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

[Tagbert]

I have no evidence to add to this thread, only my suspicions.

I agree with much of what others have said regarding the idea that the newer software updates overwhelm the capabilities of the older hardware, and the effect is to degrade the function of the older phone. This makes sense. Is it "malicious" to offer an update that they know will do this? I don't know.

I just traded in my iPhone SE because several updates ago I lost the home button on the device, and I lost the ability to immediately and reliably "wake up" the phone. The phone became more unreliable than not. Why, oh why, did I do this update? The update forced me to buy a new device, an IPhone 17e.

I have a further suspicion, which I will present in the form of a question. Can Apple download changes to the OS on my MacBook Pro whenever I am connected to the Internet? As we speak, I'm being asked to update the OS software, and the longer that I wait, the more I experience new OS errors, like Alerts from OS Calendar no longer work.

That just sounds like the hardware was wearing out on your old SE.

As for the calendar alerts, if you buy into the conspiracy theory that Apple ships secret code to slow down older phones, how does that apply to your almost new 17e? The conspiracy theory is the malicious malware infecting people.

 

[Tagbert]

Why? Why is geekbench relevant? With the same usage I can’t get four hours on an updated device with 94% health. Whatever a benchmark says is irrelevant (as it is pushing the device to the maximum, factor which I’ve discussed earlier and factor which doesn’t really matter in my daily use).

Batteries on different individual phones age at different rates so you would only be able to measure a degradation rate if you sampled a large number of phones.

 

[FeliApple]

All this stuff about Bluetooth headphones and the like is a diversion. I have AirPods og released in 2016 and still get decent life out of them. I have an anker power bank bought in 2016 that can charge my phone 5 times instead of 6 times. But so what?

Thank you. That shows that battery health is irrelevant if you don’t infect the device with iOS malware.

None of that changes the fact that SOT is a moving target that means nothing except the screen is on. It doesn’t mean the phone is doing any useful work.

What? This makes no sense. Of course SOT will vary depending on usage. And?

 

[bluecoast]

Finally some common sense. This is what happens. It is a continuous and irreversible degradation that ends when the user upgrades.

And the funny thing is… that users keep falling for it! “No, battery life and performance are bad either because the device is old or because the battery is degraded”.

No, battery life and performance are awful because you installed Apple-made malware onto your iPhone that cannot be removed. Next time, either stay behind (you won’t), or update again and tolerate garbage like you always do until you upgrade and the cycle repeats.

The annoying thing is I upgraded my 16e to 26, but it’s so terrible that I’ll upgrade to 27.

Which might make it worse.

I hope that Apple do a rare optimisation release in 27, because they must surely release how badly 26 has been received.

 

[whitby]

This sounds completely and utterly unbelievable. Why would Apple risk their entire business on doing something like this? I am sorry we need to verify the veracity of the source and why they might want to spread something like this.

The fact is that as features and functions are added that take advantage of newer hardware, older hardware may struggle to keep up. I am constantly surprised by how far back Apple hardware continues to work on current software releases and it must be a major headache to ensure that new releases work on legacy hardware. You may not like it, but the faster we add features and functions to new releases, the more likely it will be that the older hardware will become slower. Eventually Apple will simply stop supporting the legacy products or severely limit what works and does not.

I wish we would stop looking for conspiracy theories for simple facts of life.

 

[FeliApple]

The annoying thing is I upgraded my 16e to 26, but it’s so terrible that I’ll upgrade to 27.

Which might make it worse.

I hope that Apple do a rare optimisation release in 27, because they must surely release how badly 26 has been received.

Honestly I’d just keep updating through point versions of 26 hoping it gets better and refrain from 27 unless users overwhelmingly say that it improves.

As I said earlier, iOS 12, which was an optimisation release, was significantly worse than the original iOS 9 on my devices, so I wouldn’t put much stock on a purported “optimisation update”.

Who knows, maybe by August or early September it gets to a point in which you’re happy with how 26 runs, especially considering that you’re on the newest iPhone than can update to it (as newer iPhones have it as their original iOS versions and have no choice today but to run 26).

Still, like I said, seeing what iPadOS 13 did to the 1st-gen iPad Pros, and barring the 30% battery life loss vs iOS 9, I’m reasonably content with iOS 12 on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro. I was forced to it, but at least it’s not complete garbage. Not like that device is all too relevant for me today anyway.

Maybe the final version of 26 gives you that: being content with it, even if it is worse than iOS 18. You did run 18 on your 16e, right? And it was significantly better I assume?

 

[I7guy]

Thank you. That shows that battery health is irrelevant if you don’t infect the device with iOS malware.

Not at all. I didn’t mention devices like my cordless drills where battery life is measured in minutes.

What? This makes no sense. Of course SOT will vary depending on usage. And?

Exactly. SOT is a useless measurement because it doesn’t measure the battery load.

 

[FeliApple]

The fact is that as features and functions are added that take advantage of newer hardware, older hardware may struggle to keep up. You may not like it, but the faster we add features and functions to new releases, the more likely it will be that the older hardware will become slower. Eventually Apple will simply stop supporting the legacy products or severely limit what works and does not.

I wish we would stop looking for conspiracy theories for simple facts of life.

Exactly… and you think this is okay? Because not only do they do what you are saying here, they also actively prevent downgrading. They force irreversible malware onto most iOS devices. This isn’t okay.

Apple would fix this nonsense by at least signing every major iOS version ever released. Allow the user to decide, done, problem solved.

 

[Artemiz]

Exactly… and you think this is okay? Because not only do they do what you are saying here, they also actively prevent downgrading. They force irreversible malware onto most iOS devices. This isn’t okay.

Apple would fix this nonsense by at least signing every major iOS version ever released. Allow the user to decide, done, problem solved.

Technical definition of malware is far from what you think it is. So could you please stop using the word malware just because it sounds fancy?

We get your point but please stop sensationalizing.

 

[FeliApple]

Technical definition of malware is far from what you think it is. So could you please stop using the word malware just because it sounds fancy?

We get your point but please stop sensationalizing.

According to malwarebytes:

“Malware, or “malicious software,” is an umbrella term that describes any malicious program or code that is harmful to systems.”

iOS updates? Malware.

 

[Artemiz]

According to malwarebytes:

“Malware, or “malicious software,” is an umbrella term that describes any malicious program or code that is harmful to systems.”

iOS updates? Malware.

iOS not being fully optimized for older devices doesn’t magically turn it into a “malicious” piece of code.
A malware, by definition, is designed for a malicious (often very specific) purpose. You’re labeling the iOS in its entirety as malware, which is categorically false.

 

[I7guy]

This sounds completely and utterly unbelievable. Why would Apple risk their entire business on doing something like this? I am sorry we need to verify the veracity of the source and why they might want to spread something like this.

The fact is that as features and functions are added that take advantage of newer hardware, older hardware may struggle to keep up. I am constantly surprised by how far back Apple hardware continues to work on current software releases and it must be a major headache to ensure that new releases work on legacy hardware. You may not like it, but the faster we add features and functions to new releases, the more likely it will be that the older hardware will become slower. Eventually Apple will simply stop supporting the legacy products or severely limit what works and does not.

I wish we would stop looking for conspiracy theories for simple facts of life.

I agree, up to the iPhone X. After the iPhone X future its versions mostly did not slow down iPhones.

 

[I7guy]

Exactly… and you think this is okay? Because not only do they do what you are saying here, they also actively prevent downgrading. They force irreversible malware onto most iOS devices. This isn’t okay.

Apple would fix this nonsense by at least signing every major iOS version ever released. Allow the user to decide, done, problem solved.

Apple isn’t going to allow downgrading. You can hope they will but that’s as far as you can take it.

 

[gimarbazat]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Not that extraordinary when we all see how the devices are being slowed down.

 

[Luftkopf]

Not at all. I didn’t mention devices like my cordless drills where battery life is measured in minutes.

Exactly. SOT is a useless measurement because it doesn’t measure the battery load.

Your mentioning cordless drills reminded me; remember the old drills with NiCad batteries? If you didn’t fully discharge them every time they develop a memory of where you start charging them and lose capacity.

Battery chemistry does stuff. You can’t magic it away with software.

 

[maxoakland]

We have not been clamoring for Apple to end the yearly upgrade cycle and we want yearly updates. Whomever the universe of “we” are.

There is nothing wrong with the quality of software being released from Apple.

By we I mean the incredibly high number of people I’ve seen clamoring for it

Weren’t you one of the people complaining that there are too many people complaining about Apple’s software?

Anyway, you’re right. There is no war in Ba Sing Se and Apple’s software is great!

 

[maxoakland]

The annoying thing is I upgraded my 16e to 26, but it’s so terrible that I’ll upgrade to 27.

Which might make it worse.

I hope that Apple do a rare optimisation release in 27, because they must surely release how badly 26 has been received.

The best chance of them realizing it is if you submit feedback AND get live support complaining that your phone is going too slow. Tell them how you feel, then take some of their time and money

Apple only cares about money. That’s the only way to make them listen

 

[powerbook911]

This type of thing is what all my Samsung friends says Apple does.

They might get too much praise sometimes, but they get way too much hate and these type of claims make folks think they're the bad guy.

And I'll happily be tough on them, when necessary.

 

[dumastudetto]

Apple would never do this. They don't need to. The new devices sell themselves and people want to upgrade voluntarily all the time.

 

[Unami]

I do think a newer Apple TV is imminent after how my 2 generations old one started to lag with TVOS 26.4. That's something that kind of happens too often and too convenient to be purely chance. I don't think, it's malware (or bloatware), but I don't think it's just new festures either. It feels more like they just stop optimizing for older devices they want users to abandon and shift those engineers to optimizing the yet unreleased new OS. And that immediately slows devices down. It usually starts with a .4 ir .5 update where there are rarely any big new features. I do think it's not great either, because while CPUs get faster, the UI seems to use up that ressources at the same pace. Which seems kind of unproportional. The iOS UI has far from evolved at the same speed CPUs and GPUs have. Apart from fancy blurring and transparency there's hardly anything new.

(O.k., we got the distortion effects of liquid glass which always give me a shudder when I think about the hardware ressources that go into that more or less useless eyecandy - and the time it must have taken apple engineers to engineer that)

 

[bluecoast]

Honestly I’d just keep updating through point versions of 26 hoping it gets better and refrain from 27 unless users overwhelmingly say that it improves.

As I said earlier, iOS 12, which was an optimisation release, was significantly worse than the original iOS 9 on my devices, so I wouldn’t put much stock on a purported “optimisation update”.

Who knows, maybe by August or early September it gets to a point in which you’re happy with how 26 runs, especially considering that you’re on the newest iPhone than can update to it (as newer iPhones have it as their original iOS versions and have no choice today but to run 26).

Still, like I said, seeing what iPadOS 13 did to the 1st-gen iPad Pros, and barring the 30% battery life loss vs iOS 9, I’m reasonably content with iOS 12 on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro. I was forced to it, but at least it’s not complete garbage. Not like that device is all too relevant for me today anyway.

Maybe the final version of 26 gives you that: being content with it, even if it is worse than iOS 18. You did run 18 on your 16e, right? And it was significantly better I assume?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yes 18 was great on my 16e. It was fast and the battery life was very very good.

It’s still fast but similar to your anecdote, 26 has given it a 20-30% battery hit.

It’s obvious that it’s all the translucency rendering that it constantly has to do with Liquid Glass.

As to your advice. 26 is so bad I just can’t possibly imagine that 27 could ever be worse. Like you can with the Mac, I would love to downgrade to iOS 18 though.

I last had this feeling when I moved from 12 to 11 because 11 was so bad.

Remember the notifications on 11 that zoomed up and down the screen for no reason? And Apple even had an ad for the X where you saw this happening (until they fixed it - in the ad. Not in iOS 11).

But yeah like you my iPhone 7 suffered from the upgrade to 12 anyway.

Sure it was less buggy but it seemed to struggle with every day usage and its battery life had taken a huge hit - and that slim phone with Force Touch taking up precious space, already had a sub optimal battery.

We lost the headphone jack for Force Touch. No comment.

I gave in & bought an iPhone XR a few months later. Which again, was incredible on 12 and had battery life that was a day and and a half. That thing was a tank.

However, by 2021-22 and a few iOS upgrades or so… Well, you know the story.

So yeah - sadly, the lesson is to stay on the final point release of the major iOS version that your phone came with and to only accept security updates.

Anyway, when you see through the smoke and mirrors of Apple’s marketing, most iOS upgrades don’t have anything that is truly a must have.

The upgrade value is in new hardware.

 

[FeliApple]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yes 18 was great on my 16e. It was fast and the battery life was very very good.

It’s still fast but similar to your anecdote, 26 has given it a 20-30% battery hit.

It’s obvious that it’s all the translucency rendering that it constantly has to do with Liquid Glass.

As to your advice. 26 is so bad I just can’t possibly imagine that 27 could ever be worse. Like you can with the Mac, I would love to downgrade to iOS 18 though.

I last had this feeling when I moved from 12 to 11 because 11 was so bad.

First, I never thought I’d see somebody articulate this here. Finally! Indeed, iOS 12 brought a 30% battery life impact… from iOS 9 rather than the immediately preceding version. Liquid glass is as awful as iOS 11 was on the iPhone 7 (and 6s) in terms of battery life, according to your and others’ reports.

Which I honestly thought I’d never see again. In fact, I frequently said that if you’re going to update once, you might as well update to the first major version, as it is generally fine (my 6s on iOS 10 has no difference with the one on iOS 13 when the latter ran iOS 9, it’s just as good as iOS 9). iOS 11 and 26 are the two major exceptions. Sure, iOS 13 incurred a slight battery life loss on the Xʀ, but it was slight and didn’t change the phone’s full day battery status at all.

Thing is, with 27 I have the same fears as with 12: even if it improves performance, no major iOS update has ever improved battery life. They’ve all worsened it barring some first major updates which maintained device quality (like iOS 10 on the 6s).

Remember the notifications on 11 that zoomed up and down the screen for no reason? And Apple even had an ad for the X where you saw this happening (until they fixed it - in the ad. Not in iOS 11).

But yeah like you my iPhone 7 suffered from the upgrade to 12 anyway.

Sure it was less buggy but it seemed to struggle with every day usage and its battery life had taken a huge hit - and that slim phone with Force Touch taking up precious space, already had a sub optimal battery.

Sadly (or perhaps not so sadly), iOS 11 was the only iOS version I never got to use between iOS 4 and 16, so I have no recollection of the zooming notifications, but yeah, it sounds both bad and unlike Apple.

I reached the same conclusion, like, iOS 12 isn’t awful in terms of performance on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro (and I say this coming from iOS 9 instead of 11), sure, there’s slight keyboard lag, but otherwise it performs similarly. Battery life is the issue. If my iPad suffered, I imagine a 4.7-inch iPhone suffered more (I have a 6s on iOS 13 which is far worse. You said 30%? Try 50-60%), and 30% on an iPhone 7 goes from a full-day iPhone with moderate use to pretty much garbage. I was charging my 6s on iOS 13 by 1 pm with 20% remaining when I was using it. My 6s on iOS 10? Still a full day iPhone with light to moderate use.

4.7-inch iPhones generally suffered a lot because it is exactly like you say: they do not have the battery life headroom to withstand these levels of software-induced loss. Even here, where we aren’t discussing their final versions (iOS 15 is unusable on them), we are still discovering that usage as a main iPhone was already at least difficult. I can tolerate 30% on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro because I still got 10.5 hours and I use it at home. You have a far harder time tolerating the iPhone 7 because you need the battery life. And that 30% loss translates into 3-4 hours of moderate cellular use, which is barely enough even for a pretty light user.

I unplugged my 16 Plus on iOS 18 at 5 am and I’ll get to the end of the day with 65-70% after 8-9 hours of SOT if I use it that much (which is very rare, but that’s the absolute top-end of my use).

I’d probably need to recharge my 6s on iOS 10 at the very end of the day with the same usage. I wouldn’t see 2 pm on the iOS 13 6s. Unplug your iOS 12 iPhone 7 at 5am and you’ll most likely need to charge unless you barely use it.

I can’t even imagine what SE users are seeing with iOS 26. It’s sad because this means that unless you stayed behind, pretty much all 4.7-inch iPhones (which I love and consider rather iconic) have an unusable battery life by the end. And they aren’t that great to begin with, since you have the reference, they hover at pretty much 50% of the battery life of an iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 on their original versions, and maybe heavy use means that it’s even a little less than that. They just don’t have the headroom.

I’m lucky to have a 6s and an iPhone 8 on good versions. For music they just work perfectly well, with enough battery life for a full day of music listening.

We lost the headphone jack for Force Touch. No comment.

I actually love 3D Touch! I have it natively on the 6s with iOS 10, but do you want to know why it’s even worse than that? Because we lost the headphone jack for nothing. iOS 13 killed 3D Touch on compatible devices (all 3D Touch iPhones received iOS 13), so Apple removed the headphone jack then killed hardware-enabled 3D Touch anyway.

I gave in & bought an iPhone XR a few months later. Which again, was incredible on 12 and had battery life that was a day and and a half. That thing was a tank.

However, by 2021-22 and a few iOS upgrades or so… Well, you know the story.

So yeah - sadly, the lesson is to stay on the final point release of the major iOS version that your phone came with and to only accept security updates.

I used my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 as a main device for 6.5 years. Always on iOS 12. In fact, it’s right next to me and it still runs iOS 12. Apple literally advertised battery life on it. I get 16 hours of SOT, which for me means that with regular usage (and including the fact that for some reason standby battery life isn’t that amazing in the Xʀ, with it is on the 16 Plus, don’t know why) I’d get at least three full days. In fact, I was consistently finishing the third day with about 30% after about 13 hours of SOT. So yeah, more than enough.

Again, what you said matches what I’ve read on the internet AND what a friend had told me when they used the Xʀ: battery life started dropping with iOS 13 (very slightly), and by iOS 16 it was just poor relative to iOS 12. So much so that they gave the device to a family member after upgrading to the iPhone 13 and by the time iOS 16 dropped it didn’t have enough battery life for one day (the Xʀ!!!! Are you kidding me? It is insane on iOS 12. What do you mean battery life isn’t good enough? That was my reaction).

Anyway, when you see through the smoke and mirrors of Apple’s marketing, most iOS upgrades don’t have anything that is truly a must have.

The upgrade value is in new hardware.

Finally someone also says this! We have a typical usage pattern that generally does not change much with new iOS versions, the only features worth our time are Apple’s hardware features (like Dynamic Island! I use it quite a lot because I like it) or the camera features of the 16 Plus (of which the iPhone Xr has none).

If you want an upgrade just upgrade the phone itself. Like you said, most iOS updates have features that make you say “wow, that is cool”, but that you either end up not using or they don’t fundamentally change how we use our devices. And for that we gave up… what? A massive chunk of performance and 50% of the device’s battery life? No thank you.

I don’t know if you keep your devices, but it’s especially worse if you do. I do. And I’ve had to charge the 6s on iOS 13 just as a music device in the middle of the day, whereas the iPhone 8 on iOS 14 has full-day music battery life. It’s about twice as good, as I’ve said. And before anyone keeps shouting about battery degradation, it has 2300 cycles and it has like-new battery life. Imagine if I’m going to care about that when battery life is good regardless.

 

[FeliApple]

iOS not being fully optimized for older devices doesn’t magically turn it into a “malicious” piece of code.
A malware, by definition, is designed for a malicious (often very specific) purpose. You’re labeling the iOS in its entirety as malware, which is categorically false.

Then iOS updates are worse than malware. Malware typically doesn’t impact hardware and can typically be removed. Sure, data loss, information theft, etc. It can be removed anyway.

On iOS, most, if not all (but let’s say most because I’m not sure) exploits don’t even survive a freaking reboot.

There’s absolutely nothing I can do to remove iOS malware. They survive reboots, restores, DFU restores, I can’t uninstall them, I can’t go back, I can’t improve battery life via settings, I literally cannot do anything to improve or fix this.

iOS updates aren’t malware if you like. They’re worse than malware.

 

[HouseLannister]

I’m lucky to have a 6s and an iPhone 8 on good versions. For music they just work perfectly well, with enough battery life for a full day of music listening.

If you want an MP3 player, buy an MP3 player. An entry level Fiio will get better battery life and have a better DAC than those old iPhones.

 

[FeliApple]

If you want an MP3 player, buy an MP3 player. An entry level Fiio will get better battery life and have a better DAC than those old iPhones.

I use some other apps too, but my main use for older iPhones is music, yes.

Not that much of an audiophile so as to buy an MP3 player in this age. An older iPhone is good enough.