My mother-in-law got her phone updated to a beta version by a coworker who promised it would make her phone 'cooler.' Now she's facing major issues, like not being able to delete any of her photos. She's in her 60s and thought she was just getting a simple update. I'm wondering: can anyone using the beta share how she might be able to delete her photos? And when the next proper update is released, can she just update her phone like normal and expect those bugs to be fixed?
3 Answers
Nope.
Nope! The public version must be a higher number than the beta for her to update directly. Restoring the phone with a computer is necessary, and she’ll want to restore data from her iTunes backup if available, or else wait until the public release of iOS 26.
If the coworker didn’t back up her phone before installing the beta (which seems likely, given how reckless that sounds), there aren’t any good options to downgrade without losing her data. The beta versions have specific build numbers, and if she upgrades to the next official release, it'll need to have a higher version number than the beta. Restoration could be an issue.
Okay, but what do those build numbers even mean? Can I use iCloud to back up her photos and contacts, or are we only looking at her needing to wait for the public release?
So basically, I can back up everything first and then reset her phone, or just wait until the official release in September-October? Can I back things up to the cloud instead?