Apple I think I love you

And if you know me, you can take the full meaning of that statement. (For those of you who don't know, my house is full of Dell products.)

So, I've been having iPod Touch problems. I have an older 2nd gen (8 gig, and chock full of stuff) that I've had for about a year and a half. The battery was running down fast, and it wasn't charging fully even when plugged in over night. I did some searching and found an entry in some Apple troubleshooting thing that said to make sure I had the most current software. A software update has been available for some time, but I've been reluctant to update it because I was worried about losing data - specifically my game progress in all my apps. Jack updated his iPhone some time ago and said his apps were all perfectly saved, but still I was afraid to update.

With the battery problems, it made it hard to play my games because the thing ran down after 10 minutes with Pocket Frogs. In fact, both of my NimbleBit games crashed often after the most recent updates, entirely the fault of the updates (Tiny Tower didn't open at all and Pocket Frogs crashed if I wasn't connected to a WiFi network- which is pretty much any time I'm not at home). Some of my games like Angry Birds and Stupid Zombies haven't opened for months, and Zombie Farm crashed occasionally too. I had no choice but to update my software and hope that fixed everything.

I spent TWO HOURS last night making sure my iPod was backed up, all my apps were saved, all my purchases transferred to my computer, all my playlists noted. The thing said it would delete my media, but apps and data would not be affected. Then I left it to update overnight.

The first thing I noticed when I went back to it this morning was that the battery was fully charged! Before, it would have the tiniest sliver to go and still indicate it was charging even after being plugged in for hours. Some of my apps had moved around, and the thing re-installed apps I had deleted to free up some memory. The apps even stayed on the correct screens, for the most part. Except 2 were missing from my first screen and I wasn't sure what they were. Pocket Frogs and Zombie Farm had saved my progress. Angry Birds and Stupid Zombies worked again. And then I realized one of the apps that was missing from my first screen- Tiny Tower was no longer on my device!

IT DIDN'T SAVE TINY TOWER! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! APPLE FAIL!!!!!!!

I had already shut down the computer and needed to get to work, so I couldn't plug the thing back in and see if I could get the app from my computer. Then I started telling myself that it was ok to start from the beginning. It had taken me some three weeks to get fifty-three floors, I was more than halfway to the best elevator, and the app was free and I hadn't spent any money on in-app purchases either. It's just a game, it wouldn't be that bad. So, I re-installed the app from the App Store and left the WiFi connected area.

I got to work and took a minute to open my new Tiny Tower so I could get started rebuilding. It was there! It was all there! All my floors, all my bux, all my money! Somehow, the game saved! YAAAY!!!

Seriously, I have no idea how it would have happened. Updating the software deleted the app from my device. I didn't open it right away after reinstalling so it couldn't have pulled my game from some secret storage place on the network. Some program stuffed my save in to some far reaches of my iPod memory, or something, I really don't know. Apple win!

Yes, it's just a game, but I get entertainment from it, and spent a lot of time joyously taking Bitizens up my tall tower in the not super fast elevator. It's frustrating to lose something you put time (and sometimes money, though not in this case) into, even if that something is meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

I still don't know if the update fixed my battery issues. It's been draining somewhat fast, but I've been using it a lot today (and I still haven't put all my music back on it!). If nothing else, I'm encouraged that I won't have to start over in every game when the day comes that I can upgrade to one with more memory. Thank you, Apple!