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One of the great things about having an Apple mobile device is that everybody gets the next OS update at the same time. While this encourages people to upgrade and means there are few out-of-date versions of iOS, it still pays to be prepared. With iOS 8 due to be released in the next couple of weeks alongside the iPhone 6, now's a good time to get ready for the update and make sure that your iPhone or iPad are ready.
As you may need to delete some apps and files from your iPad or iPhone, and update to the latest versions of Apps, these instructions are probably best followed a day or two before iOS 8 is released - we'll let you know on Tuesday evening after the Apple press conference.
Supported devices - check that you can install iOS 8
Although Apple supports as many devices as it can, some older devices will not be able to run iOS 8. Apple has a list of iOS 8 supported devices on its website, but for ease we've listed them here. Phone wise, you can install it on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S (the iPhone 6 will ship with iOS 8). Only the iPod touch 5th generation is supported. For iPads, the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Mini and iPad Mini with Retina Display are supported.
Even if you have one of the supported devices, you may not want to upgrade immediately. Some of the older devices, such as the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 may be a little slow; it can pay to wait for the reviews of the OS, so you can see how it runs on some of the older devices.
Update apps
A new version of iOS 8 often means that developers have to release a new version of their apps. While you can update your apps after you've upgraded to iOS 8, there's no harm in doing an initial update session. Chances are that you'll have to update some apps after the upgrade, but you should be able to get a good few iOS 8 ready now.
Back up your device
With everything up-to-date, you should now take the time to backup your iPhone or iPad. If you've got iCloud enabled (and enough storage space), charging your device while it's connected to Wi-Fi is all you need to do. You can also force a backup, by going to Settings, iCloud, Storage & Backup and tapping Back Up Now. Alternatively, plug your device into your computer and open up iTunes. Select your device from the menu and choose Back Up Now to save a local backup to your computer's hard disk.
Free up storage space
You'll need to download the update to your phone before you can install it. With iOS 7 that meant that you needed 700MB of storage space, so aim to have 1GB free on your phone. Apple won't install the update if you don't have enough space on it, but it pays to get yourself set up now.
To see what's eating up space, go to Settings, General, Usage. It will take your iPhone or iPad a while to go through your phone, but you'll get a list, ordered by size, showing you what's taking up space. Typically, this will be photos, videos and music on most phones. You can use this as a guide to work out what you need to delete from your device. Remember, that all of your data has been backed up, so there's no harm in deleting everything. For additional security, you may want to follow the Apple guide to saving photos and videos to a computer.
Install iOS 7.1.2
Apple typically requires you to have the latest version of the current OS before you can upgrade to the new one. In this case, you'll need to upgrade to iOS 7.1.2. Go to Settings, General, Software update. Install any updates that are available; if you're running the latest version, your phone will say if your software is up to date. If you have to perform an upgrade, don't worry about backing up again at this point if you had to delete items to free up enough space. If you do, your most recent backup won't have all of the files that you deleted.
Install iOS 8
You're now ready for the big launch. As soon as iOS 8 is made available, you should get a message, but you can just go to Settings, General, Software update and install the update manually. We'll update this guide when we've got the final version of the software and explain how to restore a backup to get back any files that you had to delete in order to free up enough space.
