winter after construction was complete. But, as is the way of construction, the contractors were behind schedule so we all ended up working side by side, while they were scrambling to finish, amongst clouds of construction dust. You can imagine my delight! Blech.
I had received a new iPod Nano that very Christmas (2007), the flat square one (not the long skinny ones), and we had it plugged into Candice’s mini speakers and perched on the windowsill. At some point in the afternoon, a bunch of the workers had to come into the bedroom where we were working to do some finishing. Consequently, we had to move all of our buckets of paint up against the windows. Some of the workers even had to climb in and out the far window to access the rooftop.
So there I am, painting away, when I suddenly hear Candice exclaim,
“Bridget! Your iPod!!!!”
I whip my head in her direction and there, in her hand, she’s holding her speaker with something blue and dripping with paint dangling underneath it – my week old iPod of course! The construction worker had gone through the window, knocked it off the sill and directly into an open can of baby blue paint below. Luckily her speaker floated on the top, preventing my brand spanking new machine from sinking to the bottom, but unfortunately my iPod had still been entirely immersed in thick wet paint. As she held the speaker attached by, a now blue and shiny, umbilical cord to the dripping blob of paint below (formerly known as my iPod) her horrified eyes met mine and I cried out,
“Oh no! Candice – your speaker!”
And wouldn’t you believe it, this alien-like device was still pumping out music! Candice exclaimed something like,
“Never mind my speaker, what about your iPod?!!!!”
I’m pretty sure I burst into laughter at this point because what else is a girl to do when something so ridiculous happens? I ran over, unplugged the iPod, and raced it downstairs and outside to the only working running water in entire the house – the outdoor tap for the garden hose. I turned the water on, looked at my iPod, shrugged my shoulders, and submerged the whole thing under the water and rinsed. 
As the freezing cold water washed the paint off (it was January after all) I realized that the screen had turned back on and it was still playing so I took it out of the water, powered it off, and then dunked it right back under again. I gently cleaned it until all of the baby blue paint was gone. I made sure it was out of the cracks and the connection port, the sound jack and the one sliding switch. I turned the water off, went back upstairs, put the iPod safely in my bag and got back to work, with a heavy heart.
When I got home that night the first thing I did was take a hair dryer to it and then I put the iPod in a Ziploc bag filled with rice. I waited several days. Then I waited a few more – just to be sure. Finally, it was the day of reckoning, I used the hair dryer one last time and faced the fact that it was time for the real test. With bated breath I clenched my teeth together, pursed my lips, and hesitantly moved my finger toward the button to power it up.
Guess what, peeps? It. Turned. On. I’m not kidding you.
It turned on like nothing had ever happened!!!! I’m pretty sure I jumped for joy with a squeal of delight and tested it to make sure it would play music. It did! It was glorious music to my ears and it’s been working like a charm ever since; 6 years and counting…
That is the story I tell about the glory of Apple product design. Sometimes I think I should find a way to get paid to be an Apple spokesperson!
Here are some instructions in case it happens to you! Although, I would recommend leaving it in rice for longer than 24 hours (or silicon gel packs) before you try to turn it back on.
(Editor’s note: The original instruction video was https://youtu.be/5SRqD1t8wgE but it has been taken down. The modern, updated, 2018 way is to use silicon gel packs because they work better!)
As for my iPhone updating/syncing issue, after the 3rd day on the phone to my new friend in the Philippians, I was still unable to restore the contents of my apps back to my phone. I will now pursue trying to find a way to recover my info from a corrupted iPhone backup. Wish me luck. At least the Apple people on the phone are sweet as apple pie and they pulled out all the stops trying to help. There’s always that. 😉
Do you have an Apple story you’d like to share. Anyone else out there have trouble with the iOS8 update?
