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iOS 9 Beta 3 Was Just Released – Download It Now and Get Apple Music

Updated Jul 8th, 2015 1:11PM EDT
iOS 9 Beta 3 Download

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Apple on Tuesday released iOS 9 beta 3, which, as the name might suggest, is the third developer-only version of its new iOS 9 software. After a rocky start with iOS 9 beta 1 — at least, where battery life was concerned — beta 2 really cleaned things up, allowing developers to focus on new features instead of crashes.

Now, iOS 9 beta 3 adds even more stability improvements, and it also finally lets iOS beta users experience Apple Music.

DON’T MISS: It’s Time to Rain On Apple’s Parade

To install iOS 9 beta 3 on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, simply open the Settings app and tap General, the Software Update. The new operating system is available as an over-the-air (OTA) update, and following the on-screen instructions will install it on your device.

Compatible iOS devices include the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad 2 or later, iPad mini or later, and fifth-generation iPod touch. The software can also be downloaded from Apple’s developer center website and installed manually.

Here are the full release notes:

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

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 PKAddressFieldName for your required shipping address fields.

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

AVFoundation

Notes

  • AVQueuePlayer now 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 AVPlayerItem to AVPlayer or by modifying the time or date of the current AVPlayerItem (using the seekToTime: orseekToDate: methods). In iOS 9, these operations interrupt only when AVPlayer object’s playback rate is changed to a non-zero value through the rate property or play method.

  • Picture in Picture playback might stop and the Picture in Picture button might disappear when using AVPlayerViewController for video playback and replacing the underlying AVPlayer object’s current item usingreplaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:.

  • The AVPictureInPictureController method cancelPictureInPicture is 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. CBCentralManager was 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 CNContactStoreDidChangeNotification and not know if it was one of your CNContactStore instances 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.

  • 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 HMAccessoryBrowser object after being added to a home.

  • HMLocationEvent currently 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.

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.

  • SecKeyGeneratePair may 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 kSecAccessControlUserPresence access 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.

  • SecRequestSharedWebCredential does not show the user name picker.

  • Local Authentication setCredential fails 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.

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 AvailableOSUpdates MDM 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

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 UIActivityViewController object.

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.

  • 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 UIPrintInteractionController or UIActivityViewController). For apps that provide printing items or use only built-inUIPrintFormatter objects (UISimpleTextPrintFormatter, UIMarkupTextPrintFormatter, UIWebViewPrintFormatter, or the UIViewPrintFormatter of any system-provided view), nothing additional is needed for the print preview to display.

    Apps that subclass UIPrintPageRenderer or UIPrintFormatter to draw content for printing must be built with the iOS 9 SDK for the preview to display. The behavior of UIPrintPageRenderer has 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.

  • UIPickerView and UIDatePicker are 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.

Known Issue

UIModalPresentationPopover style doesn’t update its barButtonItem anchor 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.

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.