News: Apple Releases iOS 14 Public Beta 8 for iPhone

Apple just released the eighth public beta for iOS 14 today, Wednesday, Sept. 9. At this time, beta 8 (18A5373a) seems to be a minor update to iOS 14, introducing bug fixes to improve the software's overall stability.

So far, there haven't been many new user-facing features or changes with beta 8. While that might be disappointing at first, it isn't shocking — Apple is nearing the final version of iOS 14, so it makes sense for the company to be more focused on smoothing over any bugs or issues rather than adding even more great new features.

Public beta 8 comes six days after Apple released the seventh developer and public betas for iOS 14, and three hours after Apple released dev beta 8.

iOS & iPadOS 14 Beta 8 Release Notes

Overview

The iOS & iPadOS 14 SDK provides support to develop apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS & iPadOS 14. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 12 beta 6, available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 12 beta 6, see Xcode 12 Beta 6 Release Notes.

General: Known Issues

Important: Updating to iOS & iPadOS 14 beta from previous versions of iOS & iPadOS might take significantly longer than expected. Data loss could occur if the update is interrupted. (59101197)

• macOS Big Sur 11 beta 6 or Xcode 12 beta 6 might be required to sync or update devices running iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 7 or later.
• macOS Big Sur 11 beta 6 is required to use the restore images for iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 7 or later.

Apple Security Bounty

• iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 8 is designated as qualifying for the 50% Apple Security Bounty bonus payment for issues that are unknown to Apple or reintroduced in this release. See Apple Security Bounty for more information.

App Store: Known Issues

• Avoid calling the presentCodeRedemptionSheet() API until you're able to create supported codes. (59351258)

Core Haptics: Known Issues

• CHHapticEngine vended through the Game Controller framework (GCDeviceHaptics) don't support CHHapticAdvancedPatternPlayer and an error is returned on advanced player creation.
• audioCustom and audioContinuous events sent to CHHapticEngine vended through the Game Controller framework (GCDeviceHaptics) are silently ignored. (65163373)
• The creation of CHHapticEngine via class initializers is available only in iOS. For other platforms, access these engines via GCController. (65481931)

Fonts: Known Issues

• Beginning in iOS & iPadOS 14 beta, fonts installed using configuration profiles are only available to apps supporting the font APIs and entitlements introduced in iOS & iPadOS 13. If your app provides a custom font-selection interface, it can no longer access fonts installed via configuration profiles. For reference, see the WWDC 2019 Session Font Management and Text Scaling (55317428)

Home Screen: Known Issues

• Spotlight might not appear as expected. (64121178) Workaround: Restart your device.

Maps: Known Issues

• After updating to iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 2 or later, user data, such as Favorites, Collections, and Recents no longer syncs with devices running earlier versions of iOS & iPadOS. (65005848)

SwiftUI: Known Issues

• ProgressView generic type signature has changed, adding the ProgressViewStyleConfiguration.CurrentValueLabel generic parameter. This change does not require any source changes, but will cause apps you compile using an earlier beta SDK to quit unexpectedly. (63580200) Workaround: Re-compile apps for iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 6 or later to resolve this issue.
• The KeyboardShortcut modifier and commands(content:) aren't currently functional. (65704705)
• Rebuilding against the iOS 14 SDK will modify instances of custom(_:size:) to scale with dynamic type. To create a font which doesn't scale with dynamic type, use custom(_:fixedSize:). (51463566)
• The SignInWithAppleButton view expands to fill its container. (64136568) Workaround: Apply a frame modifier.

Third-Party Apps: Known Issues

• Apps using JSONKit might quit unexpectedly on launch. Some forks of JSONKit hardcode private, pointer-representation details, which are subject to change. (60290929) Workaround: Use NSJSONSerialization instead.
• fstab has been removed. You can no longer use Filesystem contents outside of an app's sandbox for validation. (61098152)
• Apps using the NativeScript framework might quit unexpectedly on launch. NativeScript performs an unsafe operation to determine if an arbitrary pointer is an Objective-C object pointer. You can temporarily resolve this issue by using object_getClass(_:) instead of reading the isa directly; however, update this code to avoid checking whether arbitrary pointers are Objective-C object pointers. (62913064)

Wallet: Known Issues

• isPassLibraryAvailable() doesn't ensure uniform availability of pass library functionality between platforms and devices. (60697880) Workaround: Call a more specific API to check available functionality, such as canAddPasses().

Widgets: Known Issues

• When the parent app of a widget has been granted Selected Photos access, an alert might appear each time the widget runs. (66398732) Workaround: Add PHPhotoLibraryPreventAutomaticLimitedAccessAlert = YES to the Info.plist of the widget extension.
• All widgets must be rebuilt using the iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 4 SDK or later, and won't run on previous versions of iOS & iPadOS 14 beta. (65290210)
• Some widgets might disappear from your Home Screen after updating to iOS & iPadOS 14 beta 2 or later. (64823469) Workaround: Add the missing widgets back to your Home Screen.
• You can't resize an existing widget. (63500799) Workaround: Remove the widget and re-add it at the desired size.
• You might need to reconfigure your widgets after updating to iOS & iPadOS 14 Beta 3 or later. (65485709)
• The Weather widget might appear blank after updating to iOS 14 beta 6 or later. (66782070) Workaround: Tap the widget to open the Weather app, then return to the widget on the Home screen.

How to Update Your iPhone to the Latest Beta

To update your iPhone to iOS 14 public beta 8, sign up through Apple's beta site, download and install the configuration profile, then update over the air. If you already have the profile, go to Settings –> General –> Software Update to begin the installation of the latest beta build, or you can wait until it installs automatically if "Automatic Updates" is enabled.