How to get iOS 14 beta
Apple’s big mobile OS updates have a ton of new features, and you can try them out now. Here’s how. Jason Cross reports
For the past few years, Apple has made its operating systems available in a public beta, so you can kick the tyres and help find bugs before its release in the autumn. We touched briefly upon how to run the beta the previous issue, but here we go in to more detail.
We highly recommend you do not run this beta on a critical device. Yes, you can downgrade back to iOS or iPadOS 13, but it’s not trivial, and you may lose some
of the information that you haven’t backed up or saved in the cloud. We also recommend you back up your iPhone or iPad before you get started.
Registering for the Public Beta
Apple has made it easy to enter the public beta programme. Simply head to beta.apple.com and tap ‘Sign up’. You need to do this on the device upon which you wish to run the beta. You’ll be asked to sign in with your Apple ID, agree to terms of service, and then download a beta profile. Open Settings, then tap General. Scroll down to Profile and select it. You can then tap on the iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 beta software profile and choose to activate it.
Downloading the Public Beta
Once you’ve registered, downloaded the profile, and activated it, you’re ready to download the beta.
Open Settings, then tap Software Update. You should see that the iOS or iPadOS 14 public beta is available for download – if you don’t see it, make sure the profile is activated and installed. It can take a few minutes for the beta to show up after installing the profile, so don’t be in too big a hurry.
Once you have the profile installed, you will continue to get beta updates throughout the beta programme. Every time a new public beta release is available, you will automatically receive it, or can go to Settings > Software Update to download it manually. There’s no need to redownload or activate the profile.
Developer Beta
Apple runs a separate beta track for developers, who got access to iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 during WWDC back in June. Developer Beta builds are typically the same as Public Beta builds, but the release numbers are different, as developers had access earlier. So, Developer Beta 1 was never released as a Public Beta. Developer Beta 2 is the same build as Public Beta 1, and so on. Registered developers can go to developer. apple.com/download using the device on which they wish to run the iOS 14 beta. Download the beta profile, then open Settings > General > Profile and activate it.
Leaving the Public Beta
If you want to stop receiving beta updates, that’s easy enough. Just remove the profile and you won’t get any
more beta releases. Once the final public release of iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 is made available in the autumn, your device will download that, and you’ll be on the regular public non‑beta release schedule.
Simply removing the profile will stop you from getting further beta releases, but it doesn’t get you back to iOS 13 or iPadOS 13. We explained how to do this last month.
Supported Devices
You can run iOS 14 on any iPhone that runs iOS 13, and iPadOS 14 runs on any iPad that is compatible with iPadOS 13. Here’s the list of supported iPhones for iOS 14:
• iPhone 11/11 Pro/Pro Max
• iPhone XS/Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8/8 Plus
• iPhone 7/7 Plus
• iPhone 6s/6s Plus
• iPhone SE (1st/2nd generation)
• iPod touch (7th generation)
And here’s the list of supported iPads for iPadOS 14:
• 12.9in Pad Pro (1st/2nd/3rd/ 4th generation)
• 11in iPad Pro (1st/2nd generation)
• 10.5in iPad Pro
• 9.7in iPad Pro
• iPad (5th/6th/7th generation)
• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad mini 4
• iPad Air (3rd generation)
• iPad Air 2