Testers running Apple's latest iOS 12 beta are encountering a peculiar issue that causes a software update prompt to repeatedly appear on screen, forcing users to manually dismiss the message over and over. On Thursday, a handful of social media posts from iOS 12 beta testers, both developers and members of Apple's public beta program, detail what appears to be a bug in the latest evaluation version of iOS. The number of complaints continues to grow as more users are subjected to the erroneous notification. In all cases, users are greeted with a popup that reads, "A new iOS version is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta." Users have the option of closing the window, but the OS leaves no route to update because there is no update available. AppleInsider has confirmed the popup presents itself upon unlocking, while clearing the notification prevents it from appearing again until the device next wakes. Some users have reported seeing the popup when invoking Control Center, while others receive the message at random intervals, though such activity has not been confirmed. According to developer Guilherme Rambo, a date calculation bug in Springboard appears to be causing the perpetual popup notifications. "It looks like this method in Springboard does some date/time calculations to determine if the current build is about to expire, every time the cover sheet gets dismissed. For some reason, the latest builds of iOS 12 think they're about to expire," Rambo said in a tweet. Apple has yet to comment on the matter and it is unclear when the company will push out a fix for the issue.<doc-sep>It's a workaround, not a fix, but it will get rid of the incessant upgrade notification in iOS 12 until Apple issues a solution. AppleInsider sorts it out — and finds unexpected consequences too. If you've got this problem then you've got it a lot. As of August 30, the iOS 12 beta has a bug that means it keeps telling you to update to the latest version. The thing is, you already have the latest version so there's nothing to update to. And when we say it keeps telling you to, it really keeps telling you. Every time you unlock your iPhone or iPad, you get this notification and you have to tap Close to continue. While there is no great solution until Apple fixes the problem, you can work around it. Go to Settings, General, Date & Time. Switch off Set Automatically. Then tap on the date that appears in blue and roll it back a month. The come out of Settings and you won't see the error ever again. Why it works The bug is not that your phone thinks there's a new update, it's that it believes the old one has expired. Every beta, whether iOS or an individual app, comes with an expiry date after which it will stop working. It's so that you get full functionality for the testing period but then once the final software is released, there aren't copies of the beta floating around. Somehow this iOS 12 beta release has the wrong expiration date and by changing your system back a month or a couple of weeks, the beta believes it's still valid. Why it's only a workaround You need your iPhone and iPad to have the right date. It is ridiculous to have such an expensive device telling you the wrong one and it's going to throw out your exercise rings, too. Yet, it's not as bad as the incessant update bug. Watch for unexpected consequences, though. You know your calendar is going to show the wrong date for today and you know you're going to forget you've done this. That's why we recommend going back a month instead of a couple of weeks: we rolled back from August 31 to July 31 so that at least the day digit is right. However, the date and time goes much deeper into the system than you might think. Any documents you create, for instance, will have the wrong date stamp. Some websites won't load. And then there's this. Imagine you've set a timer on your Apple Watch and it's counting down something like an hour. While it's doing that, you change the date on your iPhone — and see if you can spot a difference on your Apple Watch. Here's Before and After. So it's hardly an ideal fix, it isn't a solution and we'll ditch it the instant Apple addresses the problem. However, it is the only workaround that gets you a break from this exasperating bug. You've got the beta on a dedicate testing device, and not your main one, right?<doc-sep>
iPhone and iPad users who have installed the current iOS 12 beta are being plagued with a continual popup that suggests a new iOS update is available when it's not. Affected users are seeing the following message: "A new iOS update is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta." The problem is users receiving this message are running the most recent version of iOS and there is no additional software to update to. Beta testers have been seeing this popup since the latest beta was released on August 27, but over the course of the last day, the popups have become much more frequent. Many users are now seeing the popup every time an iPhone or iPad running the beta is unlocked or Notification Center is dismissed, and it is a popup that must be manually dismissed each and every time before an iOS device can be accessed. Developer Guilherme Rambo has suggested that an error in the latest update causes the iOS beta to think that its expiration date is imminent, leading to the popup problem. It looks like this method in Springboard does some date/time calculations to determine if the current build is about to expire, every time the cover sheet gets dismissed. For some reason, the latest builds of iOS 12 think they're about to expire. (@davedelong :P) pic.twitter.com/HWe7C0NnIT — Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 31, 2018 Complaints on Twitter and the MacRumors forums are picking up from users who are frustrated with having to continually dismiss the popup, and it's not clear when a fix will be available.