You Should Schedule Your IPhone Updates for Later
Updating your iPhone is annoying. Yes, updates are often full of new features and changes that make an update worth it, but it can be difficult to find the time to install a new update on your iPhone. Disabling the phone during the day is not always possible. Wouldn’t it be nice if Apple let you schedule these updates when you actually have time? Well, ask and you will receive.
As it turns out, Apple includes the ability to schedule software updates on every iPhone. It’s just that the company hides it from us for some reason. I’m not sure why – it’s definitely not due to lack of screen space: half of the software updates settings page is blank. This option is also missing from the automatic update settings menu, so don’t look for it there.
Speaking of which, when I talk about scheduling updates for later, I’m not talking about the iOS auto-update feature. Of course, this option will theoretically download and install updates overnight, but it doesn’t actually work as advertised . Apple designed it to automatically deploy updates within a few weeks of an update being released. If you rely on this feature to install updates on your iPhone, you may be far behind other iPhone users at any given moment.
The hidden scheduling option only appears when a new update is available. Once the update has dropped, go to Settings > General > Software Update and you will see the only Download and Install button. Instead of just pressing the button, press and hold it. When you do this, a menu will appear out of nowhere with two new options:
- Download only : Tap this option to download the update to iPhone but not install it.
- Download and Install Tonight : Your Schedule Option! Click this button to tell iPhone to install the update tonight.
Why Apple doesn’t have these three options on the main software updates page is beyond me. They may want the majority of users to download and install the update as soon as it becomes available, but I think it would be useful for us to have an open scheduling option. I certainly never feel comfortable installing an update in the middle of the day, as I’m awake at that time, which means I’m probably using my phone.
[ Reddit ]