- iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 beta users are experiencing a bug that causes a pop-up to appear every time they unlock their iPhone or iPad telling them that an update is available.
- The bug is affecting countless iPhone and iPad users, but Apple has yet to release a fix.
- If you need a temporary fix for the bug, just set the date a few days earlier on your device.
When you sign up to take part in a software beta, you have to expect that there will be issues along the way. After all, betas are unfinished by definition, and the whole point of letting users have access to the software early is to iron out the kinks before launch. This is true of iOS betas as well, and Apple offers an explicit notification before you install a beta to remind you to back up your data and to warn you that the software might have bugs.
The iOS 14 beta, which ended when the software launched in September, was one of the most placid beta programs Apple has ever run. There were occasional hiccups here and there, but having installed the public beta myself, I can’t think of a single bug that caused me any stress during the beta period. Unfortunately, the insanely annoying bug that some users might have been dreading has finally appeared, and it’s driving people crazy.
If you installed the iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 beta on your iPhone or your iPad (even if you’ve since removed it), chances are that you’ve seen the following message pop up on your device repeatedly over the last day or so:
A new iOS update is now available. Please update from the iOS 14 beta.
, users have been complaining about this bug throughout the week, but it appears to have become even more widespread as of Thursday night. For me, it started on my iPhone 11 last night, and now every time that I unlock my phone, the pop-up appears on my screen and I can’t do anything until I close it. It happens literally every time, and there doesn’t appear to be an easy fix, at least not that I’ve found.
A similar issue occurred two years ago with iOS 12, which app developer Guilherme Rambo explained on Twitter:
It looks like this method in Springboard does some date/time calculations to determine if the current build is about to expire, every time the cover sheet gets dismissed. For some reason, the latest builds of iOS 12 think they're about to expire. (@davedelong :P) pic.twitter.com/HWe7C0NnIT
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 31, 2018
It’s unclear if this bug is manifesting in the same way, but it looks and behaves virtually identically to the iOS 12 bug. The bad news is that if you are experiencing this issue, your only real course of action is to wait for Apple to seed a new update. If you’re looking for a temporary fix, though, you can go to Settings > Date & Time, turn off the Set Automatically toggle, and go back to October 26th. This worked for me, and I’ll probably live on October 26th like Groundhog Day until Apple provides us with a permanent fix for this bug.
