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Apple Details Road to iOS 7 Beta 4 Release, Dev Center Recovery

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As Apple approaches a week of downtime for the Developer Center Apple issued an apology to developers and outlined a plan to bring the Apple Developer Center online and start the roll out of betas including the much anticipated iOS 7 beta 4 many developers and users expected on Monday.

Apple is “working around the clock” to bring the Developer Center online, and a new email outlines the plan to get developer access back in a new secure environment.

A security breach exposed some developer info last week, causing Apple to take the Developer portal offline while the company investigated the hack. This removed the iOS 7 beta download files and the ability to add new devices to the iOS 7 beta and to app testing, but has not stopped app updates from hitting the iOS App store.

The iOS 7 beta 4 release is on hold while Apple brings the iOS developer center back online.

The iOS 7 beta 4 release is on hold while Apple brings the iOS developer center back online.

Apple sent the following email to iOS and OS X Developers.

We plan to roll out our updated systems, starting with Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Apple Developer Forums, Bug Reporter, pre-release developer libraries, and videos first. Next, we will restore software downloads, so that the latest betas of iOS 7, Xcode 5, and OS X Mavericks will once again be available to program members. We’ll then bring the remaining systems online. To keep you up to date on our progress, we’ve created a status page to display the availability of our systems.

With this in mind, expect to see some parts of the Developer center come online before any of the latest betas of iOS 7 make their way to developer devices. Expect to see an emphasis on bringing Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles online so developers can add test devices. Without this feature some developers face hurdles to testing new apps and app updates.

The new Developer Center status page shows the current process of bringing Apple’s developer tools online. Last updated at 8:13 PM Pacific iTunes Connect and Bug reporting are the only portions online.

Apple's new Developer Status page shows the steps needed to bring operations online and facilitate an iOS 7 beta 4 release.

Apple’s new Developer Status page shows the steps needed to bring operations online and facilitate an iOS 7 beta 4 release.

Apple released a new OS X Mavericks developer preview on Tuesday, which is a good sign. But it’s not the same as pushing an iOS 7 beta to users. In order to bring the iOS 7 beta 4 release to users, Apple likely needs the iOS Developer Center online to deliver supporting programs like Xcode.

It is possible that Apple continues to work on the iOS 7 beta 4 internally. Leaks throughout the iOS 7 beta indicate Apple employees are on a different build than the beta testing developers. This could allow Apple to continue adding to the iOS 7 beta to keep it on track for a fall release.

Depending on how long the iOS 7 beta 4 release is delayed and the Developer Center is offline, alleged plans for an iPhone 5S release by September 28th could run into trouble as Apple would not likely launch a new iPhone without iOS 7.

The iOS 7 beta 3 comes with an expiration date of August 29th which gives Apple some room to work on the Developer Center and an iOS 7 beta 4 download, but there is a deadline in place. Users on earlier iOS 7 beta builds are on a tighter deadline as iOS 7 beta 1 expires today July 24th and iOS 7 beta 2 expires on August 8th. Some users report not being able to upgrade to the iOS 7 beta 3 at this time.

There is an unofficial way to downgrade from the iOS 7 beta to iOS 6, but with weeks left, this step isn’t one most users need to take immediately.

Update: Clarifications and developer link added.

11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Lucian Moraru

    07/24/2013 at 9:29 pm

    Finally some answers !

  2. phoni

    07/25/2013 at 1:53 am

    Might the fact that Beta 4 has been “delayed” be merely part of Apple’s testing procedures, and that a “hack” occurred is just a diversion ?

    You know what they say…don’t confuse apples with oranges.

    • Broseidon

      07/25/2013 at 12:00 pm

      and also, the moon landing was a fake.

      • Mrjr101

        07/25/2013 at 3:32 pm

        While it could be possible that the “hack” might have caused betta 4 to be delayed.there is no clear indication it was the case. Apple released the latest Mavericks version in the middle of this so you must ask yourself why they did not do the same with ios. It is well within the realm of possibility that Apple was not ready for the next version of the beta and they decided to wait and take advantage of this incident to prolong the release a few more days.

  3. Zack Simpson

    07/25/2013 at 7:05 pm

    I’ve heard some speculation of this already, but do you guys think this improved security will prevent non-developers from getting their hands on Beta 4? Just curious.

    • Thanos

      07/25/2013 at 11:32 pm

      I’m led to believe that if Apple wanted to exclude non-registered developers from using betas, it could easily have done so with or without increased security on the platform. Don’t forget that the way to install a beta bypassing UDID verification appears on a FB page allegedly created by Apple staff to promote iOS 7.
      It is good for Apple that avid iPhone users test its betas, since developers use them to create and run their own apps, rather than use their STANDARD phone for ALL kinds of uses and applications, as non-registered users do.
      It could do it more officially, though, by requiring non-registered users to:
      – Allow Apple to collect user data and crash reports while testing betas, and
      – Refrain from criticizing the betas and spreading negative comments or publicity in any way whatsoever.
      Apple, like any other manufacturer, wants happy clients and not unhappy ones when using a wrong product or a test product wrongly. If they required odd users to accept such terms (as registered developers do), there wouldn’t be do many unfounded negative comments online.

  4. Karl

    07/25/2013 at 7:46 pm

    This one hit me. I am a developer, and unfortunately, most of my provisioning profile just happen to expire last week.

    Of course, now i have a couple updates to go, and im stuck waiting for the site to come back up to renew the profiles.

  5. Lucian Moraru

    07/25/2013 at 11:34 pm

    It is quite a lenghty wait , much of the dev center is down , according to the status page. ‘Working around the clock’ from 9 to 5 to get things back online :)
    We can only hope that with this delay the beta dev team at apple are making even more progress and beta 4 is going to be ahead of it’s actual version no.

  6. Richie

    07/26/2013 at 6:08 pm

    It’s working now. Up and running. Including software downloads, but no beta 4

    • Lucian Moraru

      07/26/2013 at 6:25 pm

      Grand news , reckon beta 4 will pe out on monday ..

  7. MIke Mike

    07/26/2013 at 10:38 pm

    I am activating UDIDs via PayPal for 5 USD, activation is done within 10 minutes after payment. The PayPal email is [email protected] please add UDID with payment.

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