There are 3 iPhones in my household and we all have words with friends. 2 work fine but one of them say "Please wait Updating" It's been doing that for about 4 hours now... lol Deleting and reinstalling does not help. How long does this so called "update" last?
I think it's a Word with Friends server problem. When this issue started way back when, they upgraded and added servers, the problom was temporarily fixed. The game ran smooth with no issues. Then a million more people joined and the problem is slowly coming back. To answer your question, the longest update for me has been about 60 seconds.
Everyone has that problem. Look at its reviews on iTunes. 99% of reviewers would say that they have that problem.
