I did not update my iPhone 6 to the broken iOS 8.0.1 update because by the time I woke up in the morning (Australia time), Apple already pulled out the update. When Apple released iOS 8.0.2, I waited for few hours to read people’s comments and this update seemed to be okay, so I decided to install the update.
iOS 8.0.2 did work well for me. No issue with cellular signal and TouchID. All apps run smooth. However, there is ONE annoying side effect of this installation: the Settings app still show “1” red badge even after the update. I tried to restart the settings app, tried to restart the phone, even tried to restore the phone from iTunes backup. None of those worked. The annoying red badge is still there.
How to remove notification badge in Settings app after iPhone update to iOS 8.0.2?
I checked online, there seemed to be a number of people with the same experience. Yet no one has any solution yet.
Then… after lots of trials, I finally got rid of that red badge ! So I thought I want to share with you.
Here’s what I did :
1. Backup your iPhone 6 from iTunes. This is very important to deal with possible data loss later. Normally, you wouldn’t need to lose any data using these steps, but still having a full backup just to be safe is very important.
2. Download the IPSW file of iOS 8.0 for your device (just Google “download iOS 8.0 IPSW iPhone 6”)
3. Restore your iPhone 6 back to iOS 8.0 by selecting the IPSW file you just downloaded. For Mac users, press Option key while clicking Check for Update button in iTunes. For Windows user, press Shift key while clicking Check for Update. This step was inspired by Apple’s guide for users to downgrade from iOS 8.0.1 to iOS 8.0, but when this article is posted, we can easily use it to downgrade from iOS 8.0.2 to iOS 8.0 too.
4. After your iPhone 6 goes back to iOS 8, restart the phone, then connect the phone to a WiFi and power.
5. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and click to update iOS to 8.0.2.
6. Go back to home screen while the new iOS is downloading.
7. When a popup dialog appears to install, do NOT install the update. Instead, go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage and find iOS 8.0.2 there. Delete it.
8. Restart the phone again.
9. Now go back to Settings > General > Software Update and click to update iOS to 8.0.2.
10. This time, you can go ahead to download, then install iOS 8.0.2 using OTA update.
11. That’s it. The red badge is gone now. At least in my iPhone.
Disclaimer: I could NOT guarantee that these steps will work for everyone. Use these steps at your own risk. I am not responsible for any result you might encounter.
Let me know if this works for you.
Note: Apple removed my post about these steps in their support forum. Apparently discussing iOS downgrade is prohibited there, even for the purpose of solving an issue created by their own bug.
When they screwed up their own update (iOS 8.0.1) they published support page for 40,000 people to downgrade. Interesting.
My Iphone 4s does not have enough memory to do the update so I can not clear the red notification badge.
I looked and looked for a solution for this issue and even thought about jailbreaking my phone to fix. I can’t tell you how annoying those little red ones are to me. Thanks so much! Something finally worked. I’m getting tired of Apple not listening to people with legitimate beefs and then removing the solutions to those problems from the forum. The arrogance is unnerving. I can’t believe they took this down while ignoring the numerous people mentioning this is happening to them.
I am using a 16g iPhone 5s. I don’t have the 6 g memory to do an ios8.2 update. How do I remove the red dot on settings/ general/software update?
Same problem here.
Hi Mike,
First, it’s iOS 8.0.2 not 8.2 (because there will be 8.2 later).
Regarding your issue, unfortunately I try not to speculate with sharing possible solution that I haven’t tested yet. If you want, you can do something similar with the steps above, but using iTunes and a computer.
Again, do BACKUP at the beginning to make sure you can restore your data if things go wrong.
And please do realize I can’t guarantee any of this will work.
Do your experiment at your own risk.
cheers,
Robert
I can’t believe this worked! I’ve had this notification stuck for months now ever since the iOS 8 betas. Thank you so much!
Awesome – thanks Robert. One of my pet peeves is having unread notifications on my phone and this cleared it up – thanks!
But that means all data loss on your phone :(
Under normal circumstances, these steps does not involve any process that will cause all data lost. However, I did put BACKUP as the very first step just to be safe. In the end, choose to use (or not use) these steps at your own risks. I am not responsible to any result you might encounter.
This worked. Thanks SO much. I’m assuming with the initial OTA update that Apple fails to flag off the update.
Yes, that’s why these steps are trying to “force” Apple to redo the process (which normally can’t be redone once the device is updated).