We began sounding the alarm about the imminent expiration of the tvOS 17 beta software profile in the middle of January, as we knew that a lot of jailbreakers and prospective jailbreakers alike depended on it to block over the air (OTA) software updates from being downloaded and installed on their device.
While the expiration date of January 31st, 2025 has officially dawned, you can always remedy the situation for yourself by removing the expired tvOS 17 beta software profile and following the steps outlined in our step-by-step tutorial to instead install the newer tvOS 18 beta software profile on your iPhone or iPad, regardless of what firmware you’re running.
In case you’re unaware of why this is important for jailbreakers and those hoping to jailbreak at some point in the future, installing the tvOS beta software profile on your iPhone disables the software update mechanism in your iPhone or iPad so that it doesn’t automatically download and install software updates. It also keeps the Settings app from nagging you about impending software updates.
As a result, you’re able to stay on an outdated firmware version by choice much easier, and this is perfect for someone who’s either happily jailbroken or staying on the lowest possible firmware with the hope that a jailbreak may one day be available for them.
This method of blocking firmware updates on iPhones and iPads has been around for several years and is completely safe even though the beta profile is technically intended for tvOS.
It should be noted that if a jailbreak does come out for your device and firmware combination, or if you’re currently jailbroken, you’ll want to keep the tvOS 18 beta software profile installed on your device.
The tvOS 18 beta software profile will remain active and usable until January 31st, 2026, after which it will expire just like the tvOS 17 beta software profile just did and users will need to migrate to the next version.
As always, we’ll keep you updated when that happens so that you can continue blocking the software updates that Apple wants you to download and install so badly.
