Apple rolled out this week a much-awaited iOS 6 beta to developers for testing purposes months ahead of the planned public debut this fall. Non-developers with update-itchy fingers may want to know if it’s possible to just grab the bits and load them up on a regular iPhone or iPad. Turns out it is! Apple is generally careful to restrict beta IPSWs to developer-assigned handsets. It seems it wasn’t the case this time around.
Confirmed by “iPhone Developers” close to the
Cult of Mac, installing iOS 6 on a device that hasn’t been registered with a developer account is possible.
That’s not to say it’s recommended. Far from it, in fact.
Some have had trouble installing the software with the method outlined in the respective guide, so unless you have a spare iDevice laying around for testing purposes, this practice should not pique your interest one bit.
With that out of the way (and by this we absolve ourselves of any responsibility in case you brick your shiny Apple gadget), here are the actual steps (courtesy of the aforementioned mac-centric publication):
1. Download the iOS 6 beta file for your device. You can find this either by searching Google, or from the iPhone Developers site linked at the bottom of this page.
2. If you haven’t already done so, upgrade to the latest version of iTunes (10.6.3), then open it up.
3. Plug in your device and allow it to back up.
4. Now hold down the option key on your Mac (that’s shift for Windows users), and click on the ‘Check for Update’ button. Do not click the ‘Restore’ button because it won’t work.
5. Select the iOS 6 .ipsw file you just downloaded and allow it to install.
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