How to download iOS8 on your iPhone or iPad

What to do before downloading iOS 8

Here are the steps you should take before you start updating ios8 on your iphone

Check your device is compatible with iOS 8

The following iPhones, iPads and iPods are compatible with iOS 8. Although that doesn't mean that they will be able to take advantage of every feature.

iPhone 6 Plus
iPhone 6
iPhone 5s
iPhone 5c
iPhone 5
iPhone 4s
iPad Air
iPad 4
iPad 3
iPad 2
iPad mini 2 with Retina display
iPad mini
Fifth-generation iPod touch

Back up your data

Use iCloud or iTunes to back up your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. If you don't do this, and you find that messages or photos disappear from your iPhone after the update then that's your look out. Beware: the backup will include purchased music, TV shows, apps, and books; photos and video in the Camera Roll; and device settings, but it won't include anything you synced from your computer. To re-sync that stuff you'll need to sync with iTunes. For that reason we recommend backing up to your computer as well as iCloud.

Make room on your device

If you have limited space on your phone you may not be able to perform the update - it's a fairly hefty download. To get ready, you can remove content you no longer need, which is a good idea in any case. See our guide to making room on your iPhone or iPad. 

iPhone required 5.8GB of space to be available in order to perform the update - since iPhone is only 16GB this wasn't really an option so you should instead update it via iTunes on our Mac. 

Make sure you update iTunes on your Mac or PC

A couple of years ago people updated ios6 to iphone, only to discover that their iPhone or iPad could no longer talk to their Macs because they were running an old version of iTunes. This was made worse if they couldn't actually update to a version of iTunes that was compatible because they were running Mac OS X Leopard on their Macs. This was a big enough issue for Apple to actually start selling Snow Leopard again because it was the only way to get the Mac App Store - which is the only way to update to later versions of the Mac OS. 

Plug in your iPhone or iPad

Make sure you plug in your device to a power source. If you run out of battery mid download you may corrupt the iPad or iPhone.

Make sure you're connected to WiFi

Be sure that you are downloading over WiFi and not via 3G or 4G, or you may end up using up all your data for the month.

The update is pushed out to your iPhone or iPad automatically. You just need to go into the software update section of Settings and accept the update. Hopefully you will be lucky and it will work first time.

How to download iOS8 on your iPhone or iPad

After the preparation, go through the following steps to download it:

Go to Settings > General > Software Update

This will force your iPhone or iPad to check for the latest updates. You may get an alert telling your that iOS 8 is ready, in which case you'll just need to tap download.

Tap Download

Your iPhone or iPad will start to download the update.

Leave the update to download in the background

Once the download has finished you will receive a notification saying an update is available for your device.

Tap Details

This will take you to Settings > General > Software Update.

Tap Install Now

The iPhone or iPad will now start to install the iOS update. 

You can choose to leave the installation for later. Settings will display a notification badge until you have installed the update.