Getting Your iPhone Ready for iOS 11

Apple will be releasing iOS 11 tomorrow, September 19, likely at approximately 10 a.m. Pacific time. Are you ready? You may think so, but there’s actually quite a bit you need to do to make sure your upgrade to iOS 11 moves and completes as smoothly as possible. We discussed this in detail on The Mac Observer’s Daily Observations, but here’s an even deeper look.Let’s look at how to get your iPhone ready for iOS 11.

We’ll be able to download iOS 11 tomorrow, so is your iPhone or iPad ready? Let’s walk through what you should do before upgrading

First, Make Sure Your iOS Device is Compatible

The first step is to make sure your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is capable of running iOS 11. Here are the iPhones compatible with iOS 11:

• iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus


• iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus


• iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus


• iPhone SE


• iPhone 5S

Got an iPad? Here are the models supported by iOS 11:

• 12.9-inch iPad Pro (first and second generation)


• 10.5-inch iPad Pro


• 9.7-inch iPad Pro


• iPad (fifth generation)


• iPad Air and iPad Air 2


• iPad mini 2, 3, and 4

Finally, if you have a sixth-generation iPod touch, you’re in business for iOS 11.

The First Step to Getting Your iPhone Ready for iOS 11 is Your Backup

You’re actually going to do this a couple of times, but let’s start now. Using iTunes, or a third-party utility such as iMazing, make a complete backup of your iOS device. I prefer iMazing, simply because it does incremental snapshot backups and is one of the only remaining ways to back up ringtones and apps.

With that said, you should also maintain at least one local backup using iTunes. That way, if your backup fails to restore, you have something else to try. This can also be crucial if none of your backups will restore and you want Apple to help you — with an iTunes backup of your iOS device, Apple’s customer support has no way to claim it’s a problem with the third-party utility.

Update Your Apps and Ditch 32-bit Apps

Next, make sure you’ve got all of your apps as updated as they’ll get. This might take a while, but it’s important to make sure your apps are up-to-date before you upgrade to iOS 11.

This is also close to being your last chance to check out replacement apps for your 32-bit titles side-by-side. You know, those apps you keep getting warnings about? You should look for alternatives now, while you can still compare them side-by-side. Having those apps on deck is crucial to making sure you have your iPhone ready for iOS 11.

Update to the Latest Version of 10.3

Before upgrading to iOS 11, make sure you have the latest version of 10.3 installed. This ensures all of your device and app databases are up-to-date according to the latest code revisions. It’s also the “model” upgrade path — Apple will be planning for users to upgrade from 10.3.3 to 11, not from some other version.

For those keeping count, that is the latest released version of iOS so far: 10.3.3.

You can install this update by visiting Settings -> General -> Software Update on your iOS device.

Backup Your Device and Update Your Apps (Yes, Again)

Just before you run the update to iOS 11, run one more backup. Better safe than sorry, right? You should also update your apps one more time, just in case some of the latest versions depended on having 10.3.3 installed.

Now, your iPhone (or iPad, or iPod touch) is ready for iOS 11. When the update is dropped tomorrow, you’ll be ready to install it and start taking advantages of the new features in iOS 11.

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