Is the latest public beta reliable enough to download On a phone used as the main day to day phone?
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Worth downloading?
- Thread starter dannyhamer07
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Yes.
However, if you have a lot of apps, especially finance ones, take a full backup before you upgrade and as soon as it's done, wait half an hour, do a hard reboot, wait a few minutes, and check every app you consider important.
95% chance you're good to go, but if not, DFU mode, reinstall the latest iOS 18 and restore from your backup.
However, if you have a lot of apps, especially finance ones, take a full backup before you upgrade and as soon as it's done, wait half an hour, do a hard reboot, wait a few minutes, and check every app you consider important.
95% chance you're good to go, but if not, DFU mode, reinstall the latest iOS 18 and restore from your backup.
It's generally never a good idea to use a beta operating system on a phone that is your daily driver, but it seems many people do it here
I've done it for years. Apart from once, where some beta messed up IMAP so I downgraded to get emails again, it's been fine.
Of course, the more important your phone is to you (especially if you use crucial apps) then the more risky it is. iOS 26 will probably be out in a few weeks, so one could just wait it out if not confident in doing a full downgrade/restore.
No doubt, and I'm sure people will come out of the woodwork to stay they never had a problem, I'm just pointing out that its not best practice to use beta software or operating systems on production equipment, or in this case, your devices/computers that you rely on daily. It only takes that one time at the most inopportune time to cause a lot of headaches.
I know my opinion is completely opposite to the majority here at MR, just look at the popularity of the beta threads, but I am offering my rather conservative opinion that its not worth the risk, especially since we're looking at the release in a month. Just my$.02
In the past 5 years I’ve downloaded beta by August the releases are extremely stable and I’d downloaded them to my devices with no concerns. Then by the gold release it’s basically the same as the final version for the public.
It’s stable, but still just a glass skin over iOS 18 for the most part. So the question is, why are you tempted to get it? ChatGPT 5 isn’t there yet. More Personal Siri is still absent. The only new features worth talking about are the ones they lifted from Pixel: visual intelligence in screenshots and call screening. And they are… fine. Everything else is mostly cosmetic.
I've been running the dev beta on my daily driver 15PM since a week before the first public beta and 90% of the time runs smoother than iOS 18 was on it and battery life has actually improved but I also understand the risks and didn't have any mission critical apps that I relied on for my daily life. Currently running version 26 betas on my iPhone, iPad & MacBook Pro only device I haven't installed on is my watch as I didn't want the hassle incase something goes wrong with it as that's not a quick restore like other devices
Honestly, its been pretty good but i always wait till beta 4 or 5 for a OS before updating. I wont daily drive a beta 1 lol.
Downloaded an IOS public beta for the first time friday.
Have to say IOS 26 has been great, much better than i anticipated
Have to say IOS 26 has been great, much better than i anticipated