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Bobajobbob

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2005
257
175
Hi all, I don't see this discussed yet in a dedicated thread. I usually wait a few betas before jumping into the beta program on my main phone generally due to critical apps I need for work and life being incompatible however this year it doesn't appear that there have been too many low level changes so banking/authenticator/microsoft apps all seem good to go already. Always a danger that the second beta changes this but generally a good first beta is a good indicator of things to come.

I guess I can make my own mind up once I get iOS17 onto my dev device but just for **** and giggles what is the general view today from those brave enough to dive straight in? Install on main device today or not?
 
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SoYoung

macrumors 68000
Jul 3, 2015
1,545
955
No judging anyone who do this, but I think its a little foolish to install the first beta of a major OS release on a daily driver device. Even if it sounds okay for the first day, you never know what bugs can appear at a critical situation when you actually really need your phone. It happens several times on the past where first betas of major OS have important bugs or glitches impacting phone calls or any cellular related stuff.

If you have a secondary device, just go that way and if not, at least wait for the public beta to release, they are usually free of those "critical" bugs.
 

one more

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2015
5,146
6,569
Earth
This is an early beta, which means the battery is not a priority, most apps have not been optimised for it yet (even if they open ok) and, generally speaking, it is not cooked just yet.

I personally would not install anything before PB3 on my main device as it is just too important for my life and work to gamble with. I can also have a better use of my time than spending a good few hours putting it all back to normal if something goes wrong.

Besides, iOS 17 is quite a minor update, so why hurry.

Also, do check this thread:

 
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contacos

macrumors 603
Nov 11, 2020
5,446
20,735
Mexico City living in Berlin
No judging anyone who do this, but I think its a little foolish to install the first beta of a major OS release on a daily driver device. Even if it sounds okay for the first day, you never know what bugs can appear at a critical situation when you actually really need your phone. It happens several times on the past where first betas of major OS have important bugs or glitches impacting phone calls or any cellular related stuff.

If you have a secondary device, just go that way and if not, at least wait for the public beta to release, they are usually free of those "critical" bugs.

I guess it depends on how you use your phone. I have nothing of value ON the device. Everything like contacts, photos etc. are stored on iCloud anyway and easily restored. In fact, every few months I completely wipe my iPhone / iPad without restoring from a backup and only things that are actually stored on iCloud (like WhatsApp backups) return. I am weird like that haha
 
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AbSoluTc

macrumors 603
Sep 21, 2008
5,266
4,206
Hi all, I don't see this discussed yet in a dedicated thread. I usually wait a few betas before jumping into the beta program on my main phone generally due to critical apps I need for work and life being incompatible however this year it doesn't appear that there have been too many low level changes so banking/authenticator/microsoft apps all seem good to go already. Always a danger that the second beta changes this but generally a good first beta is a good indicator of things to come.

I guess I can make my own mind up once I get iOS17 onto my dev device but just for **** and giggles what is the general view today from those brave enough to dive straight in? Install on main device today or not?

Every year the same question. It’s your choice and even Apple states not to install betas on daily devices/devices you meet to work regularly.

What works for one, may not work for you. So either install it or don’t but again, each phone is subjective.
 
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ad5ll

macrumors member
Oct 11, 2011
34
7
So far I would say it’s fine for a daily driver, atleast with all the apps that I regularly use. Haven’t had any issues other than the music app crashing on me once, but has worked fine other than that one hiccup. Have been using pretty heavily for about 5 hours so far this morning, battery life seems on par with normal. Of course there is plenty I may still run into, but it seems by far better than b1 releases in the past.
 

Bobajobbob

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2005
257
175
Every year the same question. It’s your choice and even Apple states not to install betas on daily devices/devices you meet to work regularly.

What works for one, may not work for you. So either install it or don’t but again, each phone is subjective.
Of course Apple say that but Apple also introduced the public beta program because they know the demand is there and that their recent betas are generally in better shape than the early days. I'll make my own mind up but its always good to hear from those who have already made the leap.
 

papbot

macrumors 68020
May 19, 2015
2,298
1,076
I personally would not install anything before PB3 on my main device as it is just too important for my life and work to gamble with.
This has been my stance after a bad experience several years ago. The release was so buggy I spent more and more time just submitting bug reports that I began to realize it was getting to be a full time job, an unpaid one at that. I have more to do in my life than file bug reports all day long about almost every function I attempted to use. And from all the posts I’ve seen there is nothing that compelling in this release that you can’t just wait a while for. So far the best description has been that everything seems to work. So no rush.
 
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redbeard331

macrumors 68040
Jul 21, 2009
3,101
5,788
Hi all, I don't see this discussed yet in a dedicated thread. I usually wait a few betas before jumping into the beta program on my main phone generally due to critical apps I need for work and life being incompatible however this year it doesn't appear that there have been too many low level changes so banking/authenticator/microsoft apps all seem good to go already. Always a danger that the second beta changes this but generally a good first beta is a good indicator of things to come.

I guess I can make my own mind up once I get iOS17 onto my dev device but just for **** and giggles what is the general view today from those brave enough to dive straight in? Install on main device today or not?

I would advise you to at least wait for the public beta as they are usually pretty stable by then. Since you need your phone for work I’d say absolutely do NOT jump on it now. I tried it out yesterday and every time I’d unlock my phone I’d get about 3-4 lengthy springboard crashes, so I downgraded back to iOS 16.

There’s not much new anyways, I immediately flipped through everything on my phone and it was exactly the same as iOS 16, the only exception was the new image and sticker picker in messages. And it looks like bad 90’s clip art now anyways. I used to always get the betas on day 1 because I had several old backup phones, none of them can even run iOS 17 now. I may wait for a jailbreak later this year anyways.
 

Bobajobbob

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2005
257
175
I would advise you to at least wait for the public beta as they are usually pretty stable by then. Since you need your phone for work I’d say absolutely do NOT jump on it now. I tried it out yesterday and every time I’d unlock my phone I’d get about 3-4 lengthy springboard crashes, so I downgraded back to iOS 16.

There’s not much new anyways, I immediately flipped through everything on my phone and it was exactly the same as iOS 16, the only exception was the new image and sticker picker in messages. And it looks like bad 90’s clip art now anyways. I used to always get the betas on day 1 because I had several old backup phones, none of them can even run iOS 17 now. I may wait for a jailbreak later this year anyways.
Thanks, that's exactly the feedback I was looking for.
 
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Gunplay

macrumors member
Sep 19, 2015
62
65
It's stable on my 13 pro max so far but I'm not a power user and I don't use my phone for work so I can live with some jankyness. That being said I would wait until at least the public beta.
 
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ericthered926

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2017
118
274
I’m daily driving (been doing it since iOS 7) and it’s surprisingly polished. Definitely not without bugs, and things may get worse before they get better, but it feels more fluid than iOS 16 (it’s still a beta so things are less stable, but so far very good). It’s also barely been a day, so just my observations, experiences may vary!
 

symphony

macrumors 68020
Aug 25, 2016
2,232
2,641
In my experience, iOS 17 is doing much better than iOS 16 for me. It just gets warmer than usual, I don't know about battery life since I always micro charge, but I shockingly haven't ran into a bug yet, apps haven't crashed for me yet.

Though what I have noticed over the years is that iOS betas are generally okay to good on the first beta, but then get worse than the first beta, and people tell you it's just a beta and that they'll fix it by release, and in some cases never do.

Also lots of people have daily driven betas.
 

Bobajobbob

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2005
257
175
For what its worth having installed this on my dev device and run for a day I'll probably also roll it onto my main device. It's as stable a beta as I've seen for a while and I haven't found a single app yet that doesn't function. Disclaimer - I've been running beta software on my iPhones since jailbreaking my iPhone 1 so I may be more curious and beta patient than typical users.
 

madeirabhoy

macrumors 68000
Oct 26, 2012
1,671
620
installed it last night after too much wine, regretting it a wee bit in the morning but so far the good news is the same as the bad news. im not noticing anything different to be honest.

the only bug i can see is cosmetic, i have a Forza Football widget on one of my home screens and it doesnt quite look right but works fine.

in terms of features, ive yet to notice anything different never mind better. EDIT loving the nightstand view.
 
Last edited:

adrianlondon

macrumors 603
Nov 28, 2013
5,521
8,332
Switzerland
No judging anyone who do this, but I think its a little foolish to install the first beta of a major OS release on a daily driver device.
Foolish like a fox!

I have a full, archived, backup on my laptop so can restore at any time. iOS 17 is running nicely on my daily driver, with the exception of my IMAP email accounts. That's an issue mentioned in the release notes anyway, and I've installed Outlook as a temp workaround.
 
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teeshot44

macrumors 65816
Aug 8, 2015
1,120
885
US
iMessage/SMS issues is the only thing that made me revert back to 16.5. That affected my daily use too much.
 

theMarble

macrumors 65816
Sep 27, 2020
1,019
1,496
Earth, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
I've been running iOS 17 on my SE 2020 for a day, no issues yet. Just after it was installed, it did get hotter than usual, however today it has gone back to room temperature. Battery life is the same as 16.5.

The only bug I've found so far is when you go to the brightness/colour panel in the Home control in Control Centre, when you go to slide the brightness up and down, unless you are very light with your touch, it will scroll the page down, even though there is no content below it.

All of the apps I use daily work just as well as they did on 16.5. Though, if any problems do arise, I do have a backup of 16.5 that I can restore from.
 

SpaceGrayAlways

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2017
241
224
Somewhere
I got no issues. Everything works. No hangs. No bumps. Worked great while at work this week, without any issues.

Is the battery a bit worse? Maybe? But charging isn't hard these days. If you have a battery pack, or the ability to charge at work, there's no issue.
 
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mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,735
6,100
This is an early beta, which means the battery is not a priority, most apps have not been optimised for it yet (even if they open ok) and, generally speaking, it is not cooked just yet.

I personally would not install anything before PB3 on my main device as it is just too important for my life and work to gamble with. I can also have a better use of my time than spending a good few hours putting it all back to normal if something goes wrong.

Besides, iOS 17 is quite a minor update, so why hurry.

Also, do check this thread:


Been running it on my daily driver since iOS11. Battery life is always the biggest hit. It is a risk though. Just because the previous betas have worked doesn't mean that newest one always will. With that said, everything has been fine with this first beta, but that doesn't mean something will not break with the next release.
 

thatJohann

macrumors 68000
Jul 5, 2013
1,904
2,158
NYC
iMessage/SMS issues is the only thing that made me revert back to 16.5. That affected my daily use too much.
I read somewhere those issues stopped happening to people. Not sure tho. That’s the only thing holding me back from updating too.
 

teeshot44

macrumors 65816
Aug 8, 2015
1,120
885
US
I read somewhere those issues stopped happening to people. Not sure tho. That’s the only thing holding me back from updating too.
I’ve seen a few similar comments and Feedback still shows multiple reports. Maybe I’ll try it again over the weekend.
 

wolfe48

macrumors member
Aug 21, 2020
73
39
Upper Left Coast
iMessage/SMS issues is the only thing that made me revert back to 16.5. That affected my daily use too much.

I read somewhere those issues stopped happening to people. Not sure tho. That’s the only thing holding me back from updating too.

I have the 17 dev beta on my work device and SMS failed to send notification is still happening from day 1, all messages go through but the failed to send notification is getting old. Still holding off on installing on my personal device.
 
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walterpaisley

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2004
361
363
Springfield
I use an iPhone 14 Pro as my daily and have installed developer builds on day one for years, but I always have a backup phone ready to go in case my main phone summons demons or some craziness like that. It really comes down to how you use your phone and how crucial it is to your day-to-day. If you are a light user, you're probably fine as long as you can put up with flakiness.

If you want to jump in now, I'd suggest installing this release and then waiting for at least a week after each subsequent update goes out to make sure there are no new showstopper bugs.
 
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