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Apple just released iOS 9 beta 1 – here’s how to download and install it

Updated Jun 8th, 2015 3:42PM EDT
iOS 9 Beta Download Link

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Just as Apple promised during its big WWDC 2015 keynote today, the first beta version of iOS 9 has been released. iOS 9 is packed full of new features and functionality, and many of the additions from iOS 8 have been further refined in an effort to make the world’s smoothest mobile platform even smoother.

If history has taught us anything, there will be nothing smooth about early versions of Apple’s latest iOS beta software, but that certainly won’t stop developers and enthusiastic Apple fans from installing Apple’s latest and greatest as soon as humanly possible.

Well guess what: The wait is over.

DON’T MISS: The 5 best new features in iOS 9

Following the company’s big WWDC 2015 keynote presentation, Apple has now released iOS 9 beta 1, the first version of its new mobile platform that is accessible to people outside of Apple’s own employees. The release is intended only to be used by developers, but of course anyone and everyone willing to pay $99 for an iOS developer account will be able to install the new software.

Here’s everything you need to know to install it:

  • First, visit Apple’s iOS developer site at this link. If you don’t already have an account, you’ll need to sign up and pay $99 for a one-year membership.
  • Next, click the iOS 9 beta link under the main nav menu and scroll down to find your device in the list of downloads. Apple mobile devices compatible with the iOS 9 beta include the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPad Air 1 and 2, iPad mini 1-3, Third- and fourth-gen iPad, and fifth-gen iPod touch.
  • You’ll also have to download and install the latest version of iTunes.
  • While your iOS 9 beta is downloading, perform a full backup using iTunes.
  • Unzip the file onto your desktop.
  • In iTunes, select your iPhone and then hold down the Option key while clicking “Check for update.”
  • Select the iOS 9 beta file you just downloaded and unzipped.
  • Restore your data from the backup.

Remember, this is an early iOS 9 beta and it will almost certainly not be stable. Apps will crash, bugs will annoy you, and plenty of features won’t work. Consider this your warning before you install it on a personal device.

Apple’s new iOS 9 platform for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch features a wide range of changes and improvements, and you can find all the details in our WWDC 2015 hub!

Here are the full release notes for iOS 9 beta 1:

6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 1/9
iOS SDK Release Notes for iOS 9 Beta

Important:
This is a preliminary document for an API or technology in development. Apple is supplying this
information to help you plan for the adoption of the technologies and programming interfaces
described herein for use on Apple‑branded products. This information is subject to change,
and software implemented according to this document should be tested with final operating
system software and final documentation. Newer versions of this document may be provided
with future betas of the API or technology.
Contents:

Introduction
Bug Reporting
Notes and Known Issues
Introduction

iOS SDK 9.0 provides support for developing iOS apps. It is packaged with a complete set of Xcode
tools, compilers, and frameworks for creating apps for iOS and OS X. These tools include the
Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool, among many others.

With this software you can develop apps for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 9. You can
also test your apps using the included Simulator, which supports iOS 9. iOS SDK 9.0 requires a
Mac computer running OS X v10.10.3 (Yosemite) or later.

This version of iOS is intended for installation only on devices registered with the Apple Developer
Program. Attempting to install this version of iOS in an unauthorized manner could put your
device in an unusable state.

For more information and additional support resources, visit
http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/.

Bug Reporting

For issues not mentioned in the Notes and Known Issues section, please file bugs through the
Apple Developer website (https://developer.apple.com/bug‑reporting/ios/). Additionally, you may
discuss these issues and iOS SDK 9.0 in the Apple Developer Forums:

http://devforums.apple.com. To get more information about iCloud for Developers, go to

http://developer.apple.com/icloud.

Notes and Known Issues

The following issues relate to using iOS SDK 9.0 to develop code.

AirPlay
6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 2/9

Known Issue
AirPlay connectivity issues with Apple TV.

Workaround:
If the Apple TV and the sender device are not on the same network, connect AirPlay once while
on the same network, then try again.

Reboot both the Apple TV and the sender device, then try again.

App Store

Known Issue
Users might be prompted twice for credentials on the first In‑App Purchase.

Apple ID

Known Issues
iForgot links may work intermittently.

Workaround: Please try again.
If you change your primary email address on appleid.apple.com, you may not be able to
authenticate on device (including signing out of Find My iPhone).

Workaround: First, change your email back to the previous email on appleid.apple.com. Then
sign out and back in on your device.

Apple Pay

Known Issue
You cannot present the Apple Pay sheet if you request PKAddressFieldNamefor your required
shipping address fields.

Workaround: Use PKAddressFieldAllif you require a shipping address, or don’t require
PKAddressFieldName.

AVFoundation

Notes
AVQueuePlayernow supports a mixture of file‑based media and HTTP Live Streaming media in
its queue. Prior to this, you had to ensure that all items in the queue were of the same type.
For apps linked against iOS 9 or later, the media interruption behavior for AV(Queue)Player
has changed.

Before iOS 9, apps could interrupt other media‑playing clients by associating or adding
AVPlayerItemto AVPlayeror by modifying the time or date of the current AVPlayerItem
(using the seekToTime:or seekToDate:methods). In iOS 9, these operations interrupt only
when AVPlayerobject’s playback rate is changed to a non‑zero value through the rate
6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 3/9
property or playmethod.

Picture in Picture playback might stop and the Picture in Picture button might disappear when
using AVPlayerViewControllerfor video playback and replacing the underlying AVPlayer
object’s current item using replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:.

The AVPictureInPictureControllermethod cancelPictureInPictureis deprecated.

Bluetooth

Known Issue
Incoming cellular call audio may not route to certain Bluetooth headsets.

Workaround: Route audio away from Bluetooth headset (for example, to the phone speaker) and
back.

CarPlay

Known Issue
When you turn off your vehicle with a device still attached to a CarPlay‑enabled head unit, the
device may become completely unresponsive and require a hard reboot.

CBCentralManager

Known Issue
Apps that use CBCentralManager(particularly retrievePeripherals:and
retrieveConnectedPeripherals) will crash on launch or upon pairing an accessory.
CBCentralManagerwas deprecated in iOS 7.0 and has been removed in iOS 9.0.

Contacts

Known Issues
LDAP and GAL servers aren’t queried for autocompletion.
You may receive CNContactStoreDidChangeNotificationand not know if it was one of your
CNContactStoreinstances that trigged the notification.

Family Sharing

Known Issues
Changing your password prevents the Family section of iCloud Settings from loading.
Workaround: Sign out of iCloud and then back in after the password change.
Adding a family member inline fails.

Workaround: Use invite to add family members.
6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 4/9
Ask To Buy notifications don’t respond when tapped.

HealthKit

Known Issue
In rare circumstances, it is possible for the health database to be deleted during the upgrade to
the beta.

Workaround: To make sure the health database is not lost, make an encrypted iTunes backup
prior to installing this beta.
Although keeping the device unlocked for the duration of the upgrade process reduces the risk of
the database being destroyed, it’s recommended that you create a backup so that you can recover
the database if you encounter this issue.

HomeKit

Known Issues
Accessories that support multiple communication paths to HomeKit may appear duplicated.
Accessories may not be removed from the HMAccessoryBrowserobject after being added to a
home.
HMLocationEventcurrently supports only CLCircularRegion.
iOS 9 does not currently accept Home invitations from iOS 8.
Location‑based event triggers do not work in Simulator.

iCloud Backup

Known Issue
Restoring from a backup created in iOS 9 is slower than restoring from a backup created in iOS
8 or earlier.

Workaround: Use iTunes to back up and restore.
You may see an incorrect “iCloud Backup” alert that suggests your device hasn’t backed up
when it has backed up successfully.

Workaround: To determine when your device last backed up, go to Settings > iCloud > Backup,
and view the “Last Backup” time stamp.
iCloud backups will incorrectly report a backup size of 0 bytes in Settings > iCloud > Backup >
Manage Storage > Storage > Device.
If you have Two Factor Auth enabled, signing into your iTunes account while restoring from an
iCloud backup may get stuck sending your verification code.

Workaround: Don’t sign into your iTunes account while restoring from an iCloud backup.
In rare cases, iCloud backups make progress, but then fail.

Workaround: Use iTunes to back up and restore.

6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 5/9

iCloud Drive

Known Issue
Tapping an iCloud Drive document in search results doesn’t do anything.
Keyboards
Known Issues
Third party keyboards don’t work in search results.
Third party keyboards may get removed from the list of active keyboards in apps.

Workaround: Add keyboards again from Keyboard Settings.

Keychain

Known Issues
When using Buddy to enable iCloud Keychain, the SMS verification code may not autopopulate if
the SMS is received on the same device.

Workaround: Finish Setup Assistant and enable iCloud Keychain using Settings.
SecKeyGeneratePairmay sometimes fail to generate a key that is stored in secure enclave
(kSecAttrTokenIDSecureEnclave).
After changing your iCloud password, you may see an iCloud Keychain Reset prompt.

Workaround: Re‑enable iCloud Keychain.

Keychain items created with kSecAccessControlUserPresenceaccess control list are using
global Touch ID credential for 10 minutes. When an iPhone is unlocked by Touch ID, these
items reuse the Touch ID unlock information and do not ask for new authentication. When the
iPhone is unlocked using a passcode, the items require Touch ID.
SecRequestSharedWebCredentialdoes not show the user name picker.
Local Authentication setCredentialfails to set application password for keychain operation.
If you have two‑step verification enabled on your AppleID and then change your iCloud
Keychain or iCloud Security Code on a non‑trusted device, you see a “Verification Failed” error.

Workaround: Log out of iCloud, log back into the account and enable iCloud Keychain

Maps

Known Issue

Navigation steps, instructions, and display do not update properly if your iPhone is paired to an
Apple Watch and the iPhone screen is locked.

Workaround: Unlock the iPhone.
6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 6/9

Mail

Known Issues
Mail crashes when trying to print a message.
A Yahoo mail account may periodically display “Cannot get mail.”
Workaround: You can dismiss the alert and Yahoo mail continues to function as expected.

MDM

Known Issue
The AvailableOSUpdatesMDM command fails on unsupervised devices as an unknown
command. The command succeeds only on supervised DEP‑enrolled devices.

Multitasking

Known Issues
App switcher continuity does not function in this beta. If you need to test continuity, you can
test it on the lock screen.
When displayed in multitasking scenarios, secondary apps cannot be pinned, unpinned, or
resized if VoiceOver is enabled.

Workaround: Disable VoiceOver in Settings > General > Accessibility to resume functionality of
these multitasking gestures.
iPad Air Simulator has limited multitasking capabilities (overlay and PiP only). In this beta, there
is no difference between the iPad Air and iPad Air 2 Simulators.

Music

Note
When users plug in headphones or connect to Bluetooth or CarPlay in their car, their favorite music
app appears on the lock screen or the car display.
For your app to be eligible for this, it must publish to Now Playing upon launch and consistently
maintain a Now Playing state. A common practice upon launch is to continue playing the track
from when the app was last exited.

Notes

Known Issue
After upgrading Notes in iOS 9 Beta 1, Notes will not sync using iTunes on Windows.

Photos
6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 7/9

Known Issue
After restoring from iCloud backup, photos not stored in iCloud Photo Library fail to display
thumbnails.

Workaround: Select the impacted photo and choose Edit followed by Revert.

App Extensions

Known Issue
Debugging an action or sharing extension can cause the extension to be missing in the
UIActivityViewControllerobject.

Workaround: Go to the More list and go back to show the extension again.

Podcasts

Known Issues
The search page does not always load or provide results.
The subscribe button is slow to respond to user’s touches.
When using multitasking, the Podcast app crashes when reducing to 50% and then increasing to
66%.

Safari

Notes
“Find on Page” is now available both from the Share sheet as well as in the Completions List.
Request Desktop Site has moved. It’s now in the Share sheet instead of Favorites.
Web Browser–to–Native App Handoff does not work with your app if the apple‑app‑site‑
association file isn’t correctly formatted and signed. Please see the Handoff Programming Guide
and the Shared Web Credentials Reference for more information.

Known Issues
The new API to load local files currently doesn’t work for loading files inside the app bundle.
Content Blockers with invalid JSONs are not loaded.
Search
Known Issues
Tapping a Mail message, Maps favorites, Note, or Message in search results does not open the
app on some devices.
Indexing a Core Spotlight item with a thumbnail does not show the thumbnail or description in
search results.

6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 8/9
All NSUserActivity objects get indexed and displayed in Search (not just the ones that are
marked searchable).

Siri

Known Issue
In Siri Suggestions on iPad, attempting to call, message, or FaceTime a contact with multiple
addresses causes Springboard to crash.

Settings

Known Issues
The Cellular Data page may be blank after swapping SIM cards.
Tapping Settings > iCloud > AppleID may be unresponsive the first few times.
Workaround: Please try again. It eventually works.
Third‑party app settings sometimes do not appear in Simulator.
Setup Assistant
Known Issue
Choosing the Disagree button on the iCloud terms pane does not let you proceed.

UIKit

Notes
There is a redesigned UI for printing that includes a print preview (presented from
UIPrintInteractionControlleror UIActivityViewController). For apps that provide
printing items or use only built‑in UIPrintFormatterobjects
(UISimpleTextPrintFormatter, UIMarkupTextPrintFormatter,
UIWebViewPrintFormatter, or the UIViewPrintFormatterof any system‑provided view),
nothing additional is needed for the print preview to display.
Apps that subclass UIPrintPageRendereror UIPrintFormatterto draw content for printing
must be built with the iOS 9 SDK for the preview to display. The behavior of
UIPrintPageRendererhas been updated to call drawPageAtIndex:inRect:multiple times
with potentially different page sizes and margins. Various methods on UIPrintPageRenderer
may be called from a non‑main thread, but never from multiple threads concurrently.
UIPickerViewand UIDatePickerare now resizable and adaptive—previously, they would
enforce a default size even if you attempted to resize them. These views also now default to a
width of 320 points on all devices, instead of to the device width on iPhone.
Interfaces that rely on the old enforcement of the default size will likely look wrong when
compiled for iOS 9. Any problems encountered can be resolved by fully constraining or sizing
picker views to the desired size instead of relying on implicit behavior.

6/8/2015 iOS 9 Release Notes
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/RN-iOSSDK-9.0/index.html 9/9

Known Issue
UIModalPresentationPopoverstyle doesn’t update its barButtonItemanchor position when
the window is resized.

VPN

Known Issues
If you have the Developer Disk Image package installed, AlwaysOn VPN tunnel does not
establish.
If both Cellular and Wi‑Fi tunnels are up, occasionally the Cellular tunnel will become the
default route instead of the Wi‑Fi tunnel.
Occasionally interface UP / DOWN events are not handled, which leads to the tunnel not being
brought up or torn down immediately.
Copyright © 2015 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2015‑06‑08

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.