Should I update my iPad 9th gen?

[tizzi91]

I already updated my 8th gen to the latest 18.7.1 but it’s even slower than 17.7. Now my iPad 9th is currently on iPadOS 17.7.2 and it’s pretty fast and usable. My concern is should I update it to 18 before they stop providing the ota? The alternative 26 is even heavier and I refuse to install it but even 18 scares me since it destroyed my 8th gen. I consider that from the A12 and A13 there is only 13% of difference in performance so my fear is if I update my 9th gen to 18 I’ll ruin even this iPad

 

[Reverend Benny]

I've messed around with my mums 9th gen iPad on iOS 18. When I did it was prob around 18.5 at the time and it was working fine. She's not a heavy user but a bit of safari, reading papers, music and looking at pics.
Personally I do care about security and that security flaws are being fixed, both for me but since I carry info about many other on my devices its equally important for them that I keep my devices up to date.

There are a few youtube videos around that show the experience, have a look at them and see what you think.

 

[FeliApple]

So you have an 8th-gen on iPadOS 18 that has been significantly affected. You already have iPadOS 18 on your 8th-gen and you want to update the 9th-gen to an iOS version you don’t need (because you have the compatibility on the 8th) and take the chance for absolutely no reason at all?

Do yourself a favour and stay there.

 

[histeachn81]

My apologies for only seeing your post now. I bought a refurbished iPad 9 with iPadOS 18 already installed. I mainly use it for reading and no real web searches. For those uses, it's been perfectly fine, but I'm having a dilemma of whether to update my M2 iPad Air to 18 from 17.

 

[sdfox7]

If you have an iCloud plan and can back everything up, you might want to try resetting it (this will delete all data!).

A fresh install and then redownloading everything from iCloud may help the performance issue. The 8th and 9th gen both have 3GB ram so I can't imagine why your 8th would be running slow. The performance difference between the A12 and A13 should be marginal at best.

I bought an 8th gen in 2020 because I thought it would be the final base iPad with the home button. When the 9th gen got released I bought one of those too.

My 8th gen originally came with iPadOS 14, I skipped 15 and 16 and went to 17.7.2 where it stayed for about a year. It is currently on 18.7.1 and I notice no slowdowns or lag. I only went to 18 because I heard 26 had issues and I wanted to update while 18 was still being signed.

26.1 beta 4 was released last week. Like with 17, once it goes final there will probably be an 18.7.2 for newer devices, and that's it (17.7.2 was the final version for newer iPads that could update to 18).

All subsequent updates for 18 may only be for the 7th gen iPad which does not support 26. After 26.1 is released you will only have about a week, maybe 2, to update to 18 before it becomes unsigned. Then your only choice will be to stay on 17 forever or go to 26.

 

[Saturn007]

Would love to hear from more people on this.

I have an iPad 9 running 17.7.2 and wonder if upgrading to iPad OS18 makes sense.

1) How well is iPad OS 18 running on the iPad 9?

2) Would upgrading to it that provide more time (years) for security updates?

3) I worry as OP does that if I don't upgrade soon, they’ll stop signing it and that, to get future security updates, I’ll have to jump to iOS 26! That doesn't sound inviting and could affect battery life.

4) Or, are security updates tied more to the device than to which OS it is running? What's the history been on this? Have users been forced to jump iPad OSs and IOSs if they want to get the latest security patches?

Oh, related questions on this.

5) Also have iPhone SE 3rd gen 2022 on iOS 17+. What's been the effect on iOS18 on those models? How well does it run?

6) And, of course, the same question as before. Should I upgrade to iOS 18 now for a longer time frame for security updates and to avoid the “monstrosity” 😁 that iOS 26 is?

Many have been burned by upgrading too far beyond their original OS and I’d like to avoid that.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Would love to hear from more people on this.

I have an iPad 9 running 17.7.2 and wonder if upgrading to iPad OS18 makes sense.

1) How well is iPad OS 18 running on the iPad 9?

2) Would upgrading to it that provide more time (years) for security updates?

3) I worry as OP does that if I don't upgrade soon, they’ll stop signing it and that, to get future security updates, I’ll have to jump to iOS 26! That doesn't sound inviting and could affect battery life.

4) Or, are security updates tied more to the device than to which OS it is running? What's the history been on this? Have users been forced to jump iPad OSs and IOSs if they want to get the latest security patches?

Oh, related questions on this.

5) Also have iPhone SE 3rd gen 2022 on iOS 17+. What's been the effect on iOS18 on those models? How well does it run?

6) And, of course, the same question as before. Should I upgrade to iOS 18 now for a longer time frame for security updates and to avoid the “monstrosity” 😁 that iOS 26 is?

Many have been burned by upgrading too far beyond their original OS and I’d like to avoid that.

I've been using two different iPad 9 with iPadOS 18 and on top of that tested 18 on most of the devices that can run it aside from the iPhone XR, 12, 12mini and some of the pro models.
This is my experience.

1. Ipad 9 can handle iPadOS 18 well, my mum are using an iPad9 with iOS 18 and it just works. She's not a heavy user but the basics, music, books, magazines, movies, webbrowsing and so on. The other one is what I use at the gym and that's mainly for using "Fitnessplayer" and "seconds pro intervall timer".

2. If will definetly provide you with a huge pile of security updates if you are on 17.7.2 today, there's been severe security flaws found after that. As of today the device will be update with the latest patches. BUT, at some point you need to update to iPadOS26 if you want to keep up to date. Looking back it seems like patches are stopped when the x.1 release are being released. We'll see what Apple does this year.

3. Haven't tested iPadOS 26 on the iPad9. Might give one of the devices an update when 26.1 is out if security updates for 18 is dropped.

4. Check out answer nr2.

5. Have been using iOS 18 and 26 on both SE2020 and SE2022 and it works fine. BUT, have only messed around quickly with 26 on these devices. I wouldn't update myself until 26.1 and do check reviews before updating to 26. my 5-10 minutes with these devices are far from how it might be using it as a daily driver. Have a handful using 26 at work with these devices and no complaints so far. Guessing they are fairly light users tho.

6. My 5 cent is update to 18 so that you get the latest seuurity patches and wait and see what Apples does, who knows, they might keep supporting 18 a bit longer this time. If you don't need specific 26 features and just want an updated device stick to 18 for the time being.

 

[GaryGnu]

I have a 9 and went to 26 because, why not? I only use it to read books or web pages, and play music at camp. It's fine. Haven't noticed it being slower. Some weird UI glitches, which weren't solved with the .01 release, but it's fine for what it is. Is it worth updating to it? Probably not. But if you do, it will be fine.

 

[FeliApple]

Would love to hear from more people on this.

I have an iPad 9 running 17.7.2 and wonder if upgrading to iPad OS18 makes sense.

1) How well is iPad OS 18 running on the iPad 9?

2) Would upgrading to it that provide more time (years) for security updates?

3) I worry as OP does that if I don't upgrade soon, they’ll stop signing it and that, to get future security updates, I’ll have to jump to iOS 26! That doesn't sound inviting and could affect battery life.

4) Or, are security updates tied more to the device than to which OS it is running? What's the history been on this? Have users been forced to jump iPad OSs and IOSs if they want to get the latest security patches?

Oh, related questions on this.

5) Also have iPhone SE 3rd gen 2022 on iOS 17+. What's been the effect on iOS18 on those models? How well does it run?

6) And, of course, the same question as before. Should I upgrade to iOS 18 now for a longer time frame for security updates and to avoid the “monstrosity” 😁 that iOS 26 is?

Many have been burned by upgrading too far beyond their original OS and I’d like to avoid that.

Ignore security updates. You are forced to update endlessly for those. You update to iPadOS 18 and you are not even “””””””secure”””””” because all patches would be included with iPadOS 26. It’s an endless rat-race and it doesn’t even matter because when the device loses compatibility it isn’t secure anyway, even if apple provides security updates. Apple doesn’t patch everything on older iOS versions for which it provides updates.

Update to iPadOS 18 for compatibility if you want to, but I wouldn’t even do that.

 

[tizzi91]

Ignore security updates. You are forced to update endlessly for those. You update to iPadOS 18 and you are not even “””””””secure”””””” because all patches would be included with iPadOS 26. It’s an endless rat-race and it doesn’t even matter because when the device loses compatibility it isn’t secure anyway, even if apple provides security updates. Apple doesn’t patch everything on older iOS versions for which it provides updates.

Update to iPadOS 18 for compatibility if you want to, but I wouldn’t even do that.

Problem is I start to see more apps requiring iPadOS 17 minimum to run. If I’ll stay on 17 probably next year I miss some of those like Netflix or eBay. It’s hard to choose because if they stop signing 18 the only alternative is 26 that I don’t like and it’s heavier.

 

[sdfox7]

Problem is I start to see more apps requiring iPadOS 17 minimum to run. If I’ll stay on 17 probably next year I miss some of those like Netflix or eBay. It’s hard to choose because if they stop signing 18 the only alternative is 26 that I don’t like and it’s heavier.

Exactly. Might as well bite the bullet now and upgrade to 18 while it’s still signed. Otherwise you’ll have no choice.

18 will be supported with apps for a long time, because not every device can update to 26.

This is why 15 is still supported by most apps in the App Store, because a lot of devices can’t update to 16. iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, the final iPod touch, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, etc.

 

[histeachn81]

Problem is I start to see more apps requiring iPadOS 17 minimum to run. If I’ll stay on 17 probably next year I miss some of those like Netflix or eBay. It’s hard to choose because if they stop signing 18 the only alternative is 26 that I don’t like and it’s heavier.

I've had my 9th generation iPad on 18 since the beginning. I haven't had any trouble with using it as a reader for teaching classes. I recently used it as a presentation device for my classes using the PowerPoint app and a stopwatch, and it worked perfectly well. I haven't used it on anything more rigorous than that, but I feel like it has been a good investment even with having 18 installed. It's as stable as it can be.

 

[FeliApple]

Problem is I start to see more apps requiring iPadOS 17 minimum to run. If I’ll stay on 17 probably next year I miss some of those like Netflix or eBay. It’s hard to choose because if they stop signing 18 the only alternative is 26 that I don’t like and it’s heavier.

Required iOS versions for the app’s LATEST version does NOT mean absolute compatibility.

You can run older versions of many, many apps. I dare say most apps. I really wish people understood this. This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of staying behind with iOS updates.

Netflix “requires iPadOS 18”. That only means that updating Netflix to the latest version requires iPadOS 18.

I am typing this with an iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15. Netflix works flawlessly. I have a 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12. Netflix works flawlessly.

You do NOT need to update for Netflix even if the latest version of the app requires iPadOS 18. Older versions work just fine.