Over-The-Air(OTA) software updates was one of the major features that was announced in the iOS 5. In the last three betas of iOS 5, the OTA update was disabled. However, Apple has pushed the most recent beta of iOS 5 which is beta 4 as an OTA update. The update, which is around 145MB is a delta update, so it only pulls down the bits that have changed instead of the full 824MB ipsw you would otherwise download through iTunes. Others are seeing 133MB on the iPhone 4 and 128MB on the iPod touch 4G, so it varies a bit by device.
The Settings app shows a badge when an update is waiting and the download happens by itself over WiFi or 3G. Once its done it asks whether to install now or later. One catch, your iPhone needs atleast 50% charge or should be plugged in. And if you are jailbroken, the OTA route is not for you, you’ll have to do it the old way through iTunes.
Beta 4 comes just 11 days after beta 3. Some people are seeing the install pause or slow down near the very end, so give it a while before you panic. Also if you update from beta 3 over the air, you may need to re-sync your photos with iTunes afterwards. Good to finally see this working!! Stay tuned, we’ll have more on beta 4 soon.
Partly reconstructed with AI. This post’s full text was lost when the site went offline. Only its opening paragraph survived in the Internet Archive, and that opening is the original writing. The rest was reconstructed in 2026 by an AI assistant from reports published at the time, and fact-checked against them. Sources used: techcrunch.com, macrumors.com, macrumors.com, iphoneincanada.ca, ijunkie.com.
