Testing a beta OS
Manage unintended differences in your app by testing beta operating-system (OS) releases.
Overview
To catch API issues or incompatibilities, test your app on every released beta version during the beta release cycle. Beta software can introduce new issues in your app. To reduce the likelihood that these issues will impact your customers, identify, report, and address them as early in the beta release cycle as possible. As the beta release cycle progresses, and Apple promotes the beta to Release Candidate, making changes without causing other instabilities becomes more difficult, so report issues as soon as you identify them.
Install the beta OS
To begin testing your app on a beta OS, download and install the beta OS on a device you plan to use for testing. Test your app on the beta OS for each platform on which your app is available: Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iPhone or iPad. To find the latest beta OS for each platform, and information about preparing to install the beta OS, see Using Apple Beta Software.
Install your app
To find the problems that your users might experience on the new version of the OS in your current app, install the current version of your app on your test device, either from the App Store or from TestFlight. Rebuilding your app using the beta SDK might introduce further changes that your customers don’t experience in the current version of your app.
Test for changes in API behavior
The behavior of APIs in system frameworks that you use can change between releases. To identify changes in behavior, thoroughly test your app by exercising all code paths in your app. Test your app for each major OS version it supports, on at least one device for each family of devices that your customers use. Device families have the same architecture, screen resolution, and hardware capabilities. At a minimum, test your iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS apps using Simulator. However, Simulator provides limited testing coverage and is not a substitute for physical hardware with real memory and performance constraints.
If you don’t notice any issues or changes in API behavior, then you don’t need to make any changes to your app, but you still need to test each beta OS release. If you notice a change in the behavior in some part of your app, it might be caused by a change in API behavior in the beta OS.
Once you identify a change in your app’s behavior, locate the portion of your code that relates to that behavior. In this portion of code, identify the system framework APIs involved, and then report the change in API behavior using Feedback Assistant. When you submit your feedback, include a runnable Xcode project that reproduces the problem, and provide a clear description of the issue with details about the differences between the observed behavior and the expected behavior.
Remember to update your feedback for each subsequent beta release. Reporting issues early and often throughout the beta release cycle provides the best chance for issue resolution before the OS revision goes public.
Address changes in API behavior
If your observed change in behavior results from a bug in your code, you can directly address the issue. To debug the issue, rebuild your app using the Xcode beta that contains the SDK for the beta OS you’re testing.
Rebuilding your app using a new SDK can cause further changes in API behavior, so after rebuilding follow the same beta-testing procedure to identify and report new changes. Additionally, rebuilding your app using a new SDK can cause changes when your app runs on older operating systems. To avoid missing issues that might occur on a unique device configuration, test on each device configuration your customers may have whenever you rebuild your app with a new SDK.
The Developer Forums are a great resource to discuss potential workarounds and solutions for issues in your code.
If you identify a change in API behavior that reproduces on the older, non-beta OS, report the issue using Feedback Assistant. Mention all OS versions that can reproduce the issue in your feedback, and also include a runnable Xcode project that demonstrates the issue. If you require assistance while investigating a workaround for the issue, Submit a Developer Technical Support Incident to get help from Apple’s Developer Technical Support Group (DTS).