News: iOS 12 Beta 9 for iPhone Released to Apple Developers

Apple released iOS 12 beta 9 to developers on Monday, August 20. The company seeded the update just five days after releasing dev beta 8 to testers, itself a quick replacement for the problematic beta 7. This update was followed closely by public beta 7, confirming Apple's new same-day release schedule for both developer and public betas.

Dev beta 9 seems to be a very minor update to last week's release. Beta 9 fixes only two issues related to Localization, and introduces only two minor issues — traffic data might not be displayed in Maps, and Downtime might not work if configured before dev beta 9.

• Update: Apple Pushed Out iOS 12 Beta 10 for iPhone to Developers

To download and update your iPhone to iOS 12 dev beta 9, you first need to be a registered developer with a valid configuration profile. If you have iOS 12's new "Automatic Updates" enabled, you can let the software update overnight. To download the beta right now, however, launch the Settings app, select "General," then "Software Update." Tap "Download and Install," then follow the on-screen prompts to download and install iOS 12 dev beta 9.

Resolved Issues

The following are the only two issues solved with iOS 12 dev beta 9:

Localization:

• Certain languages may exhibit clipped or misaligned layout. (40420329)
• Certain languages may display unlocalized text. (40420422)

Known Issues

The following includes a list of bugs present in dev beta 9. New issues are listed in bold:

App Store:

• While signed in with a production account and testing with a sandbox account, attempting to fetch a new valid receipt displays a sign-in prompt for the production account with no option for switching to the sandbox account. (42862150) — Workaround: For testing purposes, StoreKit calls such as making a purchase and restoring transactions will fetch a new receipt. Alternatively, sign out of the production account.

CoreGraphics:

• Various CoreGraphics calls have been hardened against continuing with invalid parameters. In iOS 12 beta, these calls may now return NULL or return early. (38344690)

HomeKit:

• Inviting iOS 11 users who have multiple email addresses associated with their Apple ID to a home might not succeed. (41033550) — Workaround: Send the invitation to a different email address or phone number associated with the Apple ID of the iOS 11 user.

Maps:

• Traffic data might not be displayed. (43254370) — Workaround: Tap the 'i' button to reveal Maps Settings and toggle the Traffic switch on.

MediaPlayer Framework:

• When a queueTransaction is performed on applicationQueuePlayer to modify the position of a song, the queue returns unchanged. (39401344)

Phone and FaceTime:

• Group FaceTime has been removed from the initial release of iOS 12 and will ship in a future software update later this fall.
• In iOS 12 beta, Camera Effects in Messages is available only on iPhone SE and iPhone 6s or later and is unavailable on iPad. Camera Effects in FaceTime is available only on iPhone 7 or later and is unavailable on iPad.
• Wi-Fi calls might end unexpectedly when transitioning from Wi-Fi to cellular while on the T-Mobile network. (39251828)

Screen Time:

• The start and stop times for Downtime might change unexpectedly if they were configured prior to installing iOS 12 beta 9. (43393555) — Workaround: Update all devices associated with the iCloud account to iOS 12 beta 9 and reset the start and stop times for Downtime.
• After updating to iOS 12 beta 7 or later, parents should change the Screen Time passcode to prevent children from signing out of iCloud or changing the system time. (42879250)
• "Picked Up Phone" statistics might be inflated due to data syncing from other devices signed into the same iCloud account. (39917173)

Siri:

• While multiple ride-sharing apps are installed, Siri might open the app instead of providing an ETA or location when asked. (42324032) — Workaround: Ask Siri for the ETA or location again.
• Siri Shortcuts might not work if a device is locked. (41307405)
• Siri Suggestions for Shortcuts are enabled on iPhone 6s or later, iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation or later), iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 4. (40669231)

UIKit:

• You might encounter issues with systemLayoutSizeFitting(_:) when using a UICollectionViewCell subclass that requires updateConstraints(). (42138227) — Workaround: Don't call the cell's setNeedsUpdateConstraints() method unless you need to support live constraint changes. If you need to support live constraint changes, call updateConstraintsIfNeeded() before calling systemLayoutSizeFitting(_:).

Wallet & Apple Pay:

• Users might encounter a situation where Apple Pay becomes unavailable. (31989675) — Workaround: Try opening Wallet and using the card again. If the issue persists, restart the device and try again.

Xcode:

• When using Messages in the iOS Simulator, a message might not be delivered from User A to User B. (40916530) — Workaround: Send a message from User B to User A.

Last week presented beta testers with an odd turn of events. iOS 12 dev beta 7 released on Monday, August, 13 to quick criticism from early adopters, who complained of serious performance issues and instability. While reports seemed to indicate these issues would subside after using the iPhone for a short period of time, Apple pulled the release, reintroducing it as dev beta 8 two days later.

Cupertino held off on releasing public beta 6 until dev beta 8 was released. Because this public beta had not yet released, the company did not rename it "public beta 7" to match the name change for dev beta 8. So now, public testers appear two version behind developers, even though their betas are identical.

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