Apple Seeds iOS 10.3 Beta 4 to Developers

Apple seeded the fourth beta of iOS 10.3 to developers on Monday, just one week after releasing beta 3. At this point, it seems that iOS 10.3 beta 4 is an incremental update that includes a number of under-the-hood bug fixes and performance improvements.

There are no additional major features or functionality listed in the changelog of either beta 3 or beta 4. Since iOS 10.3 beta 2, Lightning Video Adapters should now work as expected, nightly backups will no longer fail, and users will not be able to reach the iCloud Analytics page if they have not logged in.

iOS 10.3 itself is a major release for Apple’s operating system, and it adds several new features — including a Find My Airpods tool, some major App Store review changes, and an new Apple File System with improvements over the previous system.

Beyond the major additions and small fixes listed in the log, there are also a handful of smaller and subtler changes discovered since beta 3, including a new App Compatibility menu, small interface changes, and a new settings screen for individual apps in Settings. Anecdotally, the iOS 10.3 betas also make their respective devices quite a bit snappier and smoother — in testing, both an iPhone 5s and an iPhone 7 Plus featured faster responses and app-switching.

iOS 10.3 beta 4 is currently available to download for registered developers via Apple’s developer portal. Those with an existing iOS 10.3 beta on their device, or a beta configuration profile, can download the update over-the-air through Settings > General > Software Update.

A full changelog included with the update can be seen below.

iOS 10.3 Beta 4 Changelog

Find My iPhone

• Find My iPhone now supports Location and Play Sound for AirPods.
• Location and Play Sound should now work as expected.
• Play Sound emits a noise from the AirPods that reaches a high volume after a few seconds. Please remove both AirPods from your ears before testing this feature.

iCloud Analytics

• During setup, users should no longer reach the “iCloud Analytics” page if they have not yet signed in.

iCloud Backup

• Nightly backups should no longer fail with the error message “Some files were unavailable during the last backup.”

LAN Asset Cache

• LAN Asset Cache functionality should now work as expected.

Lightning Video Adapters

• Lightning video adapters should now work as expected.

Managed and Shared Devices

• On managed devices, users should no longer be able to override the current iCloud Document Sync setting.
• Shared iPad settings should now work as expected.

Xcode Simulator

• The legacy iCloud button in Settings has been removed. iCloud settings are now available within the new Apple ID settings pane.

• Scrolling in the Today View should no longer crash.
• Attempting to enable iCloud Drive through the iCloud Drive app before the user is signed into iCloud should no longer cause Settings to crash.