How to uninstall iOS 16 beta

Testing out a new beta version of an iPhone or iPad? If for any reason you’re ready to go back to the stable version, read the step-by-step guide on how to uninstall iOS 16 beta, upgrade to iOS 15, and restore it from a backup.

Whether you took the risk of installing iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 beta on your primary iPhone or iPad, or you just don’t need to continue testing beta software on a particular device, it’s relatively easy to revert back to iOS 15.

Below, we’ll walk you through how to upgrade immediately from the iOS 16 beta.

Removing iOS 16 Beta: Reverting to iOS 15

Important: If you’ve already installed the watchOS 9 beta on an Apple Watch connected to an iPhone running the iOS 16 beta, you won’t be able to fully use your wearables after you upgrade to iOS 15 because there’s no way to upgrade to watchOS 8 – other than Apple transfer Watch at Apple.

Remove iOS 16 Beta from Mac/PC Immediately

If you want to delete iOS 16 beta immediately, you need to wipe and restore data on iPhone or iPad. With this option, you will not be able to restore data from a backup made on iOS 16 when you upgrade to iOS 15. But naturally, you can restore data from a previous iOS 15 backup.

Luckily, with iCloud storing a lot of data for most apps, it’s not as much of a hassle as it was in previous years.

Before starting the iOS 16 beta uninstall process, make sure you’re on the latest version of macOS. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC with a Lightning or USB-C cable. Use the correct method from the list below to get your device into recovery mode. If successful, you will see a computer icon and a cable. For iPhone 8 or later: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the volume down button. Then press and hold the side button until the recovery mode screen appears. For iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Volume Down buttons at the same time. Don’t release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. Keep holding both buttons until you see the recovery mode screen. For an iPad with a Home button: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. Don’t release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. Keep holding both buttons until you see the recovery mode screen. For iPad Pro with Face ID: Press and quickly release the volume up button. Press and quickly release the volume down button. Press and hold the top button until your device starts to reboot. Keep holding the top button until your device enters recovery mode. When the “Restore/Update” option appears on your Mac or PC, select “Restore”. This will wipe your device and install the latest non-beta version of iOS. Select “Install” when you see a message that an update is required to complete the iPhone restore process.

Once the software restore is complete, you can restore your iOS 15 backup using Mac/PC or iCloud (or set up your iPhone or iPad as a new device).

This is how uninstalling iOS 16 beta on iPhone from Mac looks like:

Alternatively, you can go to Settings > General > VPN & Device Management > iOS 16 Beta Profile > Delete Profile. But keep in mind that this won’t downgrade you to iOS 15. You’ll have to wait for the public release in the fall to get out of the iOS 16 beta.

Check out the Apple Support document and our explainer video for more information on how to uninstall iOS 16 beta:

Learn more about iOS 16:

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