Helpful article. It recommends getting rid of unused apps to make sure you have enough room to install. But there is nothing there that gives a clue on how much room is needed! Regarding making an archived backup: I’m too cheap to pay for iCloud storage so for at least a year now I’ve been making backup’s to my Mac. Certainly not as convenient but I’m not paying a monthly fee for the privilege. The article mentions “if you want to encrypt the backup” is bad advice. Only last month I learned to my astonishment that my unencrypted backup’s were not backing up keychain’s, pw file, and health data. The article should say “be sure to encrypt the backup” if you want these items backed up.
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How to Get Your iPhone Ready for iOS 26
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I've installed this on my 13 mini and boy am I pleasantly surprised! I was very critical of iOS 26, but now having installed the RC version of it, I must admit, it is a beauty! It refreshed my iPhone that was beginning to feel very stale. It runs smooth and snappy on the 13 mini too and the battery has not changed since the latest iOS 18 version that it was running (I cannot remember which number it is, but it was the latest available). Honestly, I am super impressed and surprised. I thought I would hate it.
Whenever there is a major OS update such as this, going from
iOS / iPadOS 18 to iOS / iPadOS 26 or
macOS 15 to macOS 26
I’ll always do a clean install with no restore from backup.
It’s painstaking to have to sign back in to all the apps and go into all respective settings, including the OS settings, and adjust it to how I like it, but it helps to reduce new bugs or ones that would be carried over.
Plus it allows me to rethink if I really need to install apps X, Y, Z since I may not have used them as often, of late.
iOS / iPadOS 18 to iOS / iPadOS 26 or
macOS 15 to macOS 26
I’ll always do a clean install with no restore from backup.
It’s painstaking to have to sign back in to all the apps and go into all respective settings, including the OS settings, and adjust it to how I like it, but it helps to reduce new bugs or ones that would be carried over.
Plus it allows me to rethink if I really need to install apps X, Y, Z since I may not have used them as often, of late.
Yes, it helps to have a high speed USB C cable. My iOS 18 downloads tend to complete in 5 to 10 minutes with the cable connected to my MacBook. Installs of the updates seem to finish more quickly, too.
As other folks are saying, if you want to save your health information and so on -- you must encrypt the backup. You may want to get rid of unnecessary apps not just to save space, but for security reasons also. Why have an unneeded app running in the background? I need to do a cleanup of my apps as well.
Really pretty poor of apple to supply an under-spec cable for the most expensive version they sell.
If you need to transfer data from an older iPhone to your new iPhone, then both phones must be at the same operating system version. You can use "Quick Start" to transfer data between phones. There is also a provision for transferring with USB cables (a wired transfer.) You can find the appropriate Apple Support articles on transferring data from your old phone to a new one. I've done that (by putting my new phone on top of the old phone) and if the old phone didn't have the latest iOS version on it, I would have to update the old phone before I could transfer data to the new phone. It might help you to review the articles on transferring data before you get your new phone.
Help! I don't have enough free space on my internal hard drive to backup my iPhone. How do I backup to an external hard drive?