7 Reasons Why You Should Not Install iOS 11 Beta Right Now

BY Andy

Published 5 Jun 2017

ios 11 beta

Apple unveiled iOS 11, the hotly anticipated next major version of iOS at the WWDC Keynote earlier today. It includes new features such as peer-to-peer payments in Apple Pay, redesigned Lock screen, Control Center, and Notification Center, Siri support for new languages, an all-new design for the App Store, major productivity features for the iPad, and much more.

Apple has just seeded the first beta version of iOS 11 to developers. There is a lot of excitement whenever Apple unveils a major iOS version. So I can understand that the natural instinct is to install iOS 11 beta.

Should You Install iOS 11 beta?

These are some of the reasons why you should think twice before installing iOS 11 beta right away.

1. Compatibility issues with apps

You can hit compatibility issues with third-party apps. These compatibility issues are not the developer’s fault; they still have to update their apps for iOS 11. They will only be able to fix the issues and push the updates to the App Store when Apple releases iOS 11 Golden Master, which will be sometime in September.

2. It’s buggy

Beta versions can be buggy, which can cause the Springboard to crash or the device to reboot. It can be quite annoying if it happens while you’re writing an important email, in the middle of a call or about to hit your highest score while playing your favorite game.

There is a reason why Apple is calling it a beta and not a public release and is limiting access to developers of iOS Developer program and beta users. Apple will use the beta phase, which usually lasts for three months to fix the crashing issues and bugs. Developers will also use the beta phase to update their apps to the new iOS 11 features and fix the compatibility issues.

You can check out our post to find out the problems reported by users who have installed iOS 11 beta.

I must note that unlike iOS 8, the iOS 9 and iOS 10 betas were relatively more stable.

3. Downgrading from iOS 11 beta

Apple warns users that they won’t be able to downgrade back to the previous version. But it is quite easy to downgrade from iOS 11 beta to iOS 10.3.2, it is important to note that you won’t be able to restore your device from an iOS 11 backup after downgrading to iOS 9.3.2. You will be able to restore your device only to an iOS 10 compatible backup. So there is a risk of losing the data between the time you upgraded to iOS 11 to the time you downgraded.

4. No Jailbreak

This is not such a major issue at the moment, as a jailbreak is not available for iOS 10.3.2 – iOS 10.2.1 as well. But if you’ve a jailbroken device, then you should be aware that you will not only lose the jailbreak when you upgrade to iOS 11 beta, but you will be left with an unjailbreakable device for a long time. Hackers won’t release jailbreak tools for beta versions of iOS software updates as it gives Apple the opportunity to fix the vulnerabilities used by the jailbreak tools in the final version. So you will be able to jailbreak your device only when hackers release a jailbreak for the public version of iOS 11.

5. No help

You also won’t get help or support from either the developer or Apple for the problems you face with iOS 11 beta. Developers will tell you to wait for the final version of iOS 11 and Apple will tell you to wait for the next beta version for the fix. Even developers don’t install beta versions on their primary devices. They usually have devices especially for testing their apps on beta versions of iOS.

6. Not fully optimized

The first few beta versions of iOS 11 won’t be fully optimized. Apple is most likely collecting debug information to help them track and fix bugs, which could have an impact on performance. We also expect Apple to continue to improve the performance during the beta phase.

7. Expectations

Some of the cool new iOS 11 features such as AR Experiences, will be available later this fall.

People also tend to get upset that iOS 11 beta is buggy and lagging. If you’re a developer then we’re sure you have experienced this, but if you’ve been a user who has downloaded the public releases, then iOS 11 beta can come as a rude shock as you’re probably used to the rock-solid performance of the public releases.

I can understand the curiosity, but wait for iOS 11 to be released, so you don’t have to deal with the issues I’ve mentioned here.

Things will improve as Apple releases new beta versions over the next few weeks, so if you’re looking for the rock-solid performance, then you should wait for few more betas to be released or at least until iOS 11 public beta is released.

If you have upgraded to iOS 11 beta, then do share your experience in the comments below.