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When to stop upgrading iOS and how do you do it?

B

Big Dave

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 27, 2007
314
25
Crestview, Fl
There comes a time in my experience where every iPhone I have had gets to a point where the latest update cripples the phone. It goes from snappy to painful. I have a 7 and I don't want it to get slow and frustrating. Should I stop updating now, or is there some predictable point when you stop updating? Are updates unstoppable?
I'm completely happy with my 7 after upgrading from a 5s and I want it to stay exactly the way it is now.
 
Ios 12 would be where it stops being super fast, you could just go then and install the Tv os beta profile and not get anymore updates
 
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Well, as also security updates are contained in the iOS updates and not typically delivered separately, not updating isn’t really an option. Once updates stop for the phone, it will be just a media player / gaming device for the kids. Luckily iOS gets up to five years of updates. It’s true that the last updates tend to make the device slow, but when the alternative is leaving known vulnerabilities unpatched, it’s not really an option.
 
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I stopped at 9.3.5 on my 6S+, SE and my iPad mini. (with the OTA-fix mentioned above) It works totally ok for me.
 
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You stop updating when it's being less useful to you, as an individual. Each ios update and closing the window to downgrade is causing your iphone to "obsolete." IMO.

Edit: I guess you could update to patch vulunerability.
 
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Big Dave said:
There comes a time in my experience where every iPhone I have had gets to a point where the latest update cripples the phone. It goes from snappy to painful. I have a 7 and I don't want it to get slow and frustrating. Should I stop updating now, or is there some predictable point when you stop updating? Are updates unstoppable?
I'm completely happy with my 7 after upgrading from a 5s and I want it to stay exactly the way it is now.
Click to expand...

It’s really hard to predict how future iterations of iOS will affect existing phones today. You’re best bet is to check in on the beta testing threads in the iOS forum each year to see how your particular device seems to be doing.
 
I went 9, 10 with my 6 +. One of the main reasons I am upgrading is the lack of updates from iOS 11 to the 6 including the support of FLAC. If the update is holding back features that you would like on your phone because of your phones capabilities then it is time to upgrade phones or not download the latest iOS.

I just recently used my daughters iPhone 4 which I think went to iOS 7.3 or something like that. It was great, not slow and actually felt pretty natural in the hand which made me want to get an Iphone SE which will be able to take the latest iOS.
 
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What I do is I look at my phone and I look at what version of iOS it was released on. If it was released originally on iOS X, I will never upgrade it to iOS X+1. I feel like iOS X is optimized for the phone it is released on and X+1 is optimized for the next generation.

For example, my main phone right now is my iPhone 5S. It was released on iOS 7. It is currently on iOS 7.1.2. I've learned my lessons with Apple, never update a device if you don't have to.
 
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iOS 11 runs great on the 7. Don't worry about that.

As far as how to stop upgrading? Simple, don't download and install the update.
 
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