iPad Pro IPadOS 26 finally killed off my 2018 iPad Pro

[petsk]

What apple should do, or rather be forced to do, is releasing security updates to old software instead of bricking old devices by forcing people to install a laggy OS that doesn’t even have the performance to run it. I’d be fine rolling back to an old ipados version if it was possible, but it’s NOT! At least on a Mac you can downgrade the OS whenever you want to.

Old devices wouldn’t have to get laggy, they only get laggy because apple is getting lazier and greedier every year. They want to force you to buy a new ipad!

 

[Digitalguy]

What apple should do, or rather be forced to do, is releasing security updates to old software instead of bricking old devices by forcing people to install a laggy OS that doesn’t even have the performance to run it. I’d be fine rolling back to an old ipados version if it was possible, but it’s NOT! At least on a Mac you can downgrade the OS whenever you want to.

Old devices wouldn’t have to get laggy, they only get laggy because apple is getting lazier and greedier every year. They want to force you to buy a new ipad!

I personally don't care about security on iPad, so I don't update till the end if an OS version is said by many to be slowing down the device. But I agree, Apple is pretty evil at not giving the option to go back.

 

[rui no onna]

Happy to report performance has improved quite a lot on the iPad 9 with the previous beta and RC.

At least it doesn’t feel like the iPad 3 on iOS 9 anymore.

I’ve noticed a few bugs on Safari bookmarks though. I’ll see if I can replicate them for reporting or if they were just remnants from early betas. I’ll wait to install 26 on my primary devices until those bugs are fixed.

 

[SebCohen]

The iPad Pro 2018 was an amazing device and lasted me 7 years. From 2018-2020 it was my main device, replacing my Macbook itself.

Since then, it’s taken a back seat to iphone 16 and macbook M2 s didnt get used much, but when used it still worked brilliantly for an older device. I took the plunge when ios 26 was announced to install the beta since this iPad was listed as supported. However, despite bega updates and a total reformat, the iPad is now almost unusable. Slow, buggy, runs like treacle. Even on older apps that were smooth, it’s now a slow messy and almost unusable device.

Goodbye iPad, you served me well.

On a side note, even if it ran well, I thunk the new liquid glass aesthetic is ugly and childish.

You lucky b...you can get a new M4 with good conscience! Hehe...

PERSONALLY my iPad Pro M1 12.9 512 is my best tech investment of my life. It's a joy to use absolutely every day.

While my iPhone 15 Pro 512 is perhaps the dullest and the purchase I regret the most.

 

[Digitalguy]

Happy to report performance has improved quite a lot on the iPad 9 with the previous beta and RC.

At least it doesn’t feel like the iPad 3 on iOS 9 anymore.

I’ve noticed a few bugs on Safari bookmarks though. I’ll see if I can replicate them for reporting or if they were just remnants from early betas. I’ll wait to install 26 on my primary devices until those bugs are fixed.

Good to know, my M1 feels "normal" but I have not updated my 2018 pro. I'll probably wait a couple of years before app compatibility becomes an issue. As for my mini 5, I don't know if I'll ever do, maybe in a distance future where the slowdown is a better tradeoff than compatibility...

 

[Abazigal]

Happy to report performance has improved quite a lot on the iPad 9 with the previous beta and RC.

At least it doesn’t feel like the iPad 3 on iOS 9 anymore.

I’ve noticed a few bugs on Safari bookmarks though. I’ll see if I can replicate them for reporting or if they were just remnants from early betas. I’ll wait to install 26 on my primary devices until those bugs are fixed.

Similar experience with my 2018 iPad Pro. The RC made it seem like a useable device again. The beta has really been rough and made it very hard for me to be able to experience anything meaningful when every app either hung or took forever to open. 😕

 

[Reverend Benny]

Great feedback, thanks. Will prob wait to update my M1 Pro and Air 3 untill 26.1 is out, but good to know that iPad 9 works well with it @rui no onna as a few relatives has that version.

Will see if I can get hold of a few older devices and try the release that's out today.

When it comes to the M1 I do look forward to testing the improved stage manager

 

[honcho]

I’ve read postings from numerous people complaining that iPadOS 26 is a slow, choppy and buggy mess on their M4 iPad.

So… give it time I guess.

Curious. It’s a lightning-fast, choppy, buggy mess on my M4 iPad. Is it possible that 16GB of RAM has somehow insulated me from the horror? The screen choppiness is, at times, fairly brutal. It was making me feel slightly nauseous earlier.

 

[rui no onna]

Great feedback, thanks. Will prob wait to update my M1 Pro and Air 3 untill 26.1 is out, but good to know that iPad 9 works well with it @rui no onna as a few relatives has that version.

I wouldn’t say it work well on iPad 9. It’s just not as unbearable as it used to be on earlier betas.

 

[FeliApple]

What apple should do, or rather be forced to do, is releasing security updates to old software instead of bricking old devices by forcing people to install a laggy OS that doesn’t even have the performance to run it. I’d be fine rolling back to an old ipados version if it was possible, but it’s NOT! At least on a Mac you can downgrade the OS whenever you want to.

Old devices wouldn’t have to get laggy, they only get laggy because apple is getting lazier and greedier every year. They want to force you to buy a new ipad!

I think there are three aspects to this.

-Apple should allow downgrading. There’s absolutely no reason not to barring Apple’s desire for users to buy new devices.

-Apple should provide security updates to the device’s current major iOS version regardless of whether it supports new iOS versions. I got a new update for my iPhone 8 which I won’t install because its running iOS 14, but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to install iOS 14.8.2, for instance, if Apple cared about it.

-Apple should not support devices that work too poorly in terms of performance and battery life. And I firmly concur that Apple’s current support standard is too low. They should want better.

All of this said… I stand by my previous statement. If a long-term iOS user is NOT forced out of their original iOS version (such as the A9 on iOS 9 activation issue, due to which I lost two A9 devices on iOS 9 after iOS 12 and 13 were released. That loss was out of my control), or of a version that works properly, and that user willingly updates a five, six, seven-year-old device to the latest version… then, in my opinion, they have lost any and all valid claims to complain.

If you have a 3rd (A12X, 2018), 4th (2020), or 5th-gen (M1) iPad Pro; or a 3rd, 4th, or 5th-gen (M1) iPad Air, and you update willingly, then, in my opinion, you have no right to complain. You know how this works. You know Apple does not allow us to go back. At some point, you have to work with what you have.

This is the situation. Stay behind from day one and tolerate and juggle compatibility issues, or update far enough and use garbage. It’s your choice.

I already know the answer to that, as I am typing from:

 

[FeliApple]

I wouldn’t say it work well on iPad 9. It’s just not as unbearable as it used to be on earlier betas.

I know that even though performance has been quite poor on the first and second-gen iPad Pros, the glaring issue has been battery life. They were pretty much destroyed by iPadOS 15 and 16. I suffered that with my 6s on iOS 13 forced out of iOS 9 by Apple.

So, performance on the 9th-gen iPad isn’t good. How’s battery life? Has it also been destroyed?

 

[rui no onna]

So, performance on the 9th-gen iPad isn’t good. How’s battery life? Has it also been destroyed?

Dunno. I don’t pay attention to battery life unless it’s horribly bad. Plus, the iPad 9 is a spare device I use to specifically for messing around with betas.

Battery life is fine for my standards. 10% = 1+ hour mix use at 15-30% brightness

 

[Digitalguy]

I think there are three aspects to this.

-Apple should allow downgrading. There’s absolutely no reason not to barring Apple’s desire for users to buy new devices.

-Apple should provide security updates to the device’s current major iOS version regardless of whether it supports new iOS versions. I got a new update for my iPhone 8 which I won’t install because its running iOS 14, but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to install iOS 14.8.2, for instance, if Apple cared about it.

-Apple should not support devices that work too poorly in terms of performance and battery life. And I firmly concur that Apple’s current support standard is too low. They should want better.

All of this said… I stand by my previous statement. If a long-term iOS user is NOT forced out of their original iOS version (such as the A9 on iOS 9 activation issue, due to which I lost two A9 devices on iOS 9 after iOS 12 and 13 were released. That loss was out of my control), or of a version that works properly, and that user willingly updates a five, six, seven-year-old device to the latest version… then, in my opinion, they have lost any and all valid claims to complain.

If you have a 3rd (A12X, 2018), 4th (2020), or 5th-gen (M1) iPad Pro; or a 3rd, 4th, or 5th-gen (M1) iPad Air, and you update willingly, then, in my opinion, you have no right to complain. You know how this works. You know Apple does not allow us to go back. At some point, you have to work with what you have.

This is the situation. Stay behind from day one and tolerate and juggle compatibility issues, or update far enough and use garbage. It’s your choice.

I already know the answer to that, as I am typing from:
View attachment 2550093

I agree with most things, but as I have said in the past, battery life and performance are 2 distinct things.

Some (many?) people don't care about having 10 or even 5 hours of screen on time, because they never use their iPad for that long in a day or have multiple devices to switch to (or leave the device plugged in all the time anyway).

Lags are annoying to everyone, instead, although some people are more tolerant than others.
But what happened with lags in the past is not indicative of what will happen in the future.

Historically the iPad have been a severely underspecced machine compared to laptops and that worked only because it ran an extremely limited OS. As the OS "expanded", getting closer to a laptop OS, those specs showed their true nature, so the 500MB RAM devices were killed by iOS 9 and the 1GB RAM ones were made barely usable.

And iPadOS 14 and 15 started making laggy devices with 2GB RAM and a slow A8 chip such as the mini 4.
Now iPadOS 26 seems to slow down (although not as much) 3GB RAM devices like the iPad 9.

But since the introduction of the iPad pro the gap between laptops and iPads has progressively shrinked and since the M1 they are virtually on par, although with the M4 they fell behind again in RAM.

How is the performance of the M1 on iPadOS 26 after 5 OS updates and only 2 more to go? Very good, essentially as good as day 1 on the end of the beta / public release.
However the reloads increased with iPadOS 18/26 and now my 8GB M4 on 18 reloads more than my A12X with 6GB RAM on 17.
But do reloads count as performance degradation? They are not lags after all.
There again some people don't care in the slightest about reloads, don't even know they exist, but I am one of those who care a lot.

So I agree that it's best to stay behind if one doesn't care about security.
Personally I don't stay behind to the point the device becomes an historical wreck and I would need to buy a new one anyway.
But I stay behind for as long as compatibility becomes a big issue and then I update directly to the latest version, unless the device is know to become extremely laggy on that version, which, as I explained, happens less and less.

For instance I'll leave my non M devices (mini 5 and A12X) on 17 for a few more years so that they stay fast and when the compatibility issues become unbearable I'll update to 26 to get a few more years, although with some speed penalty or more reloads.

My M devices with 16GB RAM will instead move to their latest version without staying behind more than a couple of months, unless some important feature is removed, because I know performance will be more than fine.

With the exception of my 11" M1, which is on 15.3 just because it's the only way to keep Windows 11 on it. But I can already see some compability issues on iPadOS 15 so at some point I'll have to say good buy to Windows and update to the expected latest version for the M1, iPadOS 28.

 

[Digitalguy]

-Apple should allow downgrading. There’s absolutely no reason not to barring Apple’s desire for users to buy new devices.

You know Apple does not allow us to go back. At some point, you have to work with what you have.

There are some rare exceptions. I discovered that A7 devices can be downgraded to iOS 10 with a simple trick, with some rare exceptions. So I bought another mini 2 for $6 and downgraded it to iOS 10 to have another device that can run 32bit apps.

 

[rui no onna]

Historically the iPad have been a severely underspecced machine compared to laptops and that worked only because it ran an extremely limited OS. As the OS "expanded", getting closer to a laptop OS, those specs showed their true nature, so the 500MB RAM devices were killed by iOS 9 and the 1GB RAM ones were made barely usable.

It was really just the iPad 3 that was badly affected by iOS 9.

The iPad 4 and Air, and iPhone 5, 5s and 6 worked fine for the most part up to iOS 10. Iirc, even on their final OS versions, none were as bad as iPad 3+iOS 9.

 

[FeliApple]

I agree with most things, but as I have said in the past, battery life and performance are 2 distinct things.

Some (many?) people don't care about having 10 or even 5 hours of screen on time, because they never use their iPad for that long in a day or have multiple devices to switch to (or leave the device plugged in all the time anyway).

Yeah, most don’t even care about the battery efficiency of their iPhones, which is arguably more important. I think today’s devices have a battery life that’s good enough to last the whole day even with heavy use, giving no reason to care.

I get 27 hours of light SOT on my 16 Plus (on iOS 18). A heavy user may scrape 10, but that’s enough for practically everyone.

Lags are annoying to everyone, instead, although some people are more tolerant than others.
But what happened with lags in the past is not indicative of what will happen in the future.

Historically the iPad have been a severely underspecced machine compared to laptops and that worked only because it ran an extremely limited OS. As the OS "expanded", getting closer to a laptop OS, those specs showed their true nature, so the 500MB RAM devices were killed by iOS 9 and the 1GB RAM ones were made barely usable.

And iPadOS 14 and 15 started making laggy devices with 2GB RAM and a slow A8 chip such as the mini 4.
Now iPadOS 26 seems to slow down (although not as much) 3GB RAM devices like the iPad 9.

But since the introduction of the iPad pro the gap between laptops and iPads has progressively shrinked and since the M1 they are virtually on par, although with the M4 they fell behind again in RAM.

How is the performance of the M1 on iPadOS 26 after 5 OS updates and only 2 more to go? Very good, essentially as good as day 1 on the end of the beta / public release.

Yeah, it seems, from people’s comments, that’s only the oldest supported devices struggle nowadays, whereas before it pretty much was “everything but the current devices runs poorly”.

However the reloads increased with iPadOS 18/26 and now my 8GB M4 on 18 reloads more than my A12X with 6GB RAM on 17.
But do reloads count as performance degradation? They are not lags after all.
There again some people don't care in the slightest about reloads, don't even know they exist, but I am one of those who care a lot.

So I agree that it's best to stay behind if one doesn't care about security.
Personally I don't stay behind to the point the device becomes an historical wreck and I would need to buy a new one anyway.
But I stay behind for as long as compatibility becomes a big issue and then I update directly to the latest version, unless the device is know to become extremely laggy on that version, which, as I explained, happens less and less.

For instance I'll leave my non M devices (mini 5 and A12X) on 17 for a few more years so that they stay fast and when the compatibility issues become unbearable I'll update to 26 to get a few more years, although with some speed penalty or more reloads.

My M devices with 16GB RAM will instead move to their latest version without staying behind more than a couple of months, unless some important feature is removed, because I know performance will be more than fine.

With the exception of my 11" M1, which is on 15.3 just because it's the only way to keep Windows 11 on it. But I can already see some compability issues on iPadOS 15 so at some point I'll have to say good buy to Windows and update to the expected latest version for the M1, iPadOS 28.

With so many iPads, aren’t you better off keeping the M1 permanently on iPadOS 15? I don’t know what your usage pattern looks like, but I’m curious to know why you require so many updated devices. I only have three iPads (9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12; iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15; 11th-gen iPad on iPadOS 18), and if I truly needed it, I’d update one, maybe.

You have like 10, why would you need to update more than two of them?

 

[Digitalguy]

It was really just the iPad 3 that was badly affected by iOS 9.

The iPad 4 and Air, and iPhone 5, 5s and 6 worked fine for the most part up to iOS 10. Iirc, even on their final OS versions, none were as bad as iPad 3+iOS 9.

The iPad 2 too, I have one, it's unusable, and it has even less RAM than the 3... Same for the mini 1.

I have a mini 2 on 10 and I recently downgraded another mini 2 from 12 to 10, and you are right the difference with the iPad 2 is night and day. It's usable as long as you don't browse on it... I guess browsing is where I feel the lag the most in older, low RAM devices....

 

[Digitalguy]

With so many iPads, aren’t you better off keeping the M1 permanently on iPadOS 15? I don’t know what your usage pattern looks like, but I’m curious to know why you require so many updated devices. I only have three iPads (9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12; iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15; 11th-gen iPad on iPadOS 18), and if I truly needed it, I’d update one, maybe.

You have like 10, why would you need to update more than two of them?

You are right that I might be better off leaving the M1 almost forever on 15 and keep Windows 11 on it. The thing is I see how bad things can get at some point if you are on an old version of the OS. iOS 10 just lost iCloud and that's something I use a lot for some apps to keep data in sync. As for the others I don't know, I guess it depends how bad the situation gets, I will try to keep the mini 5 on 17 for as long as possible, but I guess there will be a point where I will need to update (I don't want the newer minis, the mini 5 is not much better internally and the mini 7 is esim only, so I want to keep the mini 5 for possibly ever). Which means at some point I might have to upgrade to squeaze some more life, for instance if icloud stops working on 17 in say 7 years....
The M4 I will sell it any way to get the M5 so it's not going to stay. So yeah I guess the only 2 devices that makes sense to update till the end are the 2 larger 16GB RAM ones, the others can wait for as long as some really major stuff stops working.

 

[rui no onna]

The iPad 2 too, I have one, it's unusable, and it has even less RAM than the 3... Same for the mini 1.

Yeah, I was just referring to the 1GB RAM iOS devices. I think all the A5-based devices were hit pretty hard by iOS 9 regardless of RAM.

I have a mini 2 on 10 and I recently downgraded another mini 2 from 12 to 10, and you are right the difference with the iPad 2 is night and day. It's usable as long as you don't browse on it... I guess browsing is where I feel the lag the most in older, low RAM devices....

I think the issue is the web itself has changed. AJAX and dynamic content wasn't as prevalent when iOS 10 was released and they're just a lot harder to handle for older devices.

 

[Digitalguy]

Yeah, I was just referring to the 1GB RAM iOS devices. I think all the A5-based devices were hit pretty hard by iOS 9 regardless of RAM.

Got you, I guess the RAM in that device didn't help to the point I generally consider it on par with iPad 2 and mini 1 as the "totally unusable devices". While the others (A6, which I never use and A7, which I have been using for over 10 years) are the in the slow but somewhat usable category.

I think the issue is the web itself has changed. AJAX and dynamic content wasn't as prevalent when iOS 10 was released and they're just a lot harder to handle for older devices.

Indeed, people often tend to say, I do nothing hard so I don't need a fast device, just browsing and checking emails, but browsing nowadays require a fast enough device with enough RAM. I would say at least A10X to not feel laggy and A12X to feel smooth. I recently got an Chinese Android tablet, which has virtually the same size and aspect ratio of the iPad pro 13 (4:3), it has a slow Helio G99 which is on par with the first gen pro (but with 8GB RAM) and browsing feels just as laggy as on the 2015 iPad pro on iPadOS 16 (which I recently re-acquired for $30)

 

[FeliApple]

You are right that I might be better off leaving the M1 almost forever on 15 and keep Windows 11 on it. The thing is I see how bad things can get at some point if you are on an old version of the OS. iOS 10 just lost iCloud and that's something I use a lot for some apps to keep data in sync. As for the others I don't know, I guess it depends how bad the situation gets, I will try to keep the mini 5 on 17 for as long as possible, but I guess there will be a point where I will need to update (I don't want the newer minis, the mini 5 is not much better internally and the mini 7 is esim only, so I want to keep the mini 5 for possibly ever). Which means at some point I might have to upgrade to squeaze some more life, for instance if icloud stops working on 17 in say 7 years....
The M4 I will sell it any way to get the M5 so it's not going to stay. So yeah I guess the only 2 devices that makes sense to update till the end are the 2 larger 16GB RAM ones, the others can wait for as long as some really major stuff stops working.

Yes, but why do you need all devices to be updated even if the compatibility loss is massive? My 9.7-inch iPad Pro has lost significant compatibility on iOS 12. If it supported iPadOS 26 and if I updated it, I’d barely use it anyway.

I get that it gets bad, but why do you need to squeeze more life out of them when you have seven replacements?

I have a situation similar to yours with iPhones. I have six. I pretty much use one for music and one as my phone. I don’t really need to have compatibility in all but one of them.

Why do you need the M1 to be in anything newer than iPadOS 15 even if compatibility falls apart?

 

[Digitalguy]

Yes, but why do you need all devices to be updated even if the compatibility loss is massive? My 9.7-inch iPad Pro has lost significant compatibility on iOS 12. If it supported iPadOS 26 and if I updated it, I’d barely use it anyway.

I get that it gets bad, but why do you need to squeeze more life out of them when you have seven replacements?

I have a situation similar to yours with iPhones. I have six. I pretty much use one for music and one as my phone. I don’t really need to have compatibility in all but one of them.

Why do you need the M1 to be in anything newer than iPadOS 15 even if compatibility falls apart?

Because I use the devices, I don't want them to turn into museum pieces. I don't find much point in having an iPad I don't use, unless the resell value is so low that it's worth keeping for "historical reasons". Or to collect devices. I do that with phones. For instance I have never sold a phone. I have a big collection of phones, from the 3GS to the SE first gen, but above all of Nokia and Samsung phones (S1, S3, S4, S7, S10e still my current phone, S23)
But I have used all of them at some point and then they became almost worthless so I keep them.
But iPads take more room, you cannot fit 30 in a drawer, so if I don't use them anymore I sell them, unless they are worth too little. I have no use for my mini 4, but I cannot sell it because of a dying battery. It would sell for $10 at best.
I have a clear use for my mini 2 (32 bits app) and mini 5.
I use a lot my 11 2018. My M1 11" s there because of Windows and maybe for when the 2018 will become too old, but I don't use it often. Most of the time it's off at 50% with a battery health of over 100%.
I use my M1 12.9 2TB and my M4 for different things. My M1 can take a sim card so it's the only one that travels. My M2 2TB is there like my M1 11 2TB. It has a 100% battery (the M1 is at 83%) and wil have 2 more OS updates so it will last longer in a more distant future, and again I want an iPad with a sim card for as long as possible.
My 10.5 is used to replace my 11" in risky situations (I teach dance in parks in the summer so it's often on the ground and it's not impossible that someone steps on it).
My 9.7 pro has a broken screen so it cannot be sold, but I wouldn't sell it anyway because I love that device.
When I get a M5, I'll probably sell the M4, but never the M2 with a sim card. I might sell the M1 12.9 if I can get enough money for it.
In short I have a use case for each iPad, and those I have not use case for have too little value to be sold.
I am in a tiny minority, most people do with 1 iPad. I am an enthusiast so I have several. I didn't go in detail over each use case, but that should give you an idea.
I care about updates, as long as they don't impact performance, become they bring functionality, like external monitor support. Or the ability to pin many more apps to the dock. Or to run some apps I care about.
That's why.

 

[Richard8655]

All this is very concerning for my iPad 9's. Will wait with 26 until the dust settles (if it ever does). I have really bad memories of my iPad 3 (years ago) and keeping current on that tablet.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I think there are three aspects to this.

-Apple should allow downgrading. There’s absolutely no reason not to barring Apple’s desire for users to buy new devices.

-Apple should provide security updates to the device’s current major iOS version regardless of whether it supports new iOS versions. I got a new update for my iPhone 8 which I won’t install because its running iOS 14, but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to install iOS 14.8.2, for instance, if Apple cared about it.

-Apple should not support devices that work too poorly in terms of performance and battery life. And I firmly concur that Apple’s current support standard is too low. They should want better.

All of this said… I stand by my previous statement. If a long-term iOS user is NOT forced out of their original iOS version (such as the A9 on iOS 9 activation issue, due to which I lost two A9 devices on iOS 9 after iOS 12 and 13 were released. That loss was out of my control), or of a version that works properly, and that user willingly updates a five, six, seven-year-old device to the latest version… then, in my opinion, they have lost any and all valid claims to complain.

If you have a 3rd (A12X, 2018), 4th (2020), or 5th-gen (M1) iPad Pro; or a 3rd, 4th, or 5th-gen (M1) iPad Air, and you update willingly, then, in my opinion, you have no right to complain. You know how this works. You know Apple does not allow us to go back. At some point, you have to work with what you have.

This is the situation. Stay behind from day one and tolerate and juggle compatibility issues, or update far enough and use garbage. It’s your choice.

I already know the answer to that, as I am typing from:
View attachment 2550093

I updated my M1 iPad Pro 12.9 to 26 and reverted back to 18.7 because I didn't like it. It is possible.

Simple Alpaca had a tutorial on YouTube on how to downgrade I was able to easily follow, but as I tried to post the link here the video was taken down.

Here are the (abbreviated) steps as I remember them (may have missed something, but the process was intuitive):

Note: Make sure to have a backup of your iPad as the below will erase it. I was successful by clean installing; not sure if "downgrading" while keeping your data is possible. I have iCloud backup and it worked like a champ.

1. On your Mac (or PC apparently) find and download the signed version of the OS appropriate for your iPad model here: ipsw.me

2. Connect your iPad to your Mac via a cable and trust the device so you can see your iPad contents in the Finder.

3. Holding the option key on your Mac, click Restore iPad (this allows you to select which file to use) and select the downloaded file.

4. Follow the rest of the prompts (do not disconnect until your iPadOS is fully restored).

5. Do not try to set everything up immediately, especially software updates (keep it manual). Set the iPad up as new and then skip all the services setup you can skip. Once you can access the iPad home screen you can then setup all other services. The first time I tried this process, I got stuck in an unavoidable iPadOS 26 upgrade screen I could not get out of and had to restart the whole restoring process.

Hope this helps.

 

[FeliApple]

I updated my M1 iPad Pro 12.9 to 26 and reverted back to 18.7 because I didn't like it. It is possible.

Simple Alpaca had a tutorial on YouTube on how to downgrade I was able to easily follow, but as I tried to post the link here the video was taken down.

Here are the (abbreviated) steps as I remember them (may have missed something, but the process was intuitive):

Note: Make sure to have a backup of your iPad as the below will erase it. I was successful by clean installing; not sure if "downgrading" while keeping your data is possible. I have iCloud backup and it worked like a champ.

1. On your Mac (or PC apparently) find and download the signed version of the OS appropriate for your iPad model here: ipsw.me

2. Connect your iPad to your Mac via a cable and trust the device so you can see your iPad contents in the Finder.

3. Holding the option key on your Mac, click Restore iPad (this allows you to select which file to use) and select the downloaded file.

4. Follow the rest of the prompts (do not disconnect until your iPadOS is fully restored).

5. Do not try to set everything up immediately, especially software updates (keep it manual). Set the iPad up as new and then skip all the services setup you can skip. Once you can access the iPad home screen you can then setup all other services. The first time I tried this process, I got stuck in an unavoidable iPadOS 26 upgrade screen I could not get out of and had to restart the whole restoring process.

Hope this helps.

Sure, you can go back to iPadOS 18.7… now, that Apple still signs it. Try that in January of next year.

Better still, go back to iPadOS 14, the original version released for your M1 iPad Pro, with that method.

It will fail, as Apple routinely stops signing older versions of iOS and iPadOS. The downgrade that you mention works because, for now, iPadOS 18.7 is still signed. Not too long from now, it will not be possible anymore. And like I said, you can’t go back to, say, your iPad’s original iPadOS version, iPadOS 14. Or iPadOS 15. Or iPadOS 16. You get the point.