I literally did this last night after looking around a ton about how to make this work now that we're not using profiles.
Unfortunately I found that if the Apple ID for the phone isn't a developer account, the Software Update page won't show the latest iOS beta, even on the "Beta" page. The phone needs to be linked to a developer account for iOS17 to show up.
Since iOS16.4 I think, there has been an option to use a different Apple ID for Beta software updates which gets around this problem, but until you're already on the iOS17 beta track, the option to use a different Apple ID wouldn't show up, at least for me. That means I need to somehow link his phone to a developer account in order for it to be eligible for the update.
I tried a few different options:
- I added his phone's SSID to my developer account. This didn't seem to help.
- I updated to the latest beta version his profile would allow (16.6 I think) but the iOS17 option never appeared
- I thought maybe if I signed my son's account up to be a developer account (I mean, he's a curious kid anyway so maybe he'd like to try writing an app someday, haha) that might give him access, but it turns out you have to be 18 or older to register as a developer, even if it's the free account
That basically left me with 2 remaining options:
- Download the iOS17 restore image and restore the phone to iOS17 using the IPSW file. I decided not to go this route because I didn't want to deal with backing up and restoring his phone. I think this would have worked though
- On his phone, signs out of his Apple ID and sign into mine. The downside here is that a device belonging to a child in the family isn't allowed to sign out of the account if screen time is configured. If you remove screen time, you lose all the settings you've set up once you turn it back on. This was a pain, but still seemed like the least inconvenient.
So, I disabled screen time on his account in our family settings, which gave me the option to log out of his Apple ID. I signed into my account on his phone (being careful not to merge any of my iCloud data onto his phone or we would have had a mess) and, voila, when I went into Software Update, I could see the developer beta option with iOS17 beta available.
After I updated to iOS17, I could see that my account was now signed in on the beta update screen. Even though it was already set to mine, I went ahead and set that option to use my account (this probably didn't do anything, but I just thought it might help it 'stick' for next time.)
At that point, I logged out of my Apple ID on his phone, and logged back into his. I could see that the iOS17 beta option was still available and that the beta updates were still set to use my Apple ID now instead of his. I do need to go back and set screen time up again, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I'm hoping that this will stick for future updates now that his phone is set to use my account, but we'll have to see if that resets on future beta updates.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope that helps!
