No updates for holdouts?

By Betsy, 22 July, 2021

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I have two devices that are just barely eligible for the latest iOS version but I don't want to update them. I have one iPad Air 3 running the current iOS and I don't like it. I also once got burned updating a barely eligible device and ended up having to buy a new one because the updated one was rendered non-functioning. My even older devices running on iOS 12 and not eligible for the latest iOS are still getting updates from Apple. But no updates from Apple for my two barely eligible devices so I'm assuming they are vulnerable since they haven't had any security updates in so long. Is this Apple's policy to withhold updates from users who choose to stay with their preferred version of iOS even though updates are available for that version? I do understand that at some point all versions are no longer supported but ios 12 is still supported and I would like to be able to have updates for my two devices.

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Comments

By Bruce Harrell on Sunday, July 25, 2021 - 06:45

With Pc's we have a choice of operating systems. Lennox, for example. But with Apple products, and please correct me if I'm wrong, all we have is whatever
Apple operating system there might be on our device, and we can't uninstall and go back to an earlier version. This means that if we aren't careful, we can easily upgrade our Apple device right out of being functional, leaving us with no alternative but to throw away our expensive little device.

(remember how environmentally conscientious Apple claims to be?)

Nice, Apple, real nice.

By Chris on Sunday, July 25, 2021 - 06:45

iOS 12 is only being patched for devices that can't upgrade past that version. iOS 13 isn't being patched anymore. iOS 14 works well on my iPhone 6s, the oldest supported device. Apparently Apple will continue patching iOS 14 even after 15 is released. Update to 14.7 if your device supports it. After that, you can choose to stay on 14 or move to 15. The good news is Apple doesn't seem ready to stop patching 14 yet, so you have time.