I got an email about doing the public beta, and was thinking of trying it with my phone. I’ve never done it, and have no clue what to expect. I’m fairly useless when it comes to getting super technical with the tech, but I’d love to give it a shot.
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What do I need to know about using the beta version of iOS?
- Thread starter ssledoux
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If you’ve never done it and don’t want to deal with bugs that “could” affect your daily use, don’t install it. It’s beta for a reason.
If you are ambitious and able to tolerate bugs until the next beta release that may or may not have the fix, I would suggest you read up what issues others are experiencing (either an isolated issue or issue impacting all users) that could impact your use in the thread below. It may be a great way to try pre-release features but please do help out identifying and reporting bugs to Apple through their Feedback app. You will also need to sign up for a developer or public beta to install it. You will need to know/learn how to backup your device, restore the backup and downgrade/reinstall the latest public iOS if needed. There is a possibility you may spend time to troubleshoot, reinstall iOS and restore backup if there is an issue with the beta and you decide not to continue using it than to ride it out till public release. To avoid hassle, it might be ideal to stick to public release.
I’m fairly technical (30+ years in IT and tech support) and ain’t no WAY I’m putting beta on my daily use iPhone. I do have it on one iPad and one Mac, both of which I could do without in a pinch.
Don't do it unless you're prepared for the possibility, however remote, of your phone being "bricked" and you have both the skills and time to restore it to a working condition. I have plenty of the former but little of the latter so I'm happy to wait.
Agree; running it on my iPad and my Mac; but not on my MBA and won't install it on my iPhone that's due to land this afternoon
Thanks for the input. I think I’ll hold off. I’m not really up for dealing with that, although I COULD put it on my granddaughter’s SE that rarely sees any use, just to familiarize myself with the process.
The process is no different than installing the final version released to the public in a few months minus a few signing up steps.
I have done plenty of public betas from iOS 7 onwards and would usually start with PB3.
The main issues I came across were 3rd party apps not working/crashing, some minor glitches and subpar battery life, as compared to a finished public release.
There is this strange buzz whenever a new beta comes out to see what it brings, fixes or breaks 😉, but as the others have mentioned, you should be comfortable rolling everything back to a solid public release (iOS 16) should things go wild.
Apple explains how to on their beta page and here are some handy Zollotech videos:
How to install iOS 17 Beta:
How to go back to iOS 16 from 17 Beta:
The main issues I came across were 3rd party apps not working/crashing, some minor glitches and subpar battery life, as compared to a finished public release.
There is this strange buzz whenever a new beta comes out to see what it brings, fixes or breaks 😉, but as the others have mentioned, you should be comfortable rolling everything back to a solid public release (iOS 16) should things go wild.
Apple explains how to on their beta page and here are some handy Zollotech videos:
How to install iOS 17 Beta:
How to go back to iOS 16 from 17 Beta:
Cuz there hasn’t been a PB2. You could always switch to Dev betas in the settings to stay current. PB1 = DB3.
Well that was simple enough.
Thanks!
Edit: switched to Dev betas and sure enough, 17.4 was available. After updating, I’m now on iOS 17.0 (21A5291h). That’s weird. I’m running an iPhone 13 Pro, if it matters.
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It’s not iOS 17.4, that doesn’t exist and won’t for a long time. Everyone with a developer account can get iOS 17.0 beta 4, as in the fourth beta of iOS 17.0.
As @Devyn89 states there is no 17.4. 17.0 is the current beta, what build you’re running will be displayed in Settings/General/About. A 17.4 wouldn't be released until sometime in the Fall or toward the end of the year, maybe later.
“Bricking” hasn’t been a thing for a very long time. There’s always a way to restore unless you’re dealing with a hardware failure.
Why? What benefits do you expect to derive from this? What will you do if/when things don't work out as anticipated?
It's just an early access version of iOS 17 that is released to developers and then public who sign up for access. The idea is that developers test their apps with the new iOS to make sure that they work properly and then the public would usually test general stability and functionality.
Apple don't recommend installing it on a device that you use daily. Developers would have various devices to run the beta on to make sure their apps work on any supported generation of device but the public most likely only have one smartphone. I only have one smartphone but I have the beta installed on mine.
If you don't want to deal with bugs then it's not for you. If you were to install it and wanted to return to iOS 16 you would need to wipe the phone back to factory settings or wait for a newer beta release hoping it fixes the issue.
It's a good idea to install it on a phone you have as a spare if you want to become more familiar with how it works but really the point is to report feedback to Apple on any bugs you discover so that by the time launch comes it's a smooth as possible for everyone.
Of course you might just want to get your hands on iOS 17 before it's officially released. So far I've only had a few minor issues with the beta. The text box when typing in iMessage doesn't always appear and one of my Safari extensions is broken. Otherwise it's working fine and all my apps work as intended but I'd recommend holding off until the next beta (Public 2) or even the beta after that (Public 3) if you want to install it on your main phone.
At some point there will be an Release Candidate version which is essentially what will be released to everyone at official launch so if you see that you can feel confident about installing it but that won't be until September
Apple don't recommend installing it on a device that you use daily. Developers would have various devices to run the beta on to make sure their apps work on any supported generation of device but the public most likely only have one smartphone. I only have one smartphone but I have the beta installed on mine.
If you don't want to deal with bugs then it's not for you. If you were to install it and wanted to return to iOS 16 you would need to wipe the phone back to factory settings or wait for a newer beta release hoping it fixes the issue.
It's a good idea to install it on a phone you have as a spare if you want to become more familiar with how it works but really the point is to report feedback to Apple on any bugs you discover so that by the time launch comes it's a smooth as possible for everyone.
Of course you might just want to get your hands on iOS 17 before it's officially released. So far I've only had a few minor issues with the beta. The text box when typing in iMessage doesn't always appear and one of my Safari extensions is broken. Otherwise it's working fine and all my apps work as intended but I'd recommend holding off until the next beta (Public 2) or even the beta after that (Public 3) if you want to install it on your main phone.
At some point there will be an Release Candidate version which is essentially what will be released to everyone at official launch so if you see that you can feel confident about installing it but that won't be until September
I think some of the naysayers here are overplaying things just a smidge. As @Knowlege Bomb noted above, I've seen no reports of a completely bricked phone in a very long time.
The key to successfully running a beta is a way to stop running the beta if it breaks things you need. This means (A) having an archived backup (the archived part means that it is stored in a separate location so that it is available to reinstall if something does go wrong; it needs to be archived so that it is not overwritten in the backup folder by a newer backup from iOS 17, which cannot be used to restore to iOS 16) and (B) knowing how to restore from that backup if needed. Easily understandable instructions for both (A) and (B) can be found either in these forums or with a simple Google search. Sites like imore.com are a great resource for this.
I think if most people who haunt these forums regularly step back from the edge of the precipice, they would realize that the bugs they see during the betas are mostly just nuisance bugs: stuttery animations, graphics that aren't laying out properly on the screen, batteries running down more quickly than normal, that sort of thing. In this forum, those things are treated as disastrous and subject to histrionic rants about how Apple can't do anything right. In the real world, these are annoyances and nothing more.
Occasionally, there are apps that don't work or don't work properly, mainly because the apps have not yet been updated to be able to work properly with what is really an unreleased operating system. You can't blame the app developers for this (they are not allowed to update certain aspects of their apps for public consumption until iOS 17 is released to the public in mid-September). You also can't blame Apple for this, as this is part of the process. In any event, there is an entire thread in this forum devoted to surfacing what those non-functioning apps are, and you can/should check there before installing the beta to ensure that an app you need isn't on the list.
So, as long as you are comfortable doing the things in (A) and (B) above (which really are not difficult), a beta is not a scary place. That said, using your granddaughter's SE (provided it is the newer SE that can run iOS 17) is probably a good place to dip your toe in the water.
The key to successfully running a beta is a way to stop running the beta if it breaks things you need. This means (A) having an archived backup (the archived part means that it is stored in a separate location so that it is available to reinstall if something does go wrong; it needs to be archived so that it is not overwritten in the backup folder by a newer backup from iOS 17, which cannot be used to restore to iOS 16) and (B) knowing how to restore from that backup if needed. Easily understandable instructions for both (A) and (B) can be found either in these forums or with a simple Google search. Sites like imore.com are a great resource for this.
I think if most people who haunt these forums regularly step back from the edge of the precipice, they would realize that the bugs they see during the betas are mostly just nuisance bugs: stuttery animations, graphics that aren't laying out properly on the screen, batteries running down more quickly than normal, that sort of thing. In this forum, those things are treated as disastrous and subject to histrionic rants about how Apple can't do anything right. In the real world, these are annoyances and nothing more.
Occasionally, there are apps that don't work or don't work properly, mainly because the apps have not yet been updated to be able to work properly with what is really an unreleased operating system. You can't blame the app developers for this (they are not allowed to update certain aspects of their apps for public consumption until iOS 17 is released to the public in mid-September). You also can't blame Apple for this, as this is part of the process. In any event, there is an entire thread in this forum devoted to surfacing what those non-functioning apps are, and you can/should check there before installing the beta to ensure that an app you need isn't on the list.
So, as long as you are comfortable doing the things in (A) and (B) above (which really are not difficult), a beta is not a scary place. That said, using your granddaughter's SE (provided it is the newer SE that can run iOS 17) is probably a good place to dip your toe in the water.
What's with all the doom-and-gloom in this thread? Some people are really eager to gatekeep iOS betas over here just because someone isn't as technical as them...
I've been putting dev beta 1 on my daily driver phone for over a decade now, the last time I had actually serious issues was on iOS 7 (!), and even then it was nothing a restore couldn't fix.
Back up your data before upgrading, prepare to encounter a few oddities here and there, and go try out the new features. If it's good enough for public beta, it's good enough for the average enthusiast.
I've been putting dev beta 1 on my daily driver phone for over a decade now, the last time I had actually serious issues was on iOS 7 (!), and even then it was nothing a restore couldn't fix.
Back up your data before upgrading, prepare to encounter a few oddities here and there, and go try out the new features. If it's good enough for public beta, it's good enough for the average enthusiast.
It’s not about gate keeping, it’s about giving a honest advice. We don’t gate-keep, we aren’t Apple, we don’t hinder anyone from installing an OS or App version, that could render a device temporarily unusable or even permanently corrupt their iCloud backups, save games, app settings, etc.
Anyway, if you scroll through the iOS17,16,15… forum sections or release notes, you’ll find multiple reasons why someone should not install a dev or public beta on his primary or sole iOS device.
E.g. the currently malfunctioning CarPlay could be one reason to not install the beta, if someone minds having no navigation or boring car rides for approx. 2 weeks till the next beta version release(in case they fix it there).
The usual Battery drain could be another reason, if someone highly depends of being reachable through the whole day.
The overall device down time, between having issues, iOS rollback and backup restore, could be another reason.
What’s a few oddities for you, might be huge show stoppers for others, and the safest and honest advice to such a question is: Better not install!
And to cite Apple:
Beta operating system software should be installed only on devices and systems used for development and testing. Attempting to install beta software in an unauthorized manner violates Apple policy and could render your device unusable. Make sure to install on devices and systems that you’re prepared to erase if necessary.