Apple Releases New iOS 12 Beta After Pulling Bug-Plagued Beta 7

Apple on Wednesday seeded iOS 12 beta 8 to registered Apple developers, just a few days after pulling the previous beta version due to bugginess.

The new iOS 12 beta can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or as an over-the-air update if a device has the proper certificate installed. Apple also released iOS 12 public beta 6 for registered software testers. Aside from the number, it’s identical to developer beta 8.

What Went Wrong?

iOS 12 beta 7 was released on Monday, but the Cupertino tech firm was forced to pull the version due to an apparent bug that caused fairly severe performance issues, alongside other system problems.

Reportedly, users who had downloaded beta 7 experienced problems when attempting to open apps. According to anecdotal reports, there was a significant delay between when an app icon was tapped on, to when the app was actually opened.

While some users reported that the issue resolved itself after about 10 minutes of usage, others seemed to have the problem persist.

Other early adopters of beta 7 also reported general bugginess, app crashes, and systemwide freezing. Those issues did not seem as widespread as the app opening bug, however.

Those issues caused some in the larger iOS ecosystem to recommend skipping the software update.

In any case, Apple apparently deemed the issues severe enough to pull the beta entirely. The company took down the over-the-air update before proceeding to pull the download from the Developer Center.

Because of the issues, there was no public beta analog released for beta 7 — so there’s now a two-number discrepancy between the iOS 12 developer and public betas. Not that that really changes anything.

iOS 12 beta 7 was notable because it killed the Group FaceTime feature which had been present in all beta versions of iOS 12. Apple has apparently decided to delay the feature and release it in a future software update later this fall.