The MEG II experiment aims to improve the sensitivity to the branching ratio of the charged lepton flavour violating decay μ+ → e+γ down to 6 × 10−14. This marks an improvement by an order of magnitude with respect to the current best upper limit set by the MEG experiment. At this moment, the MEG II experiment is in its engineering run and will likely be able to take physics data towards the end of the year. I will present positron beam based detector characterisation methods developed in the context of this upgrade as well as simulations for a future upgrade of an auxiliary detector by a new prototype for future high precision calorimetry based on a large LYSO crystal coupled to SiPMs. Further, I will elaborate on the commissioning of the detector in general and on the detector hut temperature control subsystem to which I significantly contributed. Finally, I will offer an outlook to the future of the MEG II experiment and present two exotic physics cases which can be investigated with the MEG II apparatus.