In the upcoming weeks, iOS 16 will be available for your iPhone.
And although most people will just press install without thinking, I prefer to take a few preventative measures to make sure that everything goes properly and I don’t wind up losing any data.
After all, losing data is a certain method to reduce the anticipation for a new iOS version greatly.
Step 1: Find out if your iPhone will get iOS 16
Here are the iPhones that will be able to run iOS 16:
- iPhone 13 / 13 mini / 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone 12 / 12 mini / 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS / XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone X
- iPhone 8 / 8 Plus
Step 2: Decide if you want to wait
It’s possible for new iOS releases to have some bugs, so if you rely entirely on your iPhone, the best course of action for you is to postpone the upgrade for a few days so you can assess how problematic this release is, or you may even wait for the next iOS 16.0.1 bugfix version.
You must, however, take care to prevent your iPhone from doing an automated upgrade during that period.
Head over to Settings > General > Software Update and turn off Automatic Updates until you are ready to update.
Step 3: Update apps and free up space
If you’re the type of person who disables automatic updates and then forgets to perform them manually, I advise upgrading all of your applications. There may be bugs and problems if you utilize older applications with the new update.
Prior to installing a new update, it’s a good idea to clear some space. It’s an excellent and painless approach to clear up some space to remove any applications you’re no longer using in the lead-up to a new iOS version.
An update requires at least one gigabyte, but two or three gigabytes of free space are desirable because they will hasten the update process. Any less, and your iPhone will have to do extensive cleaning in order to create that space (iOS updates can delete apps to make space to install the update and then redownload the apps, but this makes the update take a lot of time).
Step 4: Create a backup
I advise keeping two copies of your data in case something goes wrong: one on a PC or Mac and one on the cloud.
Think you don’t need to do this? Let’s say that your iPhone was just deleted. Have you misplaced something significant? If the response is affirmative, you must create at least one backup.
Step 5: Gather your passwords
Don’t rely just on iPhone-specific passwords.
To reconnect to all of your data, applications, and images after the upgrade, you’ll need to enter your iCloud password. This is an excellent moment to remedy that if you don’t have that password readily available. Keep in mind that having it on the device you’re updating won’t work.
Additionally, keep in mind that you’ll need that password if something goes wrong if your local backup is encrypted. Be sure to save that in a location other than your iPhone.
Step 6: Do these two things to make your iOS update go smoother
- Have a charger handy
- Be on a reliable internet connection
Although you may update iOS as long as there is more than 50% battery life remaining, it is preferable to be cautious than sorry because it wouldn’t be ideal to run out of power in the middle of an update.
And although updating an iPhone over a shaky internet connection is technically doable, doing it over a strong relationship is far better and less annoying.
