Apple officially released its latest iOS 8.4 update for iPhone, iPad, and iPod at noon on Tuesday June 30th, in preparation for the iOS 9 launch this fall 2015. This is a big update with lots of content changes and iOS bug fixes.

For the bottom line, jump down to the bottom of this email.

The DETAILS
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Like the previous updates there are issues but so far there appears to be FEWER issues with iOS 8.4 than there were with iOS 8.3 that I have seen. Some of the apps I use are unstable and crash. Some are slightly more stable. Based on general feedback from forums, there are a number of issues that are being reported. My own upgrade went pretty smoothly and so far I haven’t seen the issues reported that involve battery drain problems and lost music. However my experience is not a guarantee of what users will see when they upgrade. They may see a better, or worse experience depending on which apps they rely on.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/01/apple-ios-8-4-should-you-upgrade/
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/06/30/ios-8-4-problems-5-things-you-need-to-know/

I have installed the iOS 8.4 upgrade on my iPhone 4S, iPod 5, and iPad Mini and so far found it no worse than my experience in iOS 8.2.

My upgrade experience with my iPhone 4S and iPad Mini involved an upgrade from iOS 8.2 to iOS 8.3, and then an upgrade from iOS 8.3 to iOS 8.4. Be aware you will need to interact with the device to download the update and again when you want to install the update. I would set aside about 2 hours for the upgrade process if you’re starting from iOS 8.2 like I did. You can put your device down once it starts to download the update, and again when it does the install but check on it from time to time to make sure it isn’t waiting for you to answer another question or click approve on another licensing change.

For my iPod 5, I went from iOS 8.2 straight to iOS 8.4. This was the easiest of the updates.

BOTTOM LINE
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Because this version of the iOS is what developers are using as the foundation for all their apps going forward and because iOS 8.4 is a huge change from the previous versions of the iOS, I recommend all users perform the update to iOS 8.4 at this time. It is not perfect. The era of “It just works.” ended with Steve Jobs’ passing. Users will likely experience or see some of the issues reported in forums. There may be multiple steps as I have detailed above so check on it periodically to make sure it is not waiting for you to say ok or agree to the user license.

Please let us know if anyone has any questions.