How To Upgrade To iOS 6 Beta 4 For Your iPhone

Whenever Apple releases a new firmware, it usually means that they will first release a developer version that all developers can play around with.  Basically this is a great way for them to get comments from developers on what needs to be fixed and improved.  Also, this is a great opportunity for developers to learn what the new features are that they can incorporate into their future and current apps.  Basically it works great both ways.

The problem is this can leave the general public left wanting.  They see stuff online through developers YouTube channels and can only drool because they want to try out the Beta as well.  But this doesn’t always have to be the case.  Short of purchasing your own Developer account and adding your own devices UDID’s to that account, you can actually upgrade without the developer-required credentials.

Now, remember that if you do upgrade, this means that you will lose your iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak and there is no guarantee yet that you can downgrade.  Still, if you want to move forward with your firmware version, make sure to save your SHSH blobs in case you can downgrade in the future.  Also keep in mind that there is no public jailbreak, tethered or untethered, for iOS6 Beta 4.

So if you want to do the upgrade without having to submit your UDID to any developers, here is how you do it.

• First download the iOS6 Beta 1 firmware.  You will have to find this on your own online since this is something reserved for Developer accounts and there are no direct links from Apple.
• Then restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to the stock iOS 5.1 or 5.1.1 firmware if you are jailbroken.  You need to do this because the method you will use to get to iOS6 Beta 1 is through an upgrade.  This also means that you cannot have any content on your iDevice when doing the upgrade.  This is highly recommended so that you will not run into any errors whatsoever.
• Download and run the latest version of iTunes.  This was released just yesterday with the announcement of the new iOS6 firmware and is now at version 10.6.3.  You can get this from the official iTunes page.
• When you are running the latest iTunes firmware, plug your iOS device into your computer.  Then update it to the iOS6 Beta 1 firmware that you downloaded earlier.  You will need to do this by selecting the file.  On windows, press the Shift button and click on Update.  Option+Update for Mac users.  Then just select the iOS6 Beta 1 firmware and your device will be updated to it.  Keep in mind that you are updating and not restoring so click Update and NOT Restore.  Now all you have to do is wait.
• From here on out you can use the Over The Air (OTA) update feature found in the Settings application of your iPhone to update to iOS6 Beta 4.

Once the update is complete you can enjoy all the new features that iOS6 Beta 4 has to offer just like all the iOS developers are doing!  Let us know in the comments if you have done this and what you think of the new iOS firmware iteration.