Craig Federighi Reveals Why iOS Doesn't Immediately Auto Update

Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering, has revealed why iOS doesn't immediately auto update for users that have the feature turned on.

Reddit user @Kechoopix contacted Federighi to ask why his device hadn't been auto updated to iOS 15.4 yet, despite having auto update turned on.

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Hi Craig!
I have a question about iOS auto-update feature. I was on holiday from the end of January (just two days after I installed iOS 15.3 on my iPhone that I went on holidays with) and from that day I haven't ever received a notification about new iOS update even though I have auto-update (both downloads and install) turned on. Of course I used my iPhone as always (connected to Wi-Fi, not using low power mode etc.) - so that feature could have at least download new update automatically. Why haven't I updated my iPhone on my own/manually (you may ask)? I haven't have much time to do so and I wanted to try out auto-update feature to see if it actually works. Yesterday was two weeks after public release of iOS 15.4. So there is my question: how exactly does this feature work? What conditions must be met for this function to work? Automatic app updates does work - it takes like 3 days maximum after update release to update my app so no problem there.
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Federighi replied...

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We incrementally rollout new iOS updates by first making them available for those that explicitly seek them out in Settings, and then 1-4 weeks later (after we've received feedback on the update) ramp up to rolling out to devices with auto-update enabled.

Hope that helps!

- craig
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You can turn on Auto Update from the Settings > General > Software Update menu.