Seems I am not the only one.

Going for a restore so I guess I loose everything and can start over.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=24...

A lot of other problems with iOS4 on that forum.

Contacts etc should automatically be backed up in iTunes.

Broadly following the process by Sterno worked, however, having the issue with the backups meant everything was lost, which in and of itself is not a bad thing, nice clean start.

Am puzzled by this.

My process was

1. DL update file. Was going to wait to install, but got impatient.

2. Started installer. Backup was taking ages and I thought it had stalled, but left it while watching footie.

3. At half time the installation was just completing.

4. Rebooted phone in factory state (thought it had failed and was reverting but then saw the new "bubbly" wallpaper).

5. After a pause it began restoring the apps (this pause may be the point where people panic a bit)

Second half started. During a pause in play checked and

6. Then music/ vids were being restored

All settings restored by just after full time.

Was warned at the outset it could take an hour and it took not far shy of 2 hours, which I am well used to with apple - the last minute of my first Leopard install too and hour and a half.

My problem was an issue, pre iOS4 with backing up the phone, which took hours and indeed hung at times.

By downloading iOS4 but not installing it, then doing a restore with seemingly no backup to restore from, it installed iOS4 very quickly and left me with a clean phone.

The iPhone backup does not touch the media content on there as part of its backup process so the reasons for the slow progress are nothing to do with the music. Music is never backed up as it is synchronised with iTunes which holds the master version.

Best place for advise is the Apple forums themselves.

Tried updating this am but after 4 hrs still nothing had progressed. I cancelled the backup and did a restore which loaded iOS4 and reloded all my music and apps etc.

I had the same problem... home computer had some form of USB issue... Took it to work worked fine.... then restored backup from home...

However will only see the benefits for today..... New 32gb Iphone 4 due to land tommorrow..... :):):)