Will iPadOS 18 work on iPad 6th Generation?

Ipaddad13 wrote:

This is ridiculous. They just stopped sales of pro 6th March2024 and now it is already antique technology unable to be upgraded, but my wife's iPad pro 5th from 2 years earlier is still on the cusp of technological development and can be up graded to IOS 18

Age isn't the issue...

Your wife's fifth generation iPad Pro has an M1 CPU and has either 8GB or 16GB RAM. For iPad, iPadOS18 requires either a M-series or A17 Pro CPU and at least 8GB RAM.

Your iPad6 has an A10 Fusion CPU and only 2GB RAM - and for this reason, fundamentally does not support iPadOS18.

Ipaddad13 wrote:

This is ridiculous. They just stopped sales of pro 6th March2024 and now it is already antique technology unable to be upgraded, but my wife's iPad pro 5th from 2 years earlier is still on the cusp of technological development and can be up graded to IOS 18

Claiming that a 6th-generation iPad Pro "is already antique technology unable to be upgraded" is quite ridiculous. Apple discontinued the 6th-generation iPad Pro in May 2024. That Pad can run iPadOS 18. It has a M2 chip with 8 or 16 GB of RAM, and is compatible with Apple Intelligence.

This thread is about the 6th-generation iPad, which dates from March 2018. Apple discontinued it in September 2019. It has an A10 Fusion chip and only 2 GB of RAM. That iPad originally ran iOS 11.3, and can run iPadOS 17 – but given its age, and small amount of RAM, it is not compatible with iPadOS 18 or with Apple Intelligence.

If you double-check which iPad you have, I suspect you will find that it is not the Pro.

1. No.

2. Yes. Fewer application updates or websites will remain available for it over time.

(254047)

No the iPad 6th gen with not be support IOS 18 only iPad 7th gen or later will be supported

TimpossibleOne wrote:

My iPad 6th gen has the option to run the public beta for iOS 18 and it has the same A10 Fusion chip as the iPad 7th gen, which is among the listed devices to get iOS 18, so why isn't the 6th gen iPad getting it?

Apple is not here, but a likely answer is simply that the 6th-generation iPad does not have enough RAM.

The 6th- and 7th-generation iPads may both have Apple A10 Fusion processors, but the 7th-generation iPad has 3 GB of RAM, and the 6th-generation one has only 2 GB of RAM. I have not done an exhaustive scan of MacTracker, but I believe that every iPhone and iPad that is compatible with production versions of iOS / iPadOS 18 has at least 3 GB of RAM. Some iPhones have as much as 8 GB of RAM, and some iPad Pros have as much as 16 GB.

Apple may have decided that iOS / iPadOS 18 would not run well in 2 GB of RAM – or that it was not worth limiting the features available to newer iPhones & iPads in order to support old devices with only 2 GB of RAM.

In any event, when Apple introduced the 6th-generation iPad in March 2018, it ran iOS 11.3. Since you can update that iPad to iPadOS 17, that means that Apple supported it with six major version updates.

suz179 wrote:

Ok I’ve finally updated 17.7 in my gen 6 iPad… Will it die as my iPad 1 did when I can not update past 17.7… ios18 is out now??

• Yes, iPadOS 18 is out now.
• No, your iPad (6th generation) cannot update to iPadOS 18.
• No, your iPad will not die overnight.
• Yes, as the years go on, there may come a time when you will want an iPad that can run something higher than iPadOS 17.

Ralph6410 wrote:

Which kinda conflicts with other information:

Which devices can get it? All Apple smartphones from 2018's iPhone XS or newer can install iOS 18. All tablets from the 2018 iPad Pro, 2019 iPad Air (3rd gen), iPad mini (5th gen) or iPad (6th gen) and newer can install iPadOS 18. All Apple Watches from 2020's Series 6 or newer can install watchOS 11.

I would go by Apple's official compatibility statements. For iPads:

--------------------

iPadOS 18 is compatible with these devices:

• iPad Pro (M4)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)
• iPad Air (M2)
• iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
• iPad (7th generation and later)
• iPad mini (5th generation and later)

--------------------

iPadOS 18 upgrades are temporarily "on hold" for the iPad Pro (M4), due to an issue that caused some of those iPads to become inoperable following the upgrade.

Apple_nerd12 wrote:

They can just they need aox with means a10 chip

6th generation iPads – plain iPads, not 'Airs' or 'Pros' or 'Minis' – cannot run iPadOS 18.

The 6th generation and 7th generation iPads may both use A10 Fusion chips, but the 7th generation ones have more RAM, which may explain why they can run iPadOS 18 and the 6th generation ones cannot.

Sorry, no, your iPad 6 will not support iPadOS 18 when released later this year:

iPadOS 18 Preview - Apple

cx500d wrote:

Why? iPad 6 gen has the same processor as IPad 7 gen.

The 6th-generation iPad has an Apple A10 Fusion processor and 2 GB of RAM.

The 7th-generation iPad has an Apple A10 Fusion processor and 3 GB of RAM.

I have not done a comprehensive check of the MacTracker database, but it looks like all of the iPads that can run iPadOS 18 have at least 3 GB of RAM – with some having as much as 16 GB.

Zamna1122 wrote:

Pls ios 18 for me ioad 7

Did you read the thread?

The screen snapshot says that iPadOS will be compatible with "iPad (7th generation and later)." However, you will have to wait until iPadOS 18 comes out!

Jvt1974 wrote:

Does this mean I’ll have to replace my 6th gen iPad if I want to keep using what’s on it?

For the most part, no.

Sometimes app vendors force you to upgrade to a new app, or a new version, to keep using a particular service at all. I've had that happen on a few occasions. If they do that, and the new app or new version is incompatible with your device, you'd be locked out of it.

For the most part, you can just keep using what you have. You just won't get the new features in the new version of iOS, or the ability to run new apps that require that version.

Eventually, Web standards may change enough that having an old version of Safari becomes an issue – but that typically would be several years down the road.

Sadly time to upgrade. My 6th gen has served me well, a bit short on storage at 32 MB but otherwise did everything I needed it to do. . Looking at the upgrade possibilities.. it seems a bit overwhelming.

cx500d wrote:

Why? iPad 6 gen has the same processor as IPad 7 gen.

While the iPad6 and iPad7 have near identical technical specifications, the reasons why Apple has chosen to differentiate between the two models - and limit the iPad6 to iPadOS 16.x - is known only to Apple.

Contributors here are all end-users, just like you. Other than information published by Apple, nobody here has any insight into Apple’s product design or update support decisions.

Which kinda conflicts with other information:

Which devices can get it? All Apple smartphones from 2018's iPhone XS or newer can install iOS 18. All tablets from the 2018 iPad Pro, 2019 iPad Air (3rd gen), iPad mini (5th gen) or iPad (6th gen) and newer can install iPadOS 18. All Apple Watches from 2020's Series 6 or newer can install watchOS 11.