I'm wondering if this is only happening to me since I haven't been able to find anything about others having this issue. With several versions of the iOS 26 beta, whenever I install an update, my 16 Pro Max will install the update and then get stuck on the Apple with progress bar screen with a full progress screen. I've done a hard reboot each time after it's been stuck this way and then I just end up stuck on the Apple logo screen for hours. Each time this happens, I've had to wipe my phone and reinstall from a backup. When I go to do another update, it'll work the first update and then the next time I go to update after that, I'm back to the same issue. I've wiped my phone and done a clean install and again, the 1st time I update the OS it works just fine and then the next time after that, I'm back to the same issue. I just updated to 26.1 beta 2 and as I sit here typing this, my phone has been stuck on the Apple logo with full progress bar screen for an hour and a half. This is very frustrating as you can imagine. I have a 14 Pro Max that installed the update and was back up and running in 5 minutes. Has anyone else experienced this? The only way to get my phone back up now will be to wipe it and then install from a backup which takes hours. I'm open to all ideas and suggestions because I am stumped at this point.
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Getting stuck on Apple screen with progress bar every time I do an update
- Thread starter jfiggy77
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Yeah, unfortunately I've tried that too twice with the same thought. This last install was a new device install with no restore from backup after the official 26.0 was realeased. I was able to install 26.1 Beta 1 with no issue and today I ran into the issue when I tried to update to 26.1 Beta 2. I don't know if something I have installed is causing the issue each time but I'm really stumped. This has only happened with 26.0 and started after the 3rd beta.
That is weird. Have you tried just doing the update again instead of wiping it? You can do that by putting the phone in recovery mode and clicking the Update button in Finder. That should reinstall the OS while leaving your data intact. It might save you some time in the future if it keeps happening.
Since you’re using the betas, you would probably have to find and download the IPSW first, then hold down the Option key while you click the Update button so that you can select the IPSW to use.
Since you’re using the betas, you would probably have to find and download the IPSW first, then hold down the Option key while you click the Update button so that you can select the IPSW to use.
yup, I've tried several times re-doing the update on the computer before wiping using the IPSW and what happens is that it'll compete the update but get stuck on the boot screen. Twice I've actually done the update from the IPSW instead of downloading it on the phone. Once it worked and the second time, it got stuck on the boot screen after installing the update. Today for example, it got through the update when I used my Macbook but then got stuck on the boot screen. It's really very strange. I'm really curious if anyone else has experienced something like this or if it truly is a super isolated incident. I ended up having to wipe and restore from a backup earlier when as usual nothing worked. By that point I had reinstalled the update 3 times using my Macbook. My phone is currently re-downloading my apps I had installed but this is easily a 3 hour plus process each time. It sucks because I don't want to have to worry every single time I install an update about my phone not starting up afterwards. I'm thinking there's some app or setting on the phone that is causing the startup/install issue but I'm not sure how to even go about testing this theory because it really is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
So this issue is happening to me right now...for the second time. It's definitely a major bug with iOS 26.
I've placed in several Feedback messages on this exact issue since iOS 26.0 developer beta and no response from Apple. I've had this issue with each phone since the 14 Pro Max. I have the 17 Pro Max and this issue is still ongoing. It is a nightmare to deal with for testing since beta testing is my job. I wonder if there's anyone who has reached out to Apple Support to report this issue (this is also happening to my non-beta software iPhone as well).
It happened to me the other day to get out of the beta meme it got staled up and I had to continue with another PC. Put it in recovery mode could not put it back in recovery mode and the tf was left with the apple and the progress line in half.
Got the same issue, happened 2 times when upgrading to 26.1 and 26.2, spent a whole day to restore.
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This has happened to me again. Ever since iOS 26.0.1, every update has had the same problem. The first two times it happened on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, so I thought it was a hardware issue and bought a new iPhone 17. Today, I tried updating it to iOS 26.2.1, and it happened again.
Are you using 512G or 1T model? Before upgrading, have you checked how much space used by System Data?
Check:
System Data Overflow Bug - storage full with 170GB of undeletable data!
I have a major issue with my iPhone, and I have found no way possible to fix it! All of the sudden, my storage keeps going full, and there is no way to get any free data whatsoever because of what’s actually consuming it. Of all the 256GB of data on my 16 Pro Max, 170 GB of it is being consumed...
forums.macrumors.com
Happened to me as well when updating to 26.2 and right now once again when updating to 26.2.1.
Last time I also had to re-install from scratch and restore data from backup. WhatsApp on the Mac got out of sync and I basically lost some messages on both devices for about a full day.
Very annoying.
I'm on an iPhone 15 Pro max 512 GB.
Last time I also had to re-install from scratch and restore data from backup. WhatsApp on the Mac got out of sync and I basically lost some messages on both devices for about a full day.
Very annoying.
I'm on an iPhone 15 Pro max 512 GB.
I’m having the exact same issue with iPhone 15 pro max 512GB
It happened once before when I updated to iOS 26.2, and I thought it was just a one off incident. But today I tried updating to iOS 26.2.1 and it’s happening again, the phone is stuck on the Apple logo during the update.
Has anyone reported this to Apple yet (Feedback app / Apple Support)? And just to confirm, there’s currently no real fix besides recovery/restore, right?
This is honestly really worrying. If I’m traveling and only bringing this phone with all my data on it, and it gets stuck like this again (whether from an automatic update or even an accidental update), it would be a major problem.
It happened once before when I updated to iOS 26.2, and I thought it was just a one off incident. But today I tried updating to iOS 26.2.1 and it’s happening again, the phone is stuck on the Apple logo during the update.
Has anyone reported this to Apple yet (Feedback app / Apple Support)? And just to confirm, there’s currently no real fix besides recovery/restore, right?
This is honestly really worrying. If I’m traveling and only bringing this phone with all my data on it, and it gets stuck like this again (whether from an automatic update or even an accidental update), it would be a major problem.
I have a guess, maybe it's related to this issue: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-full-with-170gb-of-undeletable-data.2473648/
When upgrading it's trying to clean system data, but the system data is too huge and it's stuck.
When upgrading it's trying to clean system data, but the system data is too huge and it's stuck.
Have you check your iPhone's System Data storage? I'm using 1T model, the system data is about 100GB.
iOS 26.3 is released, I guess you upgraded from 26.2.1 to 26.3 is OK, cause System Data storage is low now.
My system data is 32 GB, but that's after the restore. But I don't recall it was too large before. I had lots of room left on my 512 GB device.
Make sure you turn off Automatic Updates and only update when you choose to do so.
Everyone here who had this issue with previous iOS updates, did any of you update to iOS 26.3? Did it get stuck again or did it succeed this time around?
Thanks!
Thanks!
If my guess is correct, you shouldn’t get stuck when upgrading to 26.3, because you updated to 26.2.1 a few days ago and your System Data is low, so it should clean up fast when upgrading.
So you think that if I would have waited while the update seemed to have been stuck, eventually it would have completed?
niltonhc
macrumors newbie
I had this same issue when updating to 26.2 (15 Pro Max 1TB), had to wipe out and restore an iCloud backup. When 26.2.1 was released I didn't update because I wasn't sure if the issue could happen again (I hadn't seen this thread yet). Today I started the update to 26.3 and guess what? It is stuck again...
I’m not updating again for now because my restore from icloud kept stuck and took me 2–3 days to complete, and I couldn’t reach some important WhatsApp contacts during these period, so I’m waiting until things are more stable.
Thanks for the info, glad I didn’t continue the update. I’ve turned off automatic updates for now.
btw, wonder if you could update your device straightaway to 26.3 without updating to 26.2.1 first? The system allowed to do so?