Don't Want to Upgrade to iOS 26? Here's How to Stay on iOS 18 [Update: Now Unavailable]

[cwerdna]

Apple have only ever had 3 CEO’s in 50 years, don’t think I know of any other company with so few.

Not correct. That didn't pass the sniff test. I could think of Michael Spindler, Gil Amelio, Steve Jobs, and Tim Cook but there were more.

See https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ceo and https://thenextweb.com/news/a-look-at-apples-ceos-from-1977-to-2011, for example.

3 CEOs and 50 years sounds right for Microsoft: https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ceo: Gates, Ballmer, Nadella.

 

[Wolf1701]

Lessoned learned: Just because you can uodate os, doesn't mean they you should. Unlike the era of windows 95 and xp, you can't downgrade as easily.

This argument is valid... for computers and up to a certain point: you can only downgrade to the version originally supplied with your machine.

Implicitly, however, they admit that a productive machine (because you need a computer to really produce) may need to remain on previous versions of the software, while they consider phones more as toys than professional tools (or even critical tools when you need to make emergency calls).

Until now, I had never had a problem with Apple: subsequent releases had always satisfied me... but this time they messed up and showed a change (disrespect) in their attitude towards the customer.

 

[bluecoast]

Expect Apple to “fix” the no-26-on-beta-channel feature after reading our comments by Monday. Seems like they are actively observing and reacting to discussions on this forum lol.
They won’t stop trying to shove iOS26 upgrade down my throat.

Seems like you’re right, apparently the public beta is gone.

It’s choice between an unpatched iOS 18 or Liquid Glass.

I wonder how many people will choose to continue living dangerously?

A surprising amount I’d guess.

 

[svish]

Good to know. For me, I am happy with the latest versions of software and have updated all my devices to iOS/iPadOS 26.

 

[Macalicious2011]

Seems like you’re right, apparently the public beta is gone.

It’s choice between an unpatched iOS 18 or Liquid Glass.

I wonder how many people will choose to continue living dangerously?

A surprising amount I’d guess.

Opt-out Auto download and auto install will sort out there fate.

One day they will wake up to this

 

[ypl]

Seems like you’re right, apparently the public beta is gone.

It’s choice between an unpatched iOS 18 or Liquid Glass.

I wonder how many people will choose to continue living dangerously?

A surprising amount I’d guess.

Question is, how dangerously?

Seems like corporations like Apple use "critical vulnerabilities" buzzword to force users to make upgrades.

Example:
"Apple warns that two of more than 20 vulnerabilities 'may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack,' just days after it issued spyware warnings to users around the world."

What does it even mean? How "extremely sophisticated attack" affects average user?

It's more like scare tactic than real danger to me. Just don't click any link you see and use your iPhone wisely.

 

[Powerbooky]

Just tried "beta" trick on my iPhone 13 mini... no effect. It says up-to-date with 18.7.2 no 18.7.3 showing up.

 

[Macalicious2011]

Vista was a very nice OS, but people just didn't have the necessary hardware to run it properly especially coming from XP. Even OEMs shipped systems that were so underpowered they couldn't run the desktop smoothly.

This is just gas lighting consumers.

Like OS26, Vista introduced a lot of UI eye candy like transparency and animations - all of which were a net negative. No improvement on usability + resource hogging.

 

[macuser-1]

They’re desperate to drive upgrades to iOS 26 as it’s really lagging behind previous upgrade adoptions.

…He said with absolutely no empirical data to back that assertion up, but knowing that it’s true anyhow.

It is true they have not posted iOS/iPadOS 26 adoption numbers yet, but I don't think they typically do until January, so this makes sense they're pushing people now.

 

[bluecoast]

Question is, how dangerously?

Seems like corporations like Apple use "critical vulnerabilities" buzzword to force users to make upgrades.

Example:
"Apple warns that two of more than 20 vulnerabilities 'may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack,' just days after it issued spyware warnings to users around the world."

What does it even mean? How "extremely sophisticated attack" affects average user?

It's more like scare tactic than real danger to me. Just don't click any link you see and use your iPhone wisely.

Very true. As you say, most of us will not be targeted by state sponsored attacks.

But as someone else on this thread said, the more time goes on, the more the risk that niche attack vectors become part of the standard toolkit.

I think Apple should still allow the 28 point 3 update to be installed as a release patch.

Apple always hate to admit their mistakes but Liquid Glass is decisive & they would do well to not alienate people who just don’t like it and spend time refining it for the 27 series.

And as I and a few others have said, it seems that we have flashy animations that don’t add much usability at the expense of sucking cpu time & reducing battery life.

 

[JosephAW]

You would think with all the hot mess of windows 11 and Microsoft going on right now that Apple would be taking notes what not to do but instead they seem to be doubling down on who can upset their user base more instead of welcoming in new users showing them that they don’t do such nonsense.

 

[ypl]

You would think with all the hot mess of windows 11 and Microsoft going on right now that Apple would be taking notes what not to do but instead they seem to be doubling down on who can upset their user base more instead of welcoming in new users showing them that they don’t do such nonsense.

Partially true, but there's one critical difference: M$ is chasing Meta in their greed for user data. Apple on the other hand keeps its "Privacy as a Product" approach. Actually that's most important factor for me to stay with Apple, even if I will have to use Liquid Glass and other unnecessary stuff eventually.

 

[nt5672]

It costs them money/man-hours to test and implement security patches on phones that support iOS 26, that’s why they stop releasing security updates for newer phones at a certain point, to put those resources towards other projects. If we want the bugs in iOS 26 fixed faster, they need to let as many of their engineers focus on that ASAP, rather than continuing work on 18

Hopefully they’ve gotten the hint about Liquid Glass and give us more options to disable some more of it’s changes

I call this BS. They have the money and man hours. This is all about bandaging over the fact that liquid glass is a total fail. If the majority failed to update that would be a big slap in the face. So Apple's response, force the update.

No different than checking into a hotel with a bad low pressure cold shower. You've no choice but to use it anyway. That is the new Apple under Cook.

It does not matter that Apple also did this in prior releases because Apple new releases are often poorly thought out and a buggy mess. Rather than fix the problem at Apple, they bandaid over it with forced updates and marketing propaganda.

 

[wasobia]

Apple releases a new OS
You do not update? Apple chooses to leave you exposed to threats or vulnerabilities.

 

[t0pher]

What does it even mean? How "extremely sophisticated attack" affects average user?

Those attacks tend to be targeted at specific individuals.

If your a politician or vip or someone with incriminating info on your devices then best to upgrade.

If your a no one like the rest of us then likely no worries.

Apple os’s constantly download security files that scan & guard against intrusions & exploits, kind of like an anti virus hence why antivirus isn’t needed on macs.

This site has some detail on the auto security updates that occur.

Malware detection and remediation by XProtect Remediator

In June 2022, Apple retired MRT and replaced it with XProtect Remediator. Here’s all you need to know about this new tool and what it does.

eclecticlight.co

System Updates

This page lists updates released by Apple for macOS and security updates from 2016 onwards. Information for older updates may not be complete, but this should document full cycles for each major ve…

eclecticlight.co

 

[coolfactor]

Wish I never updated to 26.
Liquid glass is a disaster.

Liquid Glass is nowhere near as terrible as you make it sound, but my usage involves turning on "Increase Contrast", which offers clean edge.

Loving Liquid Glass morphing.

 

[coolfactor]

I despise the new Safari. For that reason alone I will be riding the iOS 18 bus until next August when I am forced to update to 26 before 27 comes out and is another crap storm.

I've been using DuckDuckGo as my primary browser.

I was a passionate Safari advocate for years because of Keychain support, but now Password management is available across all apps, so using Safari offers no advantages.

 

[t0pher]

It costs them money/man-hours to test and implement security patches on phones that support iOS 26, that’s why they stop releasing security updates for newer phones at a certain point, to put those resources towards other projects. If we want the bugs in iOS 26 fixed faster, they need to let as many of their engineers focus on that ASAP, rather than continuing work on 18

Hopefully they’ve gotten the hint about Liquid Glass and give us more options to disable some more of it’s changes

Most of the os is common between versions newer os just has new features not in the old.

Example being libraries like ssl, ntp, curl.

Automation can easily update the current os with the fixed components and also easily back port those fixes in common components to previous os’s.

It’s not difficult & is typically done within the industry.

For example Cisco has many ‘trains’ that are compatible to common platforms. Those ‘trains’ are often updated at the same time with vulnerability fixes. Difference between ’trains’ is Higher version numbers tend to have newer features.

Another example is LTS builds from Ubuntu or redhat, they are typically supported for 10 years while receiving security updates within that time but features are typically frozen. They can do this because many of the supported features carry into future releases so whilst they fix newer releases a few extra clicks updates the lts releases too.

Ubuntu Releases

 

[coolfactor]

This is just gas lighting consumers.

Like OS26, Vista introduced a lot of UI eye candy like transparency and animations - all of which were a net negative. No improvement on usability + resource hogging.

iOS 26 is nowhere near the same as Vista was, and not the resource hog you claim it to be. Running like a champ on my iPhone 13 Pro.

The morphing UI makes for a very elegant and productive experience.

Setting Liquid Glass aside, what are 3 things that you wish iOS 26 offered?

 

[Aslak3]

Staying on iOS 17 (& macos 14 for that matter) till i get a new phone... not an Apple phone either!

i'm done with Apple; they are no longer a OS or hardware company! They are a media company and offer me nothing I will spend $$$ on. at this point i'm looking to seeing what Ive puts out.

after spending the last 30 year in infosec and counting on Apple for great hardware and OS; with great security built in and with a UI/UX that, both, just worked AND fed the soul, all i can say is shame on you Cook, shame on you Apple OS developers! you let us all down! You took what was "insanely great" and made it all just borderline of acceptable to only those that do not know what it was!!!

Nothing to add, but same bloomin here! Except 25 years! It’s heart breaking to watch the keynotes showing off Tiger and Leopard new features, when Apple OSX was rinsing the competition by miles. Now we have “improvements” in colour schemes (dark mode) and crud like Liquid Glass. I’m done. Just glad I’m a techie; I can adapt to Linux for my laptop and desktop needs in a heartbeat since I’ve used Linux for 30 years. Mac OSX and its hardware that it ran used to be, as well as a fantastic OS for its UI, a sound Unix machine. Oh well. These things happen in tech.

Best of luck with everything!

 

[turbineseaplane]

I had to buy an old Apple Watch off Craigslist to avoid having to update my entire ecosystem!
The lengths I've gone to to protect my family from iOS 26!

This is dedication folks.
Bravo 👏

 

[Wx_Man]

Geez, you guys act like iOS 26 knocked up your cat.

Give it time…..

 

[Imperial926]

You join a forum for a website that encourages users to look ahead to the next big thing. Next big thing arrives and the forum contributors squeal with displeasure.

 

[turbineseaplane]

You join a forum for a website that encourages users to look ahead to the next big thing. Next big thing arrives and the forum contributors squeal with displeasure.

Some of us are just looking even further ahead to iOS 27 at this point.
😊

 

[Mr_Ed]

You join a forum for a website that encourages users to look ahead to the next big thing. Next big thing arrives and the forum contributors squeal with displeasure.

“Encourages” is a stretch but even it it wasn’t, “the next big thing” does not automatically mean “the next good thing.”