How to Download Apple’s iOS 8 Without Deleting Your Whole Life

So I'm a holdout. Not only have I not yet downloaded the new iOS 8 update... I'm still rocking the iOS 6. Dude, I know. What's my reasoning for not wanting to embrace the future? Well, I had a bunch of friends who upgraded to iOS 7 and lost EVERYTHING. I hoard pictures, texts, even friends' old phone numbers (Hey, deleting things is hard), so that would be a big problem for me.

Also, and maybe most importantly, I think the last upgrade made texts look funny. Yep. That's really it. But recently, I thought about upgrading. Mostly because my iPhone has been running slow as heck. And there have been some new sweet apps I can't download because I haven't upgraded. I was all set to go update to the 7, but then my goodness-- here's the iOS 8!

So, I went on hunt for info on how not to have my life ruined by the iOS 8 update. It came from a pretty unlikely place. The E! Network:

But there is a solution to downloading iOS 8 without getting rid of the 1,129 photos of your kitties. All you have to do is connect your phone to your computer and make sure you have the latest version of iTunes. Once you're connected, you should be prompted to update your software. If not, just go to "Setting" on your iPhone and find your software update in "General." Done and done. And all without getting rid of your Bible app and going to hell.

 

Oh, and another option is just to wait one or two days to download it. Obviously millions of people across the globe trying to get the same update all at once is causing theslowwww crawl. We know, the idea of not having the latest and greatest iPhone software might be like a punch in the groin for you, but we promise, it'll be OK.

 

If you'd like a more "official" sounding source (which, let's be honest, I did), PC World also suggests the same. Plugging in to upgrade works because:

iOS 8 doesn't actually consume that much disk space. Once installed, you will still have around 12GB of free space on a 16GB device. It simply needs more space at the point of installation, although 6.9GB is far more than any previous OS upgrade has required.

 

PC World also suggests updating your iTunes first and backing up your device. Read more tips here.

Happy upgrading!