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The iOS 6 upgrade that iPhone owners everywhere are downloading this afternoon didn't go so well for this The Atlantic Wire writer, and I may have lost all the data on an iPhone 4S. After getting permanently locked out , because the usual passcode didn't work, the only option was to wipe out the entire contents of the phone. While this might trump all the other anxieties over upgrading we spelled out earlier, the moral of my story isn't to avoid iOS 6. But rather, that lesson we've heard from Genius Bar employees, tech nerds, other unfortunate bloggers, and our most responsible of digital friends: Back up your data, and do it often.

Like I said, after having major reservations about getting the latest iOS, I went for the update anyway, as I felt it was my tech blogger duty to you the readers. Looking for the performance differences on a 4 and a 4S, I borrowed the 4S from a colleague, who may now regret that decision. After going through the upgrade motions (settings > general > software upgrade), I waited for the phone to finish the process, which takes longer on release days when the server gets overwhelmed. All done, the phone prompted me with the passcode screen, which I entered: 4124. Passcode not accepted. To make sure I had typed it in right, I again tapped 4124, the number the phone's owner assured me he used for months and months: Denied. After 4 more failed tries the phone disabled for a minute. Another wrong try: Disabled for an additional 5 minutes. At that point, I called the Apple support people, who told me to stop entering passcodes because at some point, the phone might go into restore mode, deleting everything on it. (That depends on the setting of the phone.)