November 7, 2024

Craig Federighi Reveals Why iOS Doesn't Immediately Auto Update

Posted March 30, 2022 at 3:26pm by iClarified · 5498 views
Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering, has revealed why iOS doesn't immediately auto update for users that have the feature turned on.

Reddit user @Kechoopix contacted Federighi to ask why his device hadn't been auto updated to iOS 15.4 yet, despite having auto update turned on.

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Hi Craig!
I have a question about iOS auto-update feature. I was on holiday from the end of January (just two days after I installed iOS 15.3 on my iPhone that I went on holidays with) and from that day I haven't ever received a notification about new iOS update even though I have auto-update (both downloads and install) turned on. Of course I used my iPhone as always (connected to Wi-Fi, not using low power mode etc.) - so that feature could have at least download new update automatically. Why haven't I updated my iPhone on my own/manually (you may ask)? I haven't have much time to do so and I wanted to try out auto-update feature to see if it actually works. Yesterday was two weeks after public release of iOS 15.4. So there is my question: how exactly does this feature work? What conditions must be met for this function to work? Automatic app updates does work - it takes like 3 days maximum after update release to update my app so no problem there.
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Federighi replied...

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We incrementally rollout new iOS updates by first making them available for those that explicitly seek them out in Settings, and then 1-4 weeks later (after we've received feedback on the update) ramp up to rolling out to devices with auto-update enabled.

Hope that helps!

- craig
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You can turn on Auto Update from the Settings > General > Software Update menu.