Can iPad Air upgrade past 12.4.8?

A first generation iPad Air can only be updated to iOS 12.4.8.

Apple ended update support for iPad Air1 in September 2019. An iPad Air1 cannot be updated to iPadOS 13 (or any later major versions of iPadOS) as the internal hardware does not meet the minimum technical requirements for new versions of iOS/iPadOS. iPadOS13 requires a minimum of 2GB RAM; the iPad Air has 1GB.

Some App developers have dropped support for iOS versions preceding iOS 13.x for technical reasons (often because APIs or software libraries upon which they rely have been updated in the new version of iPadOS, making their App incompatible with earlier versions). 

Whilst many App titles remain compatible with your iPad Air1, if you want or need to access to Apps requiring the most recent versions of iOS, you’ll need to consider replacement of your iPad with a newer or current model that supports iPadOS13.x.

Sorry, I appreciate that this may not be what you were hoping to learn.

I hope this information provides helpful clarity as to your available options - and the limitations of your existing iPad Air.

Despite ending major update support, iOS12 has received a number of “point” security updates over the last year - iOS 12.4.8 being relatively recent. As such, from a security perspective, many critical issues have been patched.

As for future “point” updates, your guess is as good as mine. If you are using your devices in a business or safety critical environment, I would always recommend that you use devices with “in life” update support.

The iPad Air1 is now approaching 7 years old - and was receiving in-life support for nearly six years. For a mobile computing platform, this is pretty good. Consider also that the batteries in these devices will be getting-on - and will not be delivering anything like full capacity.

Many App are still being supported by App Developers, but some Dev’s have dropped support for anything prior to iOS/iPadOS 13.2. The significance of ‘13.2 being a substantial change to some key system libraries.

Which iPad Air? 1st gen?

An iPad Air 1st gen can only be updated to iOS 12