10 ms·

It's unfortunate that Apple has taught me (and I assume others as well) over the last 15 years that the best practice is to never install a major OS update. It

by mat_b 10mo ago

It's unfortunate that Apple has taught me (and I assume others as well) over the last 15 years that the best practice is to never install a major OS update. It seems clear to me that they use OS updates as a way to eventually slow your device down so the lag becomes so annoying that you want to purchase a new device. (Edit: And the really obnoxious part is that they force you to receive upgrade prompts every single day and you can't disable it.)

deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
schmuckonwheels 10mo ago
> And the really obnoxious part is that they force you to receive upgrade prompts every single day and you can't disable it Enable iOS 18 Developer Beta and the nag screens go away.
- burnt-resistor 10mo ago
  I did this to install 18.7.3 on an iPhone that was only presenting 26.2 without any other option.
- mat_b 10mo ago
  I just enabled it. Thanks for the tip.
submeta 10mo ago
I literally went out and bought the latest iPhone after my 4.5 years old, perfectly working iPhone 12 was forced to update to iOS 26.2 overnight, and next day was not usable anymore. It turned so slow that I went to an apple store and bought the latest.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- mjlee 10mo ago
  How long did you give it? Often various indexes are rebuilt after a major update and that can take a while. It’s running fine on my iPhone 11.
- fainpul 10mo ago
  Wow, you're loyal!
- avazhi 10mo ago
  This is sarcasm right?
piyuv 10mo ago
Your theory is real but its not the main purpose, it’s a happy accident for Apple. Otherwise there’d be a class action.
- Daedren 10mo ago
  I mean, they got a class action before for turning on CPU throttling after a major update without informing the user, to "preserve battery health".
- mat_b 10mo ago
  I don't think so. There is always a cutoff for the last major version they recommend for any hardware. Why is the cutoff always after it lags the device severely and not -before- that happens?
bob1029 10mo ago
> I assume others as well Running iOS 17.6.1 on my iPhone 13 mini right now. I've got a backup iPhone 13 mini new in the box with the factory OS still installed (just in case). I'm hoping my devices can hold out longer than Apple can remain irrational.
- gruez 10mo ago
  >Running iOS 17.6.1 on my iPhone 13 mini right now. You really shouldn't. There are dozens of RCE exploits, some of which were found in the wild, that you're missing out patches for. https://support.apple.com/en-us/100100 https://support.apple.com/en-us/100100
  - nivea3066 10mo ago
    Personally I run lockdown mode and hope for the best. It sounds like 26.2 might be approaching usable status on the mini but I'd want a battery replacement too.
    - captn3m0 10mo ago
      13Mini+Lockdown mode user reporting here: I did a battery upgrade alongside the iOS 26 upgrade, and regretted switching to iOS26. It slowed down things wayy to much, the keyboard often lagged by dozens of keystrokes, and the camera app stopped working with 26.1. I gave up yesterday, and disabled lockdown mode (and upgraded to 26.2). Seems fine now, but liquid glass is still a usability nightmare.
torcete 10mo ago
Like my brother printer's software. It kept pestering me to apply updates, and when I did, my non-genuine cartridges stopped working. So, never update the printer's software.
- randyrand 10mo ago
  wow I thought brother was a respectable brand. thanks for sharing this.
  - noname120 10mo ago
    They are not anymore, aim to buy an old used model. You can look up online to find out when they started their scammy behavior and which models to target.
- tas50 10mo ago
  My HP scanner software updated and took away all the advanced options and required a login with a Facebook account to scan. Never again HP
  - pcdoodle 10mo ago
    [dead]
- qwerpy 10mo ago
  Damn. I bought brother just so I wouldn't be locked into overpriced cartridges. Although what I've been doing now is to reuse the starter cartridge, add some very inexpensive third-party toner to it, and reset the pages counter. It has worked well for the past few years.
p_ing 10mo ago
Apple users not updating major OSes goes back to the 90s with System 7. It's a seemingly weird habit that some formed even as exposure to vulnerabilities increased.
aschobel 10mo ago
That's a totally reasonable practice, I would say x.2 releases are mostly fine and have the rough edges polishes.
htamas 10mo ago
Unfortunately they have other ways to deprecate your device: App Stores won't work, apps won't talk to their backend with older versions or just straight up won't launch. Even Homebrew stopped supporting my 2015 Macbook I have for personal use.
- JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
  > they have other ways to deprecate your device This is a wild take for a company known for the long lives of its devices.
  - 1shooner 10mo ago
    Right, I think that was the point being made: I've had a closet of Apple hardware with no technical problems, but made useless due to Apple's software decisions.
    - JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
      > I've had a closet of Apple hardware with no technical problems, but made useless due to Apple's software decisions You can do this to any product. (As can you undo it by wiping and reinstalling an old image.)
      - 1bpp 10mo ago
        With older Apple hardware you can usually find a working OS image, but Apple specifically is very strict with minimum OS versions for apps and deprecating APIs so that older iOS and macOS versions end up unable to install any software that hasn't had an older version archived somewhere, even if there's no real reason it shouldn't run on the hardware. You can only get older compatible versions of apps in the App Store if you happened to have purchased them before, again for no real reason other than inconvenience
        JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
amelius 10mo ago
Software that doesn't allow you to downgrade should be just as much a no-no as software that doesn't have Undo functionality.
- butlike 10mo ago
  This seems like a ridiculous point. Basically all software doesn't allow downgrades. Sure, if something happens during install, there's modern safeguards to prevent bricking your device, but upgrading software is usually a one-way street. It's why major companies have tiered rollouts of new features, beta programs, and developer previews. To a corollary: Would you trust a software development team who doesn't trust their feature enhancements enough to where they provide an option to roll back the software? It would be like a clothing designer saying "Actually, buy last years runway, this year's might have some issues..." As a user, I get 'undo' functionality because I'm playing in the sandbox. I trust that the sandbox is sound if I'm able to use it, and trust it will get ever-better as time goes on.
  - amelius 10mo ago
    Why is this a ridiculous point? If I'm using version 1 of a tool to do some work, then I upgrade to version 2, and it means I cannot do my work as efficiently as before (maybe the update broke the tool, or maybe the user-interface was changed so much that my productivity went down the drain), then why am I not allowed to roll back the upgrade? What if I have a deadline, tomorrow morning at 9am? Not being able to downgrade can drive people up the wall. Seriously these days everything looks like a work-in-progress. I think it is because of the internet. In many ways software was better before the internet. The continuous pushing of updates is a curse. And users need to have a way to deal with that.
alwillis 10mo ago
> It seems clear to me that they use OS updates as a way to eventually slow your device down This sounds like an exaggeration of what happens after an upgrade: iOS has to re-index your entire phone for Spotlight, etc. Same thing for Photos if there have been changes. Depending on which phone and the amount of storage, your phone can feel kind of sluggish for a while until the background indexing is done. If you update before you go to sleep, your device will be fine in the morning.
ectospheno 10mo ago
> It's unfortunate that Apple has taught me (and I assume others as well) over the last 15 years that the best practice is to never install a major OS update. The sole reason I migrated from Android to Apple was to receive security upgrades for years not months. I am genuinely baffled by the take here on HN. People will (rightly) get up in arms about minor security issues across numerous domains then talk about never updating their phone. That has literally their entire life on it.

by mat_b 10mo ago

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

schmuckonwheels 10mo ago

> And the really obnoxious part is that they force you to receive upgrade prompts every single day and you can't disable it Enable iOS 18 Developer Beta and the nag screens go away.

burnt-resistor 10mo ago
I did this to install 18.7.3 on an iPhone that was only presenting 26.2 without any other option.
mat_b 10mo ago
I just enabled it. Thanks for the tip.

submeta 10mo ago

I literally went out and bought the latest iPhone after my 4.5 years old, perfectly working iPhone 12 was forced to update to iOS 26.2 overnight, and next day was not usable anymore. It turned so slow that I went to an apple store and bought the latest.

deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
mjlee 10mo ago
How long did you give it? Often various indexes are rebuilt after a major update and that can take a while. It’s running fine on my iPhone 11.
fainpul 10mo ago
Wow, you're loyal!
avazhi 10mo ago
This is sarcasm right?

piyuv 10mo ago

Your theory is real but its not the main purpose, it’s a happy accident for Apple. Otherwise there’d be a class action.

Daedren 10mo ago
I mean, they got a class action before for turning on CPU throttling after a major update without informing the user, to "preserve battery health".
mat_b 10mo ago
I don't think so. There is always a cutoff for the last major version they recommend for any hardware. Why is the cutoff always after it lags the device severely and not -before- that happens?

bob1029 10mo ago

> I assume others as well Running iOS 17.6.1 on my iPhone 13 mini right now. I've got a backup iPhone 13 mini new in the box with the factory OS still installed (just in case). I'm hoping my devices can hold out longer than Apple can remain irrational.

gruez 10mo ago
>Running iOS 17.6.1 on my iPhone 13 mini right now. You really shouldn't. There are dozens of RCE exploits, some of which were found in the wild, that you're missing out patches for. https://support.apple.com/en-us/100100 https://support.apple.com/en-us/100100
- nivea3066 10mo ago
  Personally I run lockdown mode and hope for the best. It sounds like 26.2 might be approaching usable status on the mini but I'd want a battery replacement too.
  - captn3m0 10mo ago
    13Mini+Lockdown mode user reporting here: I did a battery upgrade alongside the iOS 26 upgrade, and regretted switching to iOS26. It slowed down things wayy to much, the keyboard often lagged by dozens of keystrokes, and the camera app stopped working with 26.1. I gave up yesterday, and disabled lockdown mode (and upgraded to 26.2). Seems fine now, but liquid glass is still a usability nightmare.

torcete 10mo ago

Like my brother printer's software. It kept pestering me to apply updates, and when I did, my non-genuine cartridges stopped working. So, never update the printer's software.

randyrand 10mo ago
wow I thought brother was a respectable brand. thanks for sharing this.
- noname120 10mo ago
  They are not anymore, aim to buy an old used model. You can look up online to find out when they started their scammy behavior and which models to target.
tas50 10mo ago
My HP scanner software updated and took away all the advanced options and required a login with a Facebook account to scan. Never again HP
- pcdoodle 10mo ago
  [dead]
qwerpy 10mo ago
Damn. I bought brother just so I wouldn't be locked into overpriced cartridges. Although what I've been doing now is to reuse the starter cartridge, add some very inexpensive third-party toner to it, and reset the pages counter. It has worked well for the past few years.

p_ing 10mo ago

Apple users not updating major OSes goes back to the 90s with System 7. It's a seemingly weird habit that some formed even as exposure to vulnerabilities increased.

aschobel 10mo ago

That's a totally reasonable practice, I would say x.2 releases are mostly fine and have the rough edges polishes.

htamas 10mo ago

Unfortunately they have other ways to deprecate your device: App Stores won't work, apps won't talk to their backend with older versions or just straight up won't launch. Even Homebrew stopped supporting my 2015 Macbook I have for personal use.

JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
> they have other ways to deprecate your device This is a wild take for a company known for the long lives of its devices.
- 1shooner 10mo ago
  Right, I think that was the point being made: I've had a closet of Apple hardware with no technical problems, but made useless due to Apple's software decisions.
  - JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
    > I've had a closet of Apple hardware with no technical problems, but made useless due to Apple's software decisions You can do this to any product. (As can you undo it by wiping and reinstalling an old image.)
    - 1bpp 10mo ago
      With older Apple hardware you can usually find a working OS image, but Apple specifically is very strict with minimum OS versions for apps and deprecating APIs so that older iOS and macOS versions end up unable to install any software that hasn't had an older version archived somewhere, even if there's no real reason it shouldn't run on the hardware. You can only get older compatible versions of apps in the App Store if you happened to have purchased them before, again for no real reason other than inconvenience
      - JumpCrisscross 10mo ago

amelius 10mo ago

Software that doesn't allow you to downgrade should be just as much a no-no as software that doesn't have Undo functionality.

butlike 10mo ago
This seems like a ridiculous point. Basically all software doesn't allow downgrades. Sure, if something happens during install, there's modern safeguards to prevent bricking your device, but upgrading software is usually a one-way street. It's why major companies have tiered rollouts of new features, beta programs, and developer previews. To a corollary: Would you trust a software development team who doesn't trust their feature enhancements enough to where they provide an option to roll back the software? It would be like a clothing designer saying "Actually, buy last years runway, this year's might have some issues..." As a user, I get 'undo' functionality because I'm playing in the sandbox. I trust that the sandbox is sound if I'm able to use it, and trust it will get ever-better as time goes on.
- amelius 10mo ago
  Why is this a ridiculous point? If I'm using version 1 of a tool to do some work, then I upgrade to version 2, and it means I cannot do my work as efficiently as before (maybe the update broke the tool, or maybe the user-interface was changed so much that my productivity went down the drain), then why am I not allowed to roll back the upgrade? What if I have a deadline, tomorrow morning at 9am? Not being able to downgrade can drive people up the wall. Seriously these days everything looks like a work-in-progress. I think it is because of the internet. In many ways software was better before the internet. The continuous pushing of updates is a curse. And users need to have a way to deal with that.

alwillis 10mo ago

> It seems clear to me that they use OS updates as a way to eventually slow your device down This sounds like an exaggeration of what happens after an upgrade: iOS has to re-index your entire phone for Spotlight, etc. Same thing for Photos if there have been changes. Depending on which phone and the amount of storage, your phone can feel kind of sluggish for a while until the background indexing is done. If you update before you go to sleep, your device will be fine in the morning.

ectospheno 10mo ago

> It's unfortunate that Apple has taught me (and I assume others as well) over the last 15 years that the best practice is to never install a major OS update. The sole reason I migrated from Android to Apple was to receive security upgrades for years not months. I am genuinely baffled by the take here on HN. People will (rightly) get up in arms about minor security issues across numerous domains then talk about never updating their phone. That has literally their entire life on it.