How to Install the Latest Apple Beta Releases If You’re Not a Developer
It’s time to try out all of the new features and tweaks that Apple has been preparing in its Cupertino labs, if you’re a developer . While Apple is currently presenting the latest and greatest versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS in beta form, you can only (officially) access them if you pay Apple $ 99 a year to participate in its developer program. …
It’s a little harder than before to sign up for the developer beta if you’re not a developer, but it’s still possible. However, the usual caveats apply. First, these are the early, early versions of Apple’s latest operating systems, which Apple emphasizes on its developer site:
Second, you will be downloading various beta profiles (or .IPSW firmware) from a third party site. You usually don’t do this for security reasons. I’m not going to scream too much about this, because if you’re not worried about your device getting out of beta from an early beta version of the operating system, you probably don’t care how you get these files. (I hope you’re not planning on installing iOS 13 on your main smartphone, but I’m not going to stop you either.)
macOS Catalina / iOS 13 / iPadOS 13
We’ll start with macOS Catalina because currently, you need to install it first before you can install iOS 13 on your iPad or iPhone. (The beta profile for iOS devices was not available at the time of this writing, so we must proceed the old fashioned way.)
To get started with macOS Catalina, go to betaprofiles.com and download the macOS Catalina Beta Profile .
Install it on your Mac, it’s a pretty straightforward process. Once you’re done, you are immediately asked if you want to start downloading macOS 10.15, also known as macOS Catalina.
The download and installation process will take a little time, but this is the usual procedure. Once you’re done and booted into the new version of macOS Catalina, you will need to take one more step. Some iOS 13 users reported that you may also need the latest beta of Xcode on your system before you can install iOS 13 on your device. (For security purposes, I went through this process without testing to make sure it was necessary, so feel free to try installing iOS 13 without it if you like.)
Installing the Xcode 11 beta is easy. First, grab it from the Apple page . You will need to be signed in with your Apple ID, but you will not need a developer account to download and install the beta. (FYI, the archive you download expanded my system after a while.)
When you’re ready to get started with iOS 13, I don’t believe you even need to open the beta of Xcode first, but you can do it as a side step if you feel hesitant. Find your iPad or iPhone, grab your charging cable, grab any keys you need to connect to your Mac (if applicable), and plug it in.
Since this is macOS Catalina the iTunes killer, you now need to launch Finder to access your connected device.
Once you’ve done that, go back to your browser and visit betaprofiles.com again . Now, you’ll want to click the iOS 13 IPSW link – again, a simple beta profile for your device was not available when I wrote this article – and get the file you want for your specific device. For example, if you can’t remember what generation of iPad you have, you can always go to Settings> General> About and then enter your device’s Model Number into your favorite search engine to find out exactly what it is. what it is.
If you find that the beta profiles take too long to load your .IPSW file, you can always use another site to get the same file – I personally love udid.in and iosbetas.org . (The latter also lets you download it straight from Apple, which makes me feel a lot better.)
Once you’ve downloaded the correct .IPSW firmware file to your Mac, launch Finder again. You should still be looking at your connected device, but if not, click on it. Before you start with the iOS 13 update, you need to turn off Find Me on your device. Plus, now is the time to make a local backup of your device in case things go wrong. Click “This PC” and select “Encrypt local backup”, then click “Back up now” to do so.
(I also recommend having your device’s latest iCloud backup as it makes it easy to set up your device with all your apps and settings after installing iOS 13.)
When you’re ready, press and hold the Option key on your keyboard, click Restore iPhone / iPad, and then locate the downloaded .IPSW file. Get ready to have some fun as your device goes through the usual reboot and update process to install iOS 13.
You will then go through the standard iOS setup process, which will also include asking if you want to set up your device with other nearby Apple devices – which will save you a bit of time – and also if you want to restore from a recent iCloud backup, hopefully you did.
watchOS 6
Compared to the process it took to install macOS Catalina and iOS 13, this will seem trivial. Pick up your iPad or iPhone, fire up the long-forgotten Safari browser, and head over to the beta profiles . Click the watchOS 6 beta profile link and install it on your device. It is so simple. You should now be able to use the normal update mechanism in the Watch app to download and install watchOS 6.
However, there is one caveat in this process. I have not installed iOS 13 on my iPhone, but I have installed watchOS 6 on my Apple Watch. I now get semi-fast notifications that I need to update my Apple Watch to the latest watchOS even if it works, which I suspect is due to the fact that I still have iOS 12 installed on my iPhone. It’s not huge. annoyance and you can easily ignore random prompts, but that might be enough to make you wait until the full public beta for all Apple operating systems drops late this month or early next month.
tvOS 13
I don’t have an Apple TV, so I didn’t do this myself. However, Beta Profiles has a great quick start guide with everything you need to know about getting the tvOS 13 beta on your device:
- Open the Settings app and go to General – Privacy – Send Apple TV Analytics.
- If you have the Share Apple TV Analytics option selected, do not click on it. Instead, press the play / pause button on the remote and it will open the Add Profile menu, press the Play / Pause button again for that option.
- In the text box that appears, enter http://bit.ly/tvos_13 (this is a short link, it is completely safe), then click “Done” and select “Install.”
- When prompted to restart your computer, do so.
- After that, the software should appear in the “Settings” – “System” – “Software update” menu. Alternatively, you can still download the file to your computer for manual installation.
If you want to go the manual route – installing the update via Xcode – Apple has great instructions on their website :
- Download the tvOS Beta Software Configuration Profile for the new Apple TV from the download page on your Mac.
- Make sure your Mac is running the latest version of Xcode 10 or later, and macOS 10.13.4 or later.
- Make sure your Apple TV is plugged in and turned on.
- Connect Apple TV and Mac to the same network.
- In Xcode, choose Window> Devices and Simulators, then click Devices in the window that appears.
- On Apple TV, open Settings, then choose Remotes & Devices> Remote App & Devices. Apple TV looks for possible pairing devices.
- In Xcode, select your Apple TV in the left column under Detected. The Apple TV connection request status is displayed in the details area.
- Enter the verification code displayed on your Apple TV and click Connect. Xcode connects to the Apple TV and a network icon appears in the left column next to your Apple TV.
- Make sure you have the latest version of Apple Configurator installed on your Mac.
- Open Apple Configurator.
- To set up your Apple TV for the first time, click Prepare and follow the onscreen instructions. To add profiles to Apple TV that you’ve previously set up, click Add, then select Profiles. You can also drag a profile from Finder to the Apple TV icon.