iOS 18.4 Beta Now Unavailable Across Entire iPhone 12 Lineup and More

Apple last week seeded the first iOS 18.4 beta to developers for testing, but the software update has been pulled for some devices due to issues.

Generic iOS 18
According to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris, the first iOS 18.4 beta is no longer available for installation on any of the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, or iPhone 12 Pro Max models, along with select older iPad Air and entry-level iPad models.

The first iOS 18.4 beta was causing some iPhone 12 models and other affected devices to experience a "boot loop," rendering the device unusable. This is one reason why Apple always stresses backing up your iPhone before installing iOS betas, as pre-release software can experience critical bugs and issues from time to time.


There may have been other issues affecting some of the cellular iPad Air models in particular, rather than the boot loop problem.

Apple also pulled the first watchOS 11.4 beta for Apple Watch Series 6 models.

Apple should eventually make iOS 18.4 and watchOS 11.4 betas available again for the affected devices, but it is unclear when that will happen.

Unfortunately, this is far from the first time this has happened.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
Johny Srouji

Apple Chip Chief Johny Srouji Could Be Next to Go as Exodus Continues

Sunday December 7, 2025 10:41 am PST by
Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji could be the next leading executive to leave the company amid an alarming exodus of leading employees, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Srouji apparently recently told CEO Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving" in the near future. He intends to join another company if he departs. Srouji leads Apple's chip design ...
Johny Srouji

Apple's Chipmaking Chief Johny Srouji Responds to Report About Him Potentially Leaving

Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future. "I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
Intel Inside iPhone Feature

Apple's Return to Intel Rumored to Extend to iPhone

Friday December 5, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Intel is expected to begin supplying some Mac and iPad chips in a few years, and the latest rumor claims the partnership might extend to the iPhone. In a research note with investment firm GF Securities this week, obtained by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu said he and his colleagues "now expect" Intel to reach a supply deal with Apple for at least some non-pro iPhone chips starting in 2028....
google pixel 10

Switching Between iPhone and Android Will Get Easier With New Apple and Google Collaboration

Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta. Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...

Top Rated Comments

Reverend Benny Avatar
10 months ago
Its called a beta for a reason.
I'm glad there's beta testers out there willing to test things so that people like myself get a less buggy experience when the software is released.
So, Thank you all beta testers out there..
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TechWhisperer Avatar
10 months ago
Not an iPhone 12 owner but still gonna skip this one. Lol.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
platinumaqua Avatar
10 months ago
I know it’s not a stable release, but such issues should’ve been caught during the alpha stage.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lizzard899 Avatar
10 months ago
Ive always said ios 18 was a bad update. Even for my own iphone se 3rd generation. It doubled my icloud storage for no reason and it wont delete texts that ive manually deleted myself from recently deleted. It wont delete text from the server end. It usually takes up to 4 days to delete on the server end and its not doing this. Ive reported these two issues on the feedback page. They prob wont fix it. Heres a discussionn about the Problems on ios 18.3.1 ('https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255973148?sortBy=rank') on the apple support page. You can read everyones issues. Hopefully they will report them on the feedback page but I doubt they will be fixed
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghostface147 Avatar
10 months ago

What was your biggest complaint for mail? Don’t keep us hanging.
Get an email notification, tap on it.

Expected result:

Go directly to the email, carry on throughout the day.

Actual result:

Goes to inbox instead and freezes the mail app. Wait a little bit, then you can work with the email.

With Beta 1, this is finally resolved.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jasonsmith_88 Avatar
10 months ago

Is it OK? Or the more time comes by the more unstable apple software is?
Apple software has become atrocious. I’m still on iOS 17 which is buggy, but less buggy than 18.

However, my 2 MacBooks have been updated to Sequoia. Keyboard shortcuts often don’t register the first time they’re pressed (CMD + Tab etc). Custom keyboard shortcuts configured in Keyboard Settings randomly reset/change by themselves (because every app uses a different shortcut to switch tabs, I use this setting to standardise the shortcuts). You cannot interact with anything while it’s animating (eg click an item in the menu bar to show it, then click to hide it, you must wait for the animation before you can show it again). Dialog boxes often don’t receive focus automatically and can only be focused using a pointer device. On one of my Macbooks, I cannot remove the bluetooth icon from the menubar - it just comes back by itself (even if I set it to hidden in Control Centre prefs). My old-school full-size Apple keyboard (A1243) doesn’t work with my M3; it only works with my Intel MacBook. On the M3, CMD + trackpad tap (to open a link in a new tab) doesn’t always work. I had the same issue on my M1 in 2022. The bug still exists after three years and three generations of machines and thousands of people complaining online.

This is just a tiny list of challenges I face daily using Apple products. Really starting to get sick of it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)