How To Install Ios 10 Without Deleting Anything

If you want to install the latest version of iOS but you haven't got enough space on your iPhone or iPad, this article is just the thing for you. Here's how to download and install iOS 9 or iOS 10 on your iPhone or iPad via iTunes on your Mac, so you don't need to delete anything - you may also find that the installation is quicker!

iOS 10 is now here, but you may be struggling to download it due to the

sheer volume of traffic or due to other issues, for example, your iPhone may only have 8GB or 16GB storage and that may mean that you don't have enough space for the download. If the latter is the case you should see a message saying that Apple will delete some of your apps to make space, and then let you download them again later, but if that sounds like a lot of extra work, there is a way round it - follow this tutorial and install iOS 10 via iTunes, you may find you get there a little quicker and with fewer hiccups and without any space constraints.

We've also heard that people are seeing a number of errors when trying to download iOS 10, so we will address them below - but we still think the best solution is to download via iTunes.

For most queries related to the iOS 10 update process, your first port of call should be our iOS update guide. This has all the advice you could possibly want, from preparing for the update, to the pros and cons of each version of iOS, to the possible problems you're likely to encounter and how to fix them.

This article is a bit more specialised. We'll be addressing one particular issue that lots of people have faced when updating to a new version of iOS: not having enough room on their iPhone or iPad to squeeze in the install file. (Apple says this is less of an issue since the release of iOS 9, both because install files are smaller and because there is an automated tool to delete non-vital files and then reinstall them afterwards, but we can't imagine the problem will disappear entirely.)

Specifically we look at how to get round the problem of an over-full iDevice that can't fit in the latest iOS update file, we offer a simple and effective solution: update iOS on your Mac instead. Luckily this solution is great for the other problems we mention too.

(For a more old-fashioned approach to this problem, see How to make space on an iPhone when you need it.)

How to update iOS if you don't have space on your iPhone/iPad

This is what we had to do when it turned out iOS 8 required more space than we had available - the same will apply if you have the same issue, no matter the version of iOS. You can view a video tutorial for these steps at the top of this article.

While Apple historically suggested that you could make more storage available by deleting items, this time round the company is actually offering to delete apps for you (and let you download them again afterwards). But if you are in a hurry then it may not be an attractive option. When it came to iOS 10 we had just 1.4GB available on a iPhone 5s. Sure, we could have deleted Music (3.6GB) and Photos & Camera (2GB) but that still wouldn’t be enough. And to be honest, we weren't keen to delete anything because we'd already slimmed down the iPhone considerably (having previously had a 64GB iPhone 5). Luckily there is another way.

Turning on the Mac and starting up iTunes gave us the message that "A new iPhone software version (10.0) is available for the iPhone "Karen's iPhone". Would you like to download it and update your iPhone now?"

Before clicking Yes, we quickly checked that the iCloud Back up was up to date. Last backed up on 14 September 2016 at 20:45 seemed a bit out of date, so we did a backup as that’s always a wise thing to do before updating. That took a few minutes.

Once backed up we clicked on Transfer and Update and the Mac began connecting to the iOS update server.

Then we clicked Agree to the software licence agreement. And when it asked for the passcode on the phone Touch ID was sufficient.

Here's where we wish it was quicker: when we tried this on the night iOS 10 launched, iTunes told us that there was 11, then 12, then 13 hours remaining. We left it downloading overnight. Unfortunately by the morning the download had failed. Probably because the servers were overloaded.

This morning we started the download again. Things moved a lot quicker this time. Once the iOS update had finished downloading to our Mac, it then switched to updating the iPhone firmware, eventually restarting the iPhone at which point we had various set up options to run through before iOS 10 was ready to go.

You can follow the whole process in the video at the top of this article. It did take a while, but probably only about 40 minutes from beginning to end.