How to Get the iOS 26 Developer Beta on Your iPhone

[axantas]

I am actually running it on a "non productive" iPhone 15 Pro Max and an old iPhone 13 Mini - an Apple Watch Series 6 is about to update.
I was just too curious and I wanted to try it. It is running quite well, I cannot confirm the battery draining. I had to restart it once, because the UI was not updating the icons after a design change.

But the overall opinion is correct: do not update it on a productive device unless you are willing to accept the hiccups of a first beta.

Looks promising so far.

 

[ronincse]

I'm one of the crazy people who actually really likes the new look and I think it will be great when they actually release it. I just downloaded it on an old iPad though and absolutely NO ONE should download this beta on a device they actually use. It looks cool but it's super laggy and buggy so far just with the built in Apple apps.

 

[sleeptodream]

Articles like this don't belong on a reputable site. The public beta comes out next month. That's how you plebs get it on your device.

Mostly for their own good, this is really not ready for public use yet. Don’t do it ya’ll it’s not worth it

 

[TurboDrooler]

I installed it on my daily driver 16P. YOLO. I love the new look. Not as dramatic as I would have hoped for, though.

 

[ThisIsMike]

Does anyone know if there's a straightforward way to do the backup process described here, but save the backup to an external drive instead of the mac itself? TIA!

 

[Helios_7]

How to get the developer betas on your iPhone:
Step 1: Don't.

 

[svish]

Badly want to try it out but thinking to wait at least till the public beta launches next month.

 

[Johnny907]

Yeah don’t do it, people.
Overnight posts have this beta pegged as one of the most unstable in years and they have a lot of fine tuning to do on visibility alone. Wait for dev beta 2 at the very least.

 

[FBeye]

I probably passed a blot clot and said funk it, I installed it on my iPhone 11 Pro. Battery is taking a hit of course, but it's quite usable and no deal-breaker bug so far. Fingers crossed, YOLO!!!

 

[Deanster]

I'm signed up for Dev Betas for my Vision Pro, which I consider an experimental and for sure non-daily-driver device to begin with, but especially these early Dev Betas aren't anywhere near ready for full time use. Even the early Public Betas expected in July are pretty rough historically. By late July/early september, it's all usually pretty usable.

That said, MacOS Sequoia overall has been one of the least stable OS cycles in memory for me, Lightroom Classic is a crash-magnet and even Mail.app has been 'app not responding' intermittently for months. I figure at least if I'm running the MacOS 26 Dev Beta, there will be a reason it's so crap.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Anyone on the fence:

Don't listen to anyone saying things like "YOLO".

Just wait and steer clear.

 

[vertsix]

I’d like to echo this. I was running it on a 16 Pro and it was always hot, full of bugs and a vampire on the battery.

Yeah, I am restoring to 18.5 in a bit.

 

[alexandr]

I use my phone pretty heavily in the evenings. I'd say I lost 5-10% more over the course of 5-6 hours when I got home. I was still above 50% though.

That's not too bad! I'm considering putting it on my DD, I had decent experience last 2 times I did it.

 

[alexandr]

I'm on it. I don't recommend it. My 16PM can barely keep up at 80Hz with all the new animations and styling. Music app is especially bad. Battery life is noticeably worse but not as bad as I expected.

Have you previously installed 1st dev betas?

 

[meltman]

It’s pretty bad. Every graphic designer seeing the icons be changed by the os are screaming at the sky. My phone is bubble buddy.

 

[awshucks]

I installed it on my broken 13 Pro (15 Pro is my daily driver). Broken glass + liquid glass 👌

 

[Parowdy]

My 2 cents, hold out for the Public Beta. Cause this aint it.

 

[uiterlix]

So how’s battery life? 🤡

 

[vertsix]

Have you previously installed 1st dev betas?

I have. This is on the worse side TBH, but that's largely due to the UI overhaul.

 

[alexandr]

I have. This is on the worse side TBH, but that's largely due to the UI overhaul.

Thanks, that's good to know. Reconsidering.

 

[skot-drud]

Can anyone confirm, that IPSW file from developer portal for iPhone 14 Pro Max can not be downloaded at the moment? Never had such problem. I can literally download any of them, but this one. It opens XML file with "Access Denied" text

Try the link for 14 Pro, it's linked to the file for 14 Pro Max

 

[markgpearse]

Now that they have public betas I’m not sure why any non-developer would install a developer beta on their device. Surely you can wait until July for the public beta.

I only installed it on my iPad. Not my iPhone or MacBook. I was curious. It was way too early for me, so I reverted back to 18.5. At least I got a feel for what is to come.

Yeah, I am restoring to 18.5 in a bit.

I restored my iPad back to 18.5 from OS 26 using a backup I created last night. The restore process went fine... but

my iPad Message app had 7,400 messages in the deleted folder (I keep this clean!). Where did they come from...

my Podcast app started downloading 100s of podcasts.

 

[cbigfoot1987]

15Promax 256 GB ipad Pro M1 512GB Apple watch ultra: i upgraded to Ios 26 and iPad 26 and watch 26. for ~the first hour-2 hours it was sketchy warm, & slow performance crashing etc after a bit i noticed it sped up and got cooler. and the crashing stopped and games ran fine. let rest overnight charging and in the morning acted just like it did on 18.5 no issues and perfect. Im willing to put up with the bugs for the call screening and text screening.

Today i have had no complaints at all. have used phone several hours.

 

[dchronus]

The battery drain HAS definitely been worse on both my Apple Watch 9 and my iPhone 15PM but that's expected. It's not the biggest disaster of a x.0 DB1 I've tried, but it's pretty rough. I came across an annoying bug where sometimes the send button on Messages stops working until an app restart.

I also found the general sluggishness with the UI subsided after the first couple of hours of indexing BUT it gradually starts to get laggier again as it stays on. Device restart helps clear it up again.

Even if you are eager for this, just wait for a couple of beta versions first. You'll probably be better off

 

[Baslea]

I'm on it. I don't recommend it. My 16PM can barely keep up at 80Hz with all the new animations and styling. Music app is especially bad. Battery life is noticeably worse but not as bad as I expected.

What? 80Hz? Are you a wizard? Mine is stuttering the **** of out itself. Thanks EU, I guess.
No seriously, scrolling feels like the days when installing iOS 9.x on iP4S made the device go full harakiri.