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Craig Federighi answers complaint about why iOS auto-update doesn't work

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Apple's Craig Federighi has outlined how the company handles rolling out of automatic updates to iOS, including why it can take weeks to work.

Reddit user Mateusz Buda reports emailing Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi. He was asked about iOS auto-updates since Buda's iPhone had not updated itself two weeks after the release of iOS 15.4.

"We incrementally rollout new iOS updates," replied Federighi, "by first making them available for those that explicitly seek them out in Settings, and then 1-4 weeks later (after we've received feedback on the update) ramp up to rolling out to devices with auto-update enabled. Hope that helps!"

There is no further detail over what delays a widespread auto-update from one to four weeks, but it suggests Apple is conscious that bugs can be found even after beta testing.

To receive automatic updates, go to Settings, General, Software Update, and tap Automatic Updates to on.

Even with that enabled, users do not have to wait for the automatic download. They can still manually go into Software Update and tap to have the iPhone search for, and download, any new update.



17 Comments

eriamjh 18 Years · 1789 comments

It’s a reasonable form of server network bandwidth management.  

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes
insync88 7 Years · 30 comments

Is it the same with app updates? I’ve never had a app auto update,then I check manually and have 20 updates available 

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
Mike Wuerthele 9 Years · 6931 comments

insync88 said:
Is it the same with app updates? I’ve never had a app auto update,then I check manually and have 20 updates available 

Maybe. Seems like a reasonable assumption, given what Federighi said about OS updates.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
AppleZulu 9 Years · 2270 comments

Didn’t know auto-update has a wait-and-see pause built in. Thats certainly what I do with manual updates, to varying degrees. It’s both brilliant and somewhat amusing that Apple itself also takes the ‘no, you go first’ approach. 

6 Likes · 0 Dislikes
lkrupp 20 Years · 10521 comments


"We incrementally rollout new iOS updates," replied Federighi, "by first making them available for those that explicitly seek them out in Settings, and then 1-4 weeks later (after we've received feedback on the update) ramp up to rolling out to devices with auto-update enabled. Hope that helps!”

Follow Federighi’s advice. If Apple waits for feedback on update releases we should too. Zero day updating could be problematic even though I personally have never had one go south. On the same day of a release we always start getting the “this update bricked my (insert device)” rants. 

Of course, SOMEBODY has to be a guinea pig I suppose.

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes