Sometimes, it’s too early to upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone, so in the name of FOMO (fear of missing out), here are instructions on how to UPDATE your existing iPhone to iOS 10. While it’s not as sexy as the Jet Black or Matte Black iPhone 7, you will get all the emojifying goodness in “last season’s” device.
If you haven’t updated to iOS 10, you will see the handwritten notes and but not invisible ink or the fireworks, lasers or shooting stars as background images, if someone sends the shooting star background, you would only see the message appended with (sent with shooting star).
As excited as you are to update your iPhone, the first step is to back it up so you can protect your photos, apps, contacts, etc. These instructions backup to iCloud, instead of iTunes because I rarely connect my phone to the computer.
If you are out of iCloud storage, upgrade to the next level of storage options before starting the backup. While I haven’t had a chance to scratch the surface of all the iOS 10 features, it seems we’ve been excited about the updates to iMessage and emojifying texts. I liked deleting apps like compass and watch.
Buy More Storage (as needed)
50GB: $0.99
200GB: $2.99
1TB: $9.99
2TB: $19.99
My daughter and I both had to upgrade to the next level of iCloud storage for both of our devices. I have an iPhone 6s Plus and it seems to be working well with iOS 10. Had a bit of glitchiness, with the camera app not focusing until I restarted the phone.
Backup Your iPhone
If you have a ton of pictures or videos you will definitely want to back up to iCloud or iTunes. Make sure you’ve selected contacts, etc. to make sure that you don’t lose any of your other data. It’s a pain to recreate your contacts list.
- Connect your device to a Wi-Fi network.
- Tap Settings, then scroll down and tap iCloud.
- Scroll down, tap Backup, and make sure that iCloud Backup is turned on.
- Tap Back Up Now.
- Make sure that the backup finished: Tap Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage, then select your device.
Before you start the update, make sure your iPhone has enough battery life for the update process or plug it in to be safe. It’s not good if your phone dies during the update process and I don’t have troubleshooting steps if that happens.
Upgrade to iOS 10
- Go to Settings
- Tap on General
- Tap on Software Update
- Tap on Download and Install
- Enter your passcode
- Agree to the Terms & Conditions
- Tap on Install Update when the prompt pops up
You will see “Verifying update” then the screen will go black. Then the Apple symbol will be on a white screen with a progress bar to show you how much longer you have left for the upgrade to finish. Your phone may go black or turn off and on to complete the process.
Features of iOS 10
