iPhone 17 Does Apple install malware to slow your old phone down?

[Flappy Dunk]

Honestly I’m not sure about how to proceed here. I might update to the latest iOS 18 version on the two devices whose original iOS version is 18 (my 11th-gen iPad and 16 Plus are running iOS 18.3 and 18.3.1). Everything else will not be updated as they force 26 (or 18 but it doesn’t matter. My iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15 does offer 18, but it would be killing it regardless).

The thing is that I have to update via OTA (IPSWs aren’t signed), and the last time I updated via OTA - back in the iOS 7 days - it was an absolute disaster. The device had several app crashes after the update that even a full restore did not solve (yeah, I have no idea what happened there). I’m not too happy about that. And if the OTA update fails (like a boot loop or something) I’d HAVE to go to 26 because the IPSW isn’t signed.

This talk of certs has happened in the past and iMessage works everywhere for me (including on iOS 5 when they said that it was iOS 6.1.6 or nothing). So how do I know who to trust, what to do? I’m not upgrading again soon. iOS 26 is garbage. Even behind functionality and battery life, it is ugly for me, I don’t like it. I’d be very unhappy if I had to install it just because this failed. So I don’t know what to do.

Unfortunately, by the time Jan 2027 comes, you won't even have the option of updating to the latest iOS 18 update on devices that can go further.

Perhaps iMessage/FaceTime might not even break on iOS 18 at all, or the required certificate may be installable manually to fix it.

 

[Paul1964]

But again, it’s a little like everything else. You’re right, 26.5 is probably better than 26.0, but it’s still far worse than 18.6.

All of my updates, due to luck (because they’ve been forced) have been to pretty late versions (my 9.7-inch iPad Pro was forced from iOS 9 into the final version of iOS 12!) did that make a difference relative to matching the original version? No!

People have frequently stated that “it gets better than the .0 update”. But to make it with round numbers: if I get 10 hours on iOS 18, it collapses to 5 with 26.0, and I improve to 7 with 26.7, I still lost 30% battery life. Better than 50%? Sure! Still abhorrent.

People complained about battery life with iOS 12.0, they said that even though it was far better performance-wise vs the dumpster fire that iOS 11 was, for updated devices it had destroyed battery life. It got better as time went by, they said. Well, I was forced from iOS 9.3.4 (the final version was 9.3.5) to iOS 12.4.1 (the final version of iOS 12 for devices that supported iOS 13; in fact, I updated three days before its release). Boom, 30% battery life loss forever.

Dude, seriously, iPhones are clearly not for you.

Get an Android phone.

 

[ElPaso]

How old would an iPhone have to get before these supposed "downdates" (Look! New word!) take place? My 8+ was used 4 years nearly to the day before I sold it and replaced it with a 13, and it was just as fast as when I got it - - -

 

[mike.coulter]

It's worrying that as consumers, we know so little about what we use on a daily basis. This type of "leak" might actually fool some more easily influenced people.

 

[dblissmn]

Kind of surprised this conspiracy theory even got any traction. I'd not had an iPhone prior to 2021 but I am stunned at how consistently my 13 Pro Max has run. Every Android I had bogged down -- even the generally excellent Pixel 3e just a little, and the others by a lot. My older Macbook Pros also struggled; the 2021 M1 Max, however, has done just fine on speed except with regard to the 32GB of memory being a bit short for me; if it had been 64 I don't think I'd be seeing an issue.

Something about the iPhone ARM architecture and kernel seem to have helped longevity with devices as far as I can see. Something at a very deep level. It surely can't be the skin or the UI -- Tahoe and Liquid Glass are a total hot mess. But a hot mess that still manages to run reasonably fast.

 

[FeliApple]

Unfortunately, by the time Jan 2027 comes, you won't even have the option of updating to the latest iOS 18 update on devices that can go further.

Perhaps iMessage/FaceTime might not even break on iOS 18 at all, or the required certificate may be installable manually to fix it.

Yeah, I know. I doubt that the certificate will be manually installable, but the apps may not break at all. The past has shown that this is true, but who knows.

I know that iOS 18 won’t be available by the time iOS 27 drops. Don’t really know what to do.

 

[FeliApple]

Dude, seriously, iPhones are clearly not for you.

Get an Android phone.

I love iOS devices, as long as they aren’t killed by updates. I’ve found an approach that works so I’ll keep using them. If my approach ever fails, I’ll get something else. That time with the A9 devices has been the only time that Apple has forcefully removed my devices from their original version. Hopefully it’s the only one.

 

[mjs916]

This (unsubstantiated and unverified) former Apple software engineer says that Apple installs malware on your phone for the purpose of slowing it down during a software update to entice you into upgrading to the latest model.

Fake propaganda or true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/2052015524549398589

Every year people confidently state that Apple slowed down older phones to “force you to update”. “Apple admitted it in court!” They say.

Every year they are told the truth about this but the damage is done. They’ve now convinced a new crop of people that will proclaim in a year’s time that Apple slowed down older phones to “force you to update” and that “Apple admitted it in court!”

See you this September when it happens again.

 

[MikB]

I don’t need battery replacements because I don’t update.

And no, replacements improve relative to a downgraded battery on an updated iOS version but they do NOT restore battery life to what it had when the original iOS version was installed. This is a myth perpetuated by people who never stay behind, which convinces users to install Apple malware on their iPhones which can’t be removed.

This is nonsensical.

You don't know this. You'd need hard data where the task times were measured when new and then after a battery's replacement years after, when the iOS has been updated and everything. Where is this corroborating data? Who made it?

I paid for an update for my original SE some years back, now stuck in iOS 15, and it's not at all slow. However, my 12 Mini is considerably faster, also after a battery replacement more than a year ago. Still iOS 18 on that one and I never feel hampered, except iOS is more stupid and user hostile than before. App designers are often outright bad and should be fired. But that's not (always) Apple's fault. Few people make great apps.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I wouldn't put it past Apple. They were sued previously, and lost, for throttling older phones. Has everyone forgotten about that already?

Apple introduced throttling for older phones to prolong their up time if those phones had depleted batteries. They didn't explain this well, and gave no option to disable this function. It was a case of bad communication for sure, but people often use this case to falsely claim Apple deliberately slows older phones down to force people to upgrade.

This has been debunked time and time again, but in this world of echo chambers and Chinese rumors it keeps coming up.

 

[Luftkopf]

I wouldn't put it past Apple. They were sued previously, and lost, for throttling older phones. Has everyone forgotten about that already?

You would rather we be complaining that old iPhones just crash when we try to do something that demands more power than the battery can supply instead of throttling?

The real issue is that Apple didn’t advertise what was going on. If they’d just sold it as a feature from the beginning, and given it a switch for people who want their phones to crash, it would have been fine!

 

[Wolfpup]

Oh my gosh, HOW often do we have to hear this nonsense? 😅

Noooooooo.

The ONLY thing they do, which people got freaked out about even though its a GOOD thing is as the battery starts wearing out, they’ll limit clocks to avoid the thing shutting off spontaneously.

People acted like that was to force people to get a new device, when in reality it’s the exact opposite, it means you can keep using it even LONGER without replacing the battery or device.

Now that wouldn’t be as necessary if Apple hasn’t come up with these horrible sealed batteries, but at this point everyone else does it too so at least they’re doing that.

And mysteriously my devices only get slower because they don’t have enough ram, because Apple is obsessed with not including enough ram.

My iPhone 13 is the newest victim, but I knew 4GB was a joke 5 years ago, and it’s still a joke, but whatever, still mostly gets the job done and I reach for an iPad or full pc for lots of things.

 

[FeliApple]

You don't know this. You'd need hard data where the task times were measured when new and then after a battery's replacement years after, when the iOS has been updated and everything. Where is this corroborating data? Who made it?

I paid for an update for my original SE some years back, now stuck in iOS 15, and it's not at all slow. However, my 12 Mini is considerably faster, also after a battery replacement more than a year ago. Still iOS 18 on that one and I never feel hampered, except iOS is more stupid and user hostile than before. App designers are often outright bad and should be fired. But that's not (always) Apple's fault. Few people make great apps.

I can see it with my own eyes. I track my devices’ battery life. I track it for years on the same iOS versions without ever replacing a battery, and I’ve tracked it when I was forced to update. I’ve tested everything.

Original iOS versions don’t suffer even with degraded batteries and updated devices are garbage.

People don’t know this because everyone updates.

 

[FeliApple]

How old would an iPhone have to get before these supposed "downdates" (Look! New word!) take place? My 8+ was used 4 years nearly to the day before I sold it and replaced it with a 13, and it was just as fast as when I got it - - -

Funnily enough, not all iOS devices suffer in the same way.

The iPhone 8 (and 8+) was surprisingly resilient: I reckon the update that severely affected it was its final one: iOS 16 is probably garbage on it. I use mine on iOS 14 and it’s flawless. iOS 15 was also rather uncontroversial for anything except for the 6s and 7, so I reckon it’ll be mostly okay. I know for a fact that iPadOS 16 obliterated 1st-gen iPad Pros, and it probably massively affected the iPhone 8, but iOS 14 is like-new (like I said, I use mine on iOS 14.7.1, absolutely flawless).

As I have also stated, I have tested the iPhone 11 directly on iOS 14.6 vs iOS 18. There was noticeable performance drop, with keyboard lag and some lag on the music app, but it was otherwise okay. Battery life was fine. iOS 26 is absolute garbage.

Some updates are good, some aren’t, but the key of this discussion is one: the final version has ALWAYS been pathetic garbage.

As a counter-example of the above, I have a 6s on iOS 13, “only” four versions, one more than my iPhone 8. The 6s is destroyed. 60% battery life loss, lag everywhere, it’s a disaster.

Some devices need more updates. I know iOS 16 was awful, for example.

 

[Paul1964]

I can see it with my own eyes. I track my devices’ battery life. I track it for years on the same iOS versions without ever replacing a battery, and I’ve tracked it when I was forced to update. I’ve tested everything.

Original iOS versions don’t suffer even with degraded batteries and updated devices are garbage.

People don’t know this because everyone updates.

You say that but lithium ion battery chemistry says different. If you’re regularly using and recharging your phone then it’s an inevitability that the battery will degrade over time.

 

[FeliApple]

You say that but lithium ion battery chemistry says different. If you’re regularly using and recharging your phone then it’s an inevitability that the battery will degrade over time.

Again, the battery degrades but original versions are really efficient so that degradation doesn’t really translate to SOT. My iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 gets today the same battery life it got in 2019.

 

[Tagbert]

I can see it with my own eyes. I track my devices’ battery life. I track it for years on the same iOS versions without ever replacing a battery, and I’ve tracked it when I was forced to update. I’ve tested everything.

Original iOS versions don’t suffer even with degraded batteries and updated devices are garbage.

People don’t know this because everyone updates.

That sounds like a lot of work to track such minor differences in performance over software updates. It doesn’t seem like enough of an effect to get worked up over.

 

[Artemiz]

You say that but lithium ion battery chemistry says different. If you’re regularly using and recharging your phone then it’s an inevitability that the battery will degrade over time.

With 70% battery health, he claims to extract the same SoT with the same usage as he did when it was brand new. In a way, his phone got so much more efficient over the years, that even with the added features from the .x updates it was able to somehow accommodate for the 30% loss in battery capacity to manage the same SoT.

Li-ion batteries become quite unpredictable at 70% with random shutdowns possible. What he says defies the laws of physics.

At this point, I’m speechless. I have no speech.

 

[FeliApple]

That sounds like a lot of work to track such minor differences in performance over software updates. It doesn’t seem like enough of an effect to get worked up over.

That’s the whole point. As I said earlier, the difference with the 6s equated to a 60% loss. Goes in letters again if you like: sixty. percent. loss. Not a small effect. It was a catastrophic effect which literally rendered the phone unusable as a main device.

So in spite of the pushback: I call iOS updates “malware” for a reason.

 

[FeliApple]

With 70% battery health, he claims to extract the same SoT with the same usage as he did when it was brand new. In a way, his phone got so much more efficient over the years, that even with the added features from the .x updates it was able to somehow accommodate for the 30% loss in battery capacity to manage the same SoT.

Li-ion batteries become quite unpredictable at 70% with random shutdowns possible. What he says defies the laws of physics.

At this point, I’m speechless. I have no speech.

What? The 6s has NEVER been updated.

I used it with 60% health with LTE, maps, and outdoor brightness. It was bad but a new 6s is also bad because the battery and the processor aren’t the most efficient: in fact, Apple improved A LOT when it comes to battery life under load.

The Xʀ was still rather poor (on iOS 12!), but my 16 Plus on iOS 18 is FAR better.

There was no massive, catastrophic failure even with 60% health on iOS 10. Honestly? Neither was one with iOS 13. Battery life was trash but the device didn’t fail (with 78% health).

As I have repeatedly stated, only one iPhone 5 I tested and couldn’t get it to stay on for more than an hour. Every other iOS device has worked.

People (you included) keep saying that a 79% health iOS device is dead when that’s not the case. People have repeatedly stated that iOS was battery life-efficient at first. Updates didn’t impact battery life as much (they obliterated performance though), so 13-14-year-old iPads have good battery life with the original battery. Batteries are resilient if software accompanies that, either because you don’t update (like me) or because Apple makes it efficient (as it was during the iOS 6-9 days).

I have never used this (unthrottled) 6s for that use (maps with cellular and full brightness) with 10% battery left. Who knows, it might shut down due to health. But WHO CARES, it is my quaternary phone and I use it for music, there comes a point in which the battery health just doesn’t matter anymore, which has been my whole point:

Retain the original battery even if health collapses and due to compatibility issues because of garbage developers, the iPhone will be useless way before the battery itself fails. Even if you have 80% health in two years. Keep using it on the original iOS version and you have many years left.

A family member used an iPhone 8. It had like 90% within a year. That iPhone is now almost 7.5 years old (running iOS 14). I still use it with the original battery and it was a main device until like May 2025. Nobody ever complained about battery life. I have tested it and it works like-new. Sure, use it as a main and iOS 14 has a lot of issues, but like I said: compatibility fails before the battery. “You aren’t a heavy enough user”. I’m not, but my family is. That iPhone has 2300 cycles. I reckon it has more cycles than 95% of this forum’s iPhones. It’s fine.

I use thirteen-year-old Bluetooth speakers as we’ve discussed earlier. Like-new battery life. Battery manufacturers know what they’re doing and people keep panicking because of a useless “79%” indicator. Keep using it, don’t kill it with software, and you’ll be fine.

Of course a 75% health battery won’t be able to cope if the software version running demands 5x more energy. Give it a stable version and it’ll be fine.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I use thirteen-year-old Bluetooth speakers as we’ve discussed earlier. Like-new battery life. Battery manufacturers know what they’re doing and people keep panicking because of a useless “79%” indicator. Keep using it, don’t kill it with software, and you’ll be fine.

Of course a 75% health battery won’t be able to cope if the software version running demands 5x more energy. Give it a stable version and it’ll be fine.

This is just an absolutely nonsensical argument and is not based in reality at all.
I have owned rechargeable devices all my life, rechargeable phones, tablets, laptops, iPods, remotes, headphones, speakers, even just rechargeable AA batteries. Devices from absolutely huge companies like Apple and LG and Samsung, to little tiny companies who focus on accessibility devices.
One thing is clear from every single one of these devices, those that have software updates and even those that don’t.
They all have batteries that degrade after a while.
Assuming frequent usage and pretty normal storage, within five years there is always, with no exception, degradation that leads to shorter battery life.
This isn’t exclusive to iOS devices, this isn’t exclusive to Apple, this isn’t even exclusive to computing devices.
Pretty much every rechargeable device I have ever owned, five years after purchase, noticeably lasts a significantly shorter time than it did at the time of purchase.
I can’t truly think of any device where the battery life, even if impressive on day 1, isn’t quite disappointing and mediocre by year five.
The idea you bought an iPhone XR on day 1, literally never performed a software update, but still used the phone every single day and drained it to be beneath 80% battery health and it still gets the exact same battery life eight years later is just simply not possible.

 

[schuhlelewis]

I’ve tested and it is indeed funny that from 5-7 photos the iPhone camera island or “plateau” as Apple calls that would heat as if it was doing some crazy AI magic. I mean I don’t need it. I just want photos with minimal processing and minimum impact on battery life.

The plot twist? It doesn’t even shoot 48MP by default, but all the marketing screams it does. You get default 24MP mode and can change it manually to 48. But the issue is that they haven’t made lenses sharp enough so that ISP compensates by applying sharpening. In true RAW mode you can see that. And I am 100% sure they will fix it in iPhone 18 just for the sake of telling people to upgrade to get “sharper camera”, and ironically people are going to fall for that!

I’ve even noticed they can worsen the camera processing with updates. I have no real proof to show but I think that when phone is first released it performs much better.

All cameras that shoot raw add sharpening by default. Or at least, I have never used one that doesn’t. Hasselblad, phase, arri, canon etc. all sharpen their raw by default. It’s nothing to do with the lens.

24mp is more resolution than an A3 print, and 48mp not being the default doesn’t make it any less able to shoot it. Most people don’t need their photos to be 50+mb each.

I have an 8mp crop of a 12mp raw in my hallway that’s A3 in size, and all anyone ever says is how nice it is. No that it’s not sharp.

 

[judgeFire]

I wouldn't put it past Apple. They were sued previously, and lost, for throttling older phones. Has everyone forgotten about that already?

It wasn't malicious, just naive; an engineers fix to an issue, applied without understanding publicity.

 

[one more]

The video itself is most likely a click-bait.

The phenomenon of hardware depreciation is as old as the IT industry itself. The software naturally gets more and more complex and resource demanding with time, so having a 7+ years of software support is actually great, IMO.

FWIW, I was running early iOS 26 betas on my old spare iPhone 11 and then the public release on iPhone 12 mini (both with their original batteries). While it was not optimal, compared to newer iPhone models, I did not experience any stutters or iPhone failures.

 

[FeliApple]

This is just an absolutely nonsensical argument and is not based in reality at all.
I have owned rechargeable devices all my life, rechargeable phones, tablets, laptops, iPods, remotes, headphones, speakers, even just rechargeable AA batteries. Devices from absolutely huge companies like Apple and LG and Samsung, to little tiny companies who focus on accessibility devices.
One thing is clear from every single one of these devices, those that have software updates and even those that don’t.
They all have batteries that degrade after a while.
Assuming frequent usage and pretty normal storage, within five years there is always, with no exception, degradation that leads to shorter battery life.
This isn’t exclusive to iOS devices, this isn’t exclusive to Apple, this isn’t even exclusive to computing devices.
Pretty much every rechargeable device I have ever owned, five years after purchase, noticeably lasts a significantly shorter time than it did at the time of purchase.
I can’t truly think of any device where the battery life, even if impressive on day 1, isn’t quite disappointing and mediocre by year five.
The idea you bought an iPhone XR on day 1, literally never performed a software update, but still used the phone every single day and drained it to be beneath 80% battery health and it still gets the exact same battery life eight years later is just simply not possible.

I grabbed the speaker. Set it at a certain volume, started a stopwatch upon starting playback. When I turned it off, I hit pause on the stopwatch and wrote down the partial time. Next time I used it, I did the same. Rinse and repeat until I ran out of battery. It is rated for 8 hours playback (at indeterminate volume, today’s speakers are rated at a certain volume, whatever, I played it at 40% volume, reasonable for a quiet indoors environment). Twelve years after launch, I got 12 hours of playback until it ran out of battery.

I tested my 2019 headphones last month. I used them a LOT. Rated for 20 hours of playback. Same mechanism, stopwatch, etc. I got 21h 52 min. I tested them in 2019 and got a similar result. Batteries are resilient or I’m the luckiest person in history. Every single thing I have is going to be the perfect exception to the rule?

I got 8.5 hours of SOT to 50% with my Xʀ in 2019… I got 8.5 hours of SOT to 50% in 2026. Either I’m the luckiest person ever, or the difference is in our software treatment.

And even though I can attribute my speakers to lack of use (they haven’t been cycled THAT much), I have used my headphones a lot.

I don’t know what to tell you. You can attribute my iOS devices’ unchanging battery life to two factors: my software efficiency (I don’t update) AND my settings efficiency (yes, pretty much every draining setting is disabled). But my other devices? They have no settings. They just have volume controls. Batteries are fine.

Now, is there a limit? Hell, maybe. Maybe I come back here in twenty years and I go: “do you remember that speaker I mentioned in 2026? Well, it’s 2046 and battery life is finally poor”. Perhaps that happens. But by then… why would that speaker’s battery life be relevant at all? In fact, I already bought another one. So I have two (that are battery-powered, or three in fact but the third one doesn’t fact because it’s too small and therefore unused). But I bought another one because I wanted to, not because mine had any shortcomings, including battery life.

And like I said, I literally timed both devices without massive software updates like iOS devices with a stopwatch and battery life is fine. One is 7 years old. The other one is 13 years old. In fact (and this is the point) the only devices I’ve seen that have lost massive amounts of runtime with time have been… significantly updated iOS devices. You can imagine why I call iOS updates “malware”. I can squeeze like-new battery life from anything and everything even if it is over a decade old… except for a three-year-old iPhone that has been obliterated by Apple’s irreversible software garbage (malware).

You said you use Bluetooth, battery-powered speakers. Have you really never had any speaker from a reputable brand with like-new battery life within only five years?