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Your device will check for updates once a week by default. No, there is no way to do what you're describing; if every iPhone, iPad, and Mac sold in the last fiv

Your device will check for updates once a week by default. No, there is no way to do what you're describing; if every iPhone, iPad, and Mac sold in the last five years simultaneously reached out for a 2 GB update, the entire internet would probably fall over.

Gigachad 5y ago
>No, there is no way to do what you're describing It could be done in a p2p way like windows updates. By default they will share update files to other devices on the local network and can also work with other devices over the internet. A bunch of plugged in iphones on wifi would be perfectly capable of distributing update files.
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
  More than enough of them would be on mobile networks to cripple those networks (even if not sharing, they'd at least be downloading).
  - Gigachad 5y ago
    I'm not sure how it would be crippled. Say they cap it so your iphone will upload 10% of the amount it downloads for an update. Right away we just took 10% of the load off the main Apple servers and very few people would be affected by uploading 100MB of a 1GB update over wifi. I'm not suggesting the whole thing become p2p, but that the p2p network assist the dedicated distribution servers. For me, just the local p2p would halve the number of updates pulled from Apples servers because there are 2 of the same apple product on the same local network. Obviously Apple doesn't need to do this because they are flawlessly pushing out updates every week but if they were struggling with distribution, this is a proven working system that windows uses.
    - ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
      You're getting into the weeds. Imagine all the iPhones that aren't on Wi-Fi when they get such an emergency update request: they'll melt the mobile networks trying to download 2 GB each. The idea doesn't work. This is why Apple devices check for updates once a week, staggered. The load is therefore mostly constant, other than the hardcore ones who manually check for an update once they hear one is available.
      - Gigachad 5y ago
        In this situation they could stagger the updates over the night. If you look at the network usage graphs from ISPs and such you can see that downloads drop to about 5% of the network capacity at the 00:00 - 06:00 times. There is a lot of spare capacity to push out updates at night which uses a tiny amount of data compared to the video calls and streaming that go on during waking hours. As a side note, upload rates seem to be somewhat constant at all hours. I assume it must all be IoT security cameras.
        ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
        Seven days is good enough. It's also great insurance: it allows them to stop a bad rollout before bricking every phone.
sbierwagen 5y ago
A sibling comment notes that MacOS devices will cache updates for other devices on the local network: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-caching-on-mac-mchl9388ba1b/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-cac...
GeekyBear 5y ago
Any Mac(s) can serve as a caching server for Apple's software updates on the local network. It's built into the OS, you just need to turn it on. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-caching-on-mac-mchl9388ba1b/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-cac...
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
  Oftentimes that Mac itself will have its own update to download, as macOS releases typically happen in lockstep with iOS and iPadOS.
  - GeekyBear 5y ago
    Regardless, only one device of that type on your network will have to wait for the update to come in over your WAN link. All the devices after that will use the local copy of the update.
    - ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
      There's only a savings if there are multiples of the exact same model.
      - GeekyBear 5y ago
        Not so. It doesn't matter if you have a six year old OG iPhone SE or the newest model. They are all grabbing the same update.
        ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
        No, OTA updates are deltas which are model- and version-specific [0] (which makes them A LOT smaller), and full IPSW restores are model-specific. [0]: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/OTA_Updates https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/OTA_Updates

Gigachad 5y ago

>No, there is no way to do what you're describing It could be done in a p2p way like windows updates. By default they will share update files to other devices on the local network and can also work with other devices over the internet. A bunch of plugged in iphones on wifi would be perfectly capable of distributing update files.

ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
More than enough of them would be on mobile networks to cripple those networks (even if not sharing, they'd at least be downloading).
- Gigachad 5y ago
  I'm not sure how it would be crippled. Say they cap it so your iphone will upload 10% of the amount it downloads for an update. Right away we just took 10% of the load off the main Apple servers and very few people would be affected by uploading 100MB of a 1GB update over wifi. I'm not suggesting the whole thing become p2p, but that the p2p network assist the dedicated distribution servers. For me, just the local p2p would halve the number of updates pulled from Apples servers because there are 2 of the same apple product on the same local network. Obviously Apple doesn't need to do this because they are flawlessly pushing out updates every week but if they were struggling with distribution, this is a proven working system that windows uses.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
    You're getting into the weeds. Imagine all the iPhones that aren't on Wi-Fi when they get such an emergency update request: they'll melt the mobile networks trying to download 2 GB each. The idea doesn't work. This is why Apple devices check for updates once a week, staggered. The load is therefore mostly constant, other than the hardcore ones who manually check for an update once they hear one is available.
    - Gigachad 5y ago
      In this situation they could stagger the updates over the night. If you look at the network usage graphs from ISPs and such you can see that downloads drop to about 5% of the network capacity at the 00:00 - 06:00 times. There is a lot of spare capacity to push out updates at night which uses a tiny amount of data compared to the video calls and streaming that go on during waking hours. As a side note, upload rates seem to be somewhat constant at all hours. I assume it must all be IoT security cameras.
      - ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
        Seven days is good enough. It's also great insurance: it allows them to stop a bad rollout before bricking every phone.

sbierwagen 5y ago

A sibling comment notes that MacOS devices will cache updates for other devices on the local network: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-caching-on-mac-mchl9388ba1b/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-cac...

GeekyBear 5y ago

Any Mac(s) can serve as a caching server for Apple's software updates on the local network. It's built into the OS, you just need to turn it on. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-caching-on-mac-mchl9388ba1b/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/what-is-content-cac...

ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
Oftentimes that Mac itself will have its own update to download, as macOS releases typically happen in lockstep with iOS and iPadOS.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  Regardless, only one device of that type on your network will have to wait for the update to come in over your WAN link. All the devices after that will use the local copy of the update.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
    There's only a savings if there are multiples of the exact same model.
    - GeekyBear 5y ago
      Not so. It doesn't matter if you have a six year old OG iPhone SE or the newest model. They are all grabbing the same update.
      - ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago
        No, OTA updates are deltas which are model- and version-specific [0] (which makes them A LOT smaller), and full IPSW restores are model-specific. [0]: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/OTA_Updates https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/OTA_Updates