Neil Hughes
Every year, Apple debuts a new version of iOS in beta form. Every year, you get excited and want to test it before it's ready for public consumption. Every year, you will regret doing so.
The first beta of iOS 11 launched on Monday for iPhone and iPad (and the sixth-generation iPod touch as well, if we're being thorough). It's pretty neat!
AppleInsider staff uses iOS 11 on older, secondary, or nonessential device — because it crashes.
It's also not ready for primetime.
Every year, AppleInsider sees the horror stories from near-sighted users who, in a moment of pure excitement over a software overhaul, regrettably installed a new beta on their iPhone. "How do I downgrade?" they want to know.
The first beta of iOS 11 is, thus far, for developers only. A public beta will launch later this month, and perhaps that version will be less buggy, but you should still wait.
AppleInsider staff has been testing iOS 11 for a few days, and all of us have installed it on older, secondary, or nonessential devices. For good reason — it crashes.
Just today, my iPhone randomly reset as I was removing items from Control Center for a story. Inexplicably, my 12.9-inch iPad Pro actually loses power when it's charging on my Logitech Smart Connector dock. Copy and paste is completely nonfunctional on my iPhone 6s. 3D Touch to invoke app switcher does not work at all.
All of this is fine. It's a beta. I was prepared.
Most users who haphazardly install betas, however, don't seem to realize or expect this. And then they're in a world of hurt when their iPhone becomes problematic to the point of being potentially unusable.
Things are a little better on the Mac. There, you could install macOS 10.13 High Sierra to a partition, and keep your regular macOS 10.12 Sierra install separate and buttery smooth. If you know how to do that (and you have a developer account required for the first beta), have fun playing around.
You'd better put it on a partition, too. We're using a 2015 MacBook Pro to test it out, and we had to pull the drive and format it in an external enclosure on a machine without the beta installed to recover the drive after a particularly nasty crash. For now, that machine is fine, but we're keeping a wary eye on it.
Things are way worse on the Apple Watch. There, you simply cannot downgrade from the watchOS 4 beta to watchOS 3. If your watch gives you problems and you want to roll back the software, you have to actually mail it in to Apple and get it replaced. Just don't.
Whether you're eyeing iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, or watchOS 4, please take our word for it and do not install it on a mission-critical machine intended for everyday use. You'll regret it.
If you made the shameful mistake of updating to iOS 11 already on your primary iPhone, and you inevitably regret your decision and want to roll it back to iOS 10, you can visit ipsw.me and find your model number to download the appropriate install file. Then you'll need to disable Find My iPhone, put your device into DFU mode, and queue up iTunes on your Mac or PC to select "Restore and Update," installing the latest publicly available version of iOS.
But really, don't let it come to that. Because now you know better.
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66 Comments
Excellent advice. And if you are really risk averse, don't jump on the next OS the first day it gets released out of beta. But we all knew that already and will have a harder time avoiding that temptation.
This is BS. I have it running on my 2016 Touch Bar laptop, 2011 17” laptop, 2 2011 iMacs, 3 iPads (mini, large pro and smaller pro), 2 iPhone 7+, TV4 and 2 Watches series 2.
We have not encountered anything yet. In fact I was just talking to my business partner saying “they must have had this done & sitting around waiting for awhile because I don’t recall a “beta 1” feeling and running so “done” feeling across so many platforms.
TV is the star here by the way. Really nice changes to the interface. Much better. Much easier.
The only thing i can I can think of as to why someone MIGHT run into problems - if any - would be if they did a “rape & scrape” (that’s what we call reformatting a device or computer) and installing from scratch. I don’t know why someone would do that but since we DONT do that, all I can say is running it like an update resulting in a smooth running cross platform update.
Are PSA's really needed for stuff that is in beta and not available to the PUBLIC?
How about modifying the headline to clarify that you're rallying against iOS 11 BETA. Because in a year, when the final iOS 11 is released, this article will still be indexed, and still be proclaiming that iOS 11 is a fail. Which by then it won't be. Shirley. ;-)