iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess

[Silly John Fatty]

In case Apple passes here:

Apple has long since stopped signing pre-iOS 26 versions on devices that support iOS and iPadOS 26.

So no, it's not possible to downgrade. Instead, try to get to know the new version. Apart from the icons and the "glassified" interface, most things are the same, and with future updates, small errors, glitches and annoyances will be fixed.

That’s so frustrating… I’ve been thinking of accepting it and getting used to it, but so many things make no sense to me or become more complicated.

This started before iPadOS 26. It’s already the case with iOS/iPadOS 18 in some cases. I like when you had to go to the settings for an app for example, let’s say Safari. You used to go to Settings, and then to Safari. Now you have one more step: Settings > Apps > Safari. They have added one more step… 😭

Why would they do that? It’s irrational by category. It’s inferior by category. It has increased disutility and reduced efficiency.

With iPadOS 26 and probably also iOS 26 (which I haven’t upgraded) these kind of irrationalities take over the entire device.

Add to that small changes of icon locations that make no sense to me. Copying and deleting a screenshot was in the top left corner. Now it’s in the top right corner. Why? 😂 Using a device like this is a very motoric thing. It’s a lot about muscle memory. Why would you change that deliberately? You are increasing disutility again and reducing efficiency.

But I think I know why they are doing that. They’re doing it because marketing 101 tells you to keep customers engaged - no matter at what cost, even if it annoys them. That’s a standard marketing textbook theory. Now we can all be engaged learning new useless stuff. We can have emotions about disliking our devices and feeling like they were ruined. Later they will do some updates and we can feel great again. And they will say something is 3x times as fast before and who knows what. Yeah, well, you made 6x slower first. 😂

They want the device to be the central thing in your life. They don’t want you to use their devices to call your grandma and do your work. They want you to work and have a grandma to be able to use their product. A good device disappears in the background. It’s seamlessly integrated into your daily life. That would suck for them and would contradict the major marketing theories, because they want you to engage more with your device. You must be occupied with it non-stop. You know it all and use your device seamlessly? That’s an issue, something new that makes no sense must be introduced so you are kept engaged and invested.

What they don’t understand is their device is just a tool for me. I don’t want to use their device, I want to get my work done, I want to call my family, I want to look up something. I’m using the device to look up something, not looking up something to spend happy time with my iPad.

They introduce a billion new features that are completely useless so you can spend hours configuring your device and making it comfy and who knows what instead of doing the things you really want in life. Do people want to spend their limited time on earth living it to its fullest, experiencing amazing things, achieving meaningful stuff, solving critical problems, experiencing mind-moving emotions? Of course not, people prefer to spend their limited time on earth moving around virtual little icons and making them one colour or the other and customising them with other little icons and colours.

Why would you want to go diving or skiing when you could simply spend your time re-learning your iPad and where all the buttons are now? That’s much greater! And when you’re done, we’ll simply mix everything up again so you can start from scratch! 🙂

With people like Trump, Musk, Thiel on one side, and the Chinese with TikTok and who knows what other garbage on the other, I’m convince Apple has entered the trash contest of the planet. The people now working at Apple had TikTok as their parent and the soul purpose in life is just to have a lot of, well, of anything, and the main thing is that there is a LOT of it, anywhere and everywhere. Just flood everything with all kinds of flashy garbage.

Oh and Liquid Glass is amazing, the graphics animations are even in real time! So it uses CPU power for nothing basically. A little bit like a Dodge RAM. It consumes more than anything else, but it’s also slower than everything else 🙂 Yeah, Apple has definitely joined this club now. They’re no rationalists anymore. Sadly I can’t turn this off either, so I have to look at the ugly design. *sigh*

 

[I7guy]

In case Apple passes here:



That’s so frustrating… I’ve been thinking of accepting it and getting used to it, but so many things make no sense to me or become more complicated.

You really have no choice. Except to sell your stuff and get iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. Send feedback to Apple.

This started before iPadOS 26. It’s already the case with iOS/iPadOS 18 in some cases. I like when you had to go to the settings for an app for example, let’s say Safari. You used to go to Settings, and then to Safari. Now you have one more step: Settings > Apps > Safari. They have added one more step… 😭

Why would they do that? It’s irrational by category. It’s inferior by category. It has increased disutility and reduced efficiency.

It actually made the rest of the settings app better.

With iPadOS 26 and probably also iOS 26 (which I haven’t upgraded) these kind of irrationalities take over the entire device.

You may not like the changes but irrational they are not.

Add to that small changes of icon locations that make no sense to me. Copying and deleting a screenshot was in the top left corner. Now it’s in the top right corner. Why? 😂 Using a device like this is a very motoric thing. It’s a lot about muscle memory. Why would you change that deliberately? You are increasing disutility again and reducing efficiency.

But I think I know why they are doing that. They’re doing it because marketing 101 tells you to keep customers engaged - no matter at what cost, even if it annoys them. That’s a standard marketing textbook theory. Now we can all be engaged learning new useless stuff. We can have emotions about disliking our devices and feeling like they were ruined. Later they will do some updates and we can feel great again. And they will say something is 3x times as fast before and who knows what. Yeah, well, you made 6x slower first. 😂

“We” like our devices. “We” like iOS and iPadOS 26. To out all of this negative stuff into a MR is too much negative emotional energy. It’s easier to love forward. People complain Apple has stagnated. Well here’s a real positive change and people are now complaining. Apple can’t please 100% of the users 100% of the time.

They want the device to be the central thing in your life. They don’t want you to use their devices to call your grandma and do your work. They want you to work and have a grandma to be able to use their product. A good device disappears in the background. It’s seamlessly integrated into your daily life.

Well yeah. That’s the way I feel about my Apple devices. I use them to make things better easier faster for me.

That would suck for them and would contradict the major marketing theories, because they want you to engage more with your device.

One doesn’t have to engage more to get utility from them.

You must be occupied with it non-stop. You know it all and use your device seamlessly? That’s an issue, something new that makes no sense must be introduced so you are kept engaged and invested.

These theories are confused with social media.

What they don’t understand is their device is just a tool for me. I don’t want to use their device, I want to get my work done, I want to call my family, I want to look up something. I’m using the device to look up something, not looking up something to spend happy time with my iPad.

Then don’t. Spend as little or as much time as you want. Are you spending excessive time because you have an extra tap on the screen the now gives more options.

They introduce a billion new features that are completely useless

Completely useless to you.

so you can spend hours configuring your device and making it comfy and who knows what instead of doing the things you really want in life.

I spent maybe 15 minutes. Ever hav to get used to a car and setting your preferences?

Do people want to spend their limited time on earth living it to its fullest, experiencing amazing things, achieving meaningful stuff, solving critical problems, experiencing mind-moving emotions? Of course not, people prefer to spend their limited time on earth moving around virtual little icons and making them one colour or the other and customising them with other little icons and colours.

I dont know how people want to spend their time, that’s above my pay grade. But I am happy that Apple lets people move around virtual little icons and make them different colors and customize them to their hearts content. People should their time doing what they want.

Why would you want to go diving or skiing when you could simply spend your time re-learning your iPad and where all the buttons are now?

Thsts a personal choice though.

That’s much greater! And when you’re done, we’ll simply mix everything up again so you can start from scratch! 🙂

With people like Trump, Musk, Thiel on one side, and the Chinese with TikTok and who knows what other garbage on the other, I’m convince Apple has entered the trash contest of the planet. The people now working at Apple had TikTok as their parent and the soul purpose in life is just to have a lot of, well, of anything, and the main thing is that there is a LOT of it, anywhere and everywhere. Just flood everything with all kinds of flashy garbage.

Oh and Liquid Glass is amazing, the graphics animations are even in real time!

Agree, it’s very cool.

So it uses CPU power for nothing basically.

Windows has been doing that for years. Driving up my electric bill with all those needless animations.

A little bit like a Dodge RAM. It consumes more than anything else, but it’s also slower than everything else 🙂 Yeah, Apple has definitely joined this club now. They’re no rationalists anymore. Sadly I can’t turn this off either, so I have to look at the ugly design. *sigh*

You can sell your stuff and get and android tablet. People say they are very good. And since you want to enjoy life more - how much time did you spend on this post?

 

[notabitail]

This started before iPadOS 26. It’s already the case with iOS/iPadOS 18 in some cases. I like when you had to go to the settings for an app for example, let’s say Safari. You used to go to Settings, and then to Safari. Now you have one more step: Settings > Apps > Safari. They have added one more step… 😭

Why would they do that? It’s irrational by category. It’s inferior by category. It has increased disutility and reduced efficiency.

Well that's an absurd statement. I really liked how that got changed. It means my Settings app looks significantly more clean. I never got why this wasn't done intially. Android has been doing this for years and nobody complained.

 

[notabitail]

You can sell your stuff and get and android tablet. People say they are very good. And since you want to enjoy life more - how much time did you spend on this post?

He wouldn't like Android. You have to go Settings > Apps > All Apps to configure your apps.

 

[BigBlur]

Well that's an absurd statement. I really liked how that got changed. It means my Settings app looks significantly more clean. I never got why this wasn't done intially. Android has been doing this for years and nobody complained.

Agreed. I'd even say that getting to app settings is actually easier in iPadOS 26. When in the app, just pull down the menu bar > [App Name] > [App Name] Settings. Or if you're using a keyboard, then use the "Command ," shortcut. Both of these will work with any app. No longer am I having to leave the app and hunt for it through Settings.

 

[says_stuff]

As people keep giving unsolicited advice about WHERE someone should submit their time and written feedback to, I’d argue the opposite offering my unsolicited advice too.

After reading many posts from users saying their feedback and bug reports go unanswered and unfixed, the other logical recourse would be to submit them publicly, like i dunno, for example, in a clearly titled thread like “This is an absolute mess.”

You might think and say people aren’t “supposed” to do that, but I really don’t see why. Unless you’re a moderator here or work at Apple, advising others how to spend their time reporting their subjective or objective issues about their devices seems kinda absurd.

I mean since none of us are the authority about all this, I’d argue they are absolutely supposed to keep their tablets, not migrate to android and post about the issues, I sure do love reading user opinions on it, figuring out if updating to this is worth any of my time.

And well, if I would go in to the trouble of reporting something through official channels and nothing happens, then public visibility becomes fair game. Have your time in the spotlight. Attention seems to be the only remaining lever. Plus it gives some reassurance knowing at least 1 person has read about this.

Until someone provides actual evidence that Apple staff are prohibited from reading MacRumors, insisting that posting here is unhelpful remains pure speculation. I’ve yet to see a concrete explanation of how public discussion hinders Apple’s work, beyond the possibility that some people’s feelings get hurt.

If that’s the concern, it’s a weak one. Hey, I’m offering feedback on these issues on the same level some of you are.

 

[I7guy]

As people keep giving unsolicited advice about WHERE someone should submit their time and written feedback to, I’d argue the opposite offering my unsolicited advice too.

I doin’t think it’s like that. I think people come from the mindset to help people out as some people may not be aware of reporting channels. And in that vein if the poster doesn’t want to follow that suggestion, then ignore it.

After reading many posts from users saying their feedback and bug reports go unanswered and unfixed, the other logical recourse would be to submit them publicly, like i dunno, for example, in a clearly titled thread like “This is an absolute mess.”

Sure and in this vein I believe apple knows the audience here and treats it accordingly.

You might think and say people aren’t “supposed” to do that, but I really don’t see why. Unless you’re a moderator here or work at Apple, advising others how to spend their time reporting their subjective or objective issues about their devices seems kinda absurd.

This is disingenuous . It’s a suggestion. Others can follow it or not.

I mean since none of us are the authority about all this, I’d argue they are absolutely supposed to keep their tablets, not migrate to android and post about the issues, I sure do love reading user opinions on it, figuring out if updating to this is worth any of my time.

Many of us are experts on over the top comments. If there is a big enough pain point, a good suggestion is to look for an alternative.

And well, if I would go in to the trouble of reporting something through official channels and nothing happens, then public visibility becomes fair game. Have your time in the spotlight. Attention seems to be the only remaining lever. Plus it gives some reassurance knowing at least 1 person has read about this.

I agree 100%. Of course whether Apple cares, puts it on a list or does anything about it is another story.

Until someone provides actual evidence that Apple staff are prohibited from reading MacRumors, insisting that posting here is unhelpful remains pure speculation. I’ve yet to see a concrete explanation of how public discussion hinders Apple’s work, beyond the possibility that some people’s feelings get hurt.

If that’s the concern, it’s a weak one. Hey, I’m offering feedback on these issues on the same level some of you are.

Ay publicity is good publicity, but the secret sauce of what causes apple to act on suggestions and criticism is unknown. So yeah let’s keep doing what we were doing. Dishing on iOS 26.

 

[stebo16]

It is awful. I had to upgrade to this version 26 a few days ago. I just noticed two more crazy changes they have made.
1) when you go to the screen with small versions of each open app, there are some large images and some small. Why?
2) Notes: they have now put the search screen over on the right rather than over the column on the left that lists all your different notes and that you are wanting to search? Why? And why are the letters of the onscreen keyboard smaller than before?
I now dread every update that they do for iPad, as each one includes things that makes the apps worse (along with some that make them better). Why can they not just leave things as they were?

 

[RK78]

Still on 18.7.3 on my gen 5 Air with uBO Lite. For me, only reason to upgrade to the 26.2 is the accompanying security update. Wondering just how vulnerable I’ll be without it? My wife’s iPad can’t go beyond 17…something and doesn’t apoear to have been compromised after these several years.

 

[Biro]

Still on 18.7.3 on my gen 5 Air with uBO Lite. For me, only reason to upgrade to the 26.2 is the accompanying security update. Wondering just how vulnerable I’ll be without it? My wife’s iPad can’t go beyond 17…something and doesn’t apoear to have been compromised after these several years.

I’m pretty sure that 18.7.3 has the same critical security update as 26.2. 18.7.3 is what was offered to all devices that couldn’t handle 26 at the same time. So - at least for now - you should be all good.

 

[RK78]

Many thanks for that. Very good to know. Still, for the longer term, at least until the worst of this Liquid Glass + reportedly screwed up UI/UX eventually passes (hopefully) wondering just how important these iPad (iOS) security updates really are. As already mentioned, my wife's iPad, still on 17...something and unable to go higher does not appear to have suffered by missing the next number of security updates.

Wondering what you think of the following, from a user at ASC (Apple Support Communities) back in 2022:

Due to the system architecture of iOS/iPadOS, unless jailbroken (don’t go there!), your iPad is not susceptible to traditional malware infection per-se. However, as with all computer systems, there are still vulnerabilities and exploits to which you remain vulnerable. Whilst traditional anti-malware products are not available, there are useful mitigations that can reduce your exposure to potential threats

For “browser based” attacks - not sure what he means by that - suggests 1blocker https://1blocker.com/, which appears to do nothing more, and perhaps less, than uBO Lite, which I'm already running.

 

[I7guy]

It is awful. I had to upgrade to this version 26 a few days ago. I just noticed two more crazy changes they have made.
1) when you go to the screen with small versions of each open app, there are some large images and some small. Why?

Can’t replicate this.

2) Notes: they have now put the search screen over on the right rather than over the column on the left that lists all your different notes and that you are wanting to search? Why? And why are the letters of the onscreen keyboard smaller than before?

Not sure of what the issue is. So the search bar is on the right? I haven’t noticed any letters being smaller than before. Maybe they are but I haven’t noticed.

I now dread every update that they do for iPad, as each one includes things that makes the apps worse (along with some that make them better). Why can they not just leave things as they were?

Always look forward to the next release.

 

[I7guy]

Many thanks for that. Very good to know. Still, for the longer term, at least until the worst of this Liquid Glass + reportedly screwed up UI/UX eventually passes (hopefully) wondering just how important these iPad (iOS) security updates really are. As already mentioned, my wife's iPad, still on 17...something and unable to go higher does not appear to have suffered by missing the next number of security updates.

Wondering what you think of the following, from a user at ASC (Apple Support Communities) back in 2022:

Due to the system architecture of iOS/iPadOS, unless jailbroken (don’t go there!), your iPad is not susceptible to traditional malware infection per-se. However, as with all computer systems, there are still vulnerabilities and exploits to which you remain vulnerable. Whilst traditional anti-malware products are not available, there are useful mitigations that can reduce your exposure to potential threats

For “browser based” attacks - not sure what he means by that - suggests 1blocker https://1blocker.com/, which appears to do nothing more, and perhaps less, than uBO Lite, which I'm already running.

There are still zero click based vulnerabilities. One of the internet suggestions is to reboot your phone weekly and that clears out kruft that may accumulate.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

It truly is garbage. Why are there three different under multi/gestures? Should only be one, as too many flavors. Quit making it so complicated. The problem is some media kept saying how they want the iPad to function like a Mac. It was never meant to be that way and I think functioned better than a Mac with previous iOS. At least for my use cases.

Apple needs to quit trying to please everyone and only worry about the majority of users, who I am sure never wanted it like this. Simple is what Apple was always supposed to make things. Not some complicated mess.

So we all have to use our iPads in a manner you approve of?

 

[thadoggfather]

If you could go back to iOS 18 on iPad would you?