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IOS - going back to release software from Beta
tdenson
07-10-2016
Can someone please tell me the easiest way of doing this. I have just upgraded to an iPhone 7 and I want to pass my old phone on to a friend, but it's running Beta IOS 10. I guess a factory reset will leave the Beta version on.
JasonWatkins
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by tdenson:
“Can someone please tell me the easiest way of doing this. I have just upgraded to an iPhone 7 and I want to pass my old phone on to a friend, but it's running Beta IOS 10. I guess a factory reset will leave the Beta version on.”

Delete the developer profile firstly, but then just do a full restore in iTunes and it should just update to iOS 10 on the normal release channel.
tdenson
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by JasonWatkins:
“Delete the developer profile firstly, but then just do a full restore in iTunes and it should just update to iOS 10 on the normal release channel.”

Thanks. Two questions -

1. How does one delete the developer profile

2. I also want to downgrade my new phone to the release version but currently can't restore my backup to it because the backup was created with the Beta version. What I want to do is downgrade the old phone non-destructively, so that I can then do a full backup of it which I can then use to restore to my new phone.
jem101
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by tdenson:
“Thanks. Two questions -

1. How does one delete the developer profile

2. I also want to downgrade my new phone to the release version but currently can't restore my backup to it because the backup was created with the Beta version. What I want to do is downgrade the old phone non-destructively, so that I can then do a full backup of it which I can then use to restore to my new phone.”

1) Settings / General / Profiles / Select iOS Beta Software Profile and then press on Delete Profile at the bottom.

2) As far as i know you can't - the perils of installing beta OSes (especially developer betas) on a production device.

What might work, but I can't guarantee it is if you delete the software profile, your phone won't install any more beta releases. Then if you wait until Apple do a general release of iOS 10.1 (I assume we are talking about the 10.1 developer betas), it will have a higher build number than what you currently have and install itself. Then and only then will you be on the release cycle.
tdenson
08-10-2016
Originally Posted by jem101:
“1) Settings / General / Profiles / Select iOS Beta Software Profile and then press on Delete Profile at the bottom.

2) As far as i know you can't - the perils of installing beta OSes (especially developer betas) on a production device.

What might work, but I can't guarantee it is if you delete the software profile, your phone won't install any more beta releases. Then if you wait until Apple do a general release of iOS 10.1 (I assume we are talking about the 10.1 developer betas), it will have a higher build number than what you currently have and install itself. Then and only then will you be on the release cycle.”

Well, as it happens what I wanted to do was fairly straightforward in the end.
1. My new phone - so that I could use my backup I decided to stick with the Beta software, as I'm quite happy to use it.
2. My old phone - I did a factory reset on the phone and then downloaded 10.0.1 with iTunes to my Mac. Then with the Option key I selected the 10.0.1 .ipsw which iTunes happily installed.
It's not difficult, just not very well documented by Apple. As with many things Apple the process is somewhat opaque e.g. lack of an obvious progress bar when downloading a 2.7GB firmware file, which failed to download 4 times and I thought I was on the wrong lines because of all the dire warnings from here saying I couldn't go back. It was only on about the 3rd or 4th attempt that I discovered the tiny button on iTunes which does actually tell you progress of a download. At the very least the process should warn you that you're about to download 2.7GB - I do a lot of work in Kenya where the download of such a file would be very time consuming and expensive. It's not just Apple, it's a constant bugbear of mine that developers assume one has unlimited high speed internet and don't think to put the size of a potential download front and centre.

I can understand dire warnings and potential to brick one's phone with developer Betas, but not public ones. I have always been on the developer program and usually use the developer Betas, however this year I decided to wait for the public ones partly because I thought the process of going back to the release stream would be straightforward. I really don't think it would be difficult for Apple to make the process simple (a single button).
Roush
08-10-2016
Yeah, you can downgrade non-destructively from a beta to a release version but it really isn't recommended.

Any changes that were made to the user data partition when the beta was installed cannot be undone, so although the OS can be replaced the user data cannot be restored back to pre-beta state.

This has the potential to cause serious problems depending on what changes were introduced with the beta version. If, for example, a new format for configuration files was introduced then all of existing config files would have been converted to the new format during the beta installation, but this cannot then be undone, so if the pre-beta version was reinstalled it would be unable to read those files.

Another example would be if folder paths within the user data partition and app structures were changed. As iOS uses relative paths for user and app data it's entirely possible (and has happened before) that the absolute path of files within the user data partition could change from one iOS version to another. The existing data would be migrated to the new structure during install but in a downgrade scenario the files cannot be put back to their old locations meaning the older iOS version would not be able to find files where it expected them to be. This would lead to an unstable device and apps crashing when trying to access files that the system can't find.

It is of course possible that nothing significant has changed and a downgrade would yield a fully working device. The severity of problems you may encounter depends on exactly what has changed from one version to the next. It's impossible to say for sure if you'd be left with a working device without trying it out but there's certainly no guarantee of a stable device when doing a non-destructive downgrade.
tdenson
08-10-2016
Originally Posted by Roush:
“Yeah, you can downgrade non-destructively from a beta to a release version but it really isn't recommended.”

Actually, I think we are a bit on cross wires there. What I was saying is that it ought to be possible destructively (rather than non-destructively) to downgrade in a simple and documented fashion. I think it's reasonable to expect to have to do a factory reset if you've installed Beta software, but really that's all you should have to do to go back to a standard phone.
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