It's nice to be popular.  

The downside of this is when you are Apple, and millions of iOS and OS X users try to simultaneously download upgrades of iOS 5 for their iPhone/iPad/iPod touch devices. 

There are multiple reports this evening of disgruntled upgraders receiving errors, and unable to complete their upgrades. 

Apple's data center seems to be in full meltdown mode-- not quite to the level of the current Blackberry outage, and a better problem to have of the two as a business--  but for those of us out online looking for new software ... it's not good (I expect the spirit of Steve Jobs to be roaming the halls of Apple IT tonight very unhappy.) 

It fails this way-- you connect your 'i' device to iTunes, and recieve a notification that there is a new version of iOS available '5.0'.

You are taken through a lenghty download/backup process, and when that is complete (after thirty minutes to an hour) you get a message that 'an internal error occurred' and to 'try again'. 

This seems to be repeating (at least it did for me!) multiple times. 

What is happening is at the key moment when your iOS device has completed its backup to your local machine, it fails to reach the Apple update server somewhere out in the cloud-- because they're currently swamped!

At this point, you have two choices: 

• PLAN A: Stand down for now, pour yourself a lovely adult, or non-alcholic beverage of your choice, marvel in the wonders of iOS 4.x, and wait for the masses to clear (probably within a few days)
• PLAN B: OK-- If you really, REALLY, REALLY have to have it tonight ... here's what worked for me: 

   (Follow these instructions very carefully, you have been warned)

   Note, this is going to take a while ... so don't expect to skate out the door with iOS 5 in a few minutes. 

   If you're the least bit scared by the immensity of all the stuff listed below.... PLAN A is still there waiting for you... but if you are moderately brave soul.. go for it. 

1. CRITICAL:  Step 1: Back up your iOS device running 4.x to iTunes and verify it's there (in iTunes preferences under 'Devices') and the backup has today's date.  (This will take a while). 
2. Step 2: Erase your iOS device!    Make sure first you've completed step 1, you have a backup standing by ... and then YES, you're going to erase your device by going to Settings->General->Reset, and 'Erase all contents and settings'
3. Your iOS device will now be in a primordial state, and ask to be connected to iTunes.  Do so. 
4. You'll be offered the chance to restore.  Do so. 
5. THIS MIGHT FAIL. This is OK.  You'll see the iOS software get uncompressed, and then there's a fairly good chance you'll get an error. The beautiful thing is that you'll know this in a few moments, not waiting nearly an hour for a backup to get copied again.  You're fighting for a slot in the Apple data center-- and tonight it's a roll of the dice that you'll get through... but before too long, you will. 
6. Just keep trying until you get through .... it won't take too long. 
7. Once this starts, sit back, and relax, and let the restore happen (this will take a while)
8. Your iOS device will now restart, and show up in iTunes with a bland name like 'iPhone' or 'iPad'
9. You'll be offered a chance to 'Set up your (iPad/iPhone/iPod touch) ... restore it from a backup of (Your iOS device) ... which will be on the list. 
10. THIS MIGHT FAIL.  This is still OK.  Just keep trying-- you are once again needing to talk to Apple's very busy network infrastructure... and you will get through. 
11. Once this is rolling, you'll get back all your settings, all stuff from the backup (yes, this might take a while)
12. You'll see a message: "The settings for your (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch) have been restored. Please leave your (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch)  connected. It will appear in the iTunes window after it restarts:"
13. YOU MIGHT GET AN ERROR HERE TOO.  This seems to be OK. The restore of the backup seemed to be fine.
14. Go through the new iCloud setup (if you choose to use iCloud)
15. Depending on how you set up your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, you might need to manually copy over all your music, apps, etc. manually (this is what I needed to do)

Once this is done.  You'll have a brand spanking new, upgraded iOS 5 device to show off to all your friends. 

That was easy (wasn't it?)