Although the beta period par excellence really happens every summer, now we continue to find betas of Apple operating systems such as watchOS. Specifically, it is 8.4 that is now in development. However, a piece of advice that is valid at any time of the year is not to install these betas without first knowing their consequences.
And it is that, as you may have already imagined from the title, there are certain risks of installing betas on an Apple Watch. They exist on all devices, since the iPhone, iPad or Mac also have some difficulties. However, watchOS is the system that hosts a greater number of peculiarities that make its installation not recommended for the general public.
Apple prevents watchOS downgrade
While it is true that moving from one version of iOS to a previous one is not always easy, in the end it can be done in a more or less simple way. However, this does not happen in the Apple Watch. It is impossible to go back to previous versions of watchOS always. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you want to go from a stable version to a previous stable one or from a beta to the last stable one.
Without going into too technical detail about the implications of this process, the origin of this is due to how the device is programmed and the absence of ports that allow it to connect to a computer by cable. And it is precisely that an external equipment is needed to do a complete format and install another version and unfortunately Apple watches do not have it.
Other risks that these versions imply
You’re probably wondering why you don’t care if you can’t remove the beta once you put it on. And if we think about it objectively, it is not an eternal problem, because at some point the stable version will officially arrive and you will be able to leave the beta. However, the time that passes until then may become too long.
Betas, being unstable versions, can cause problems of any kind. From small bugs like lag on certain occasions, to the inability to use some applications, excessive battery consumption or unexpected restarts. Not in vain, until not long ago Apple did not publish the public betas of watchOS and left only those of developers.
Therefore, even if you are curious to know what’s new in watchOS first-hand, we advise you not to do so. If you have a second watch, even if it’s older, yes you could try it on that one. In the other cases you will have to risk a malfunction and wait for the final versions to come out to fix them. We do not know if in the future there will be any way to solve this inconvenience of not being able to go back, but today it is what we have.