New iPhone 15 stuck on iOS 18 Update

Thank you! I’m trying to setup and after waiting 2 hours on the update, I did your steps and now it’s perfect

Thank you so much! I was terrified. I just bought a new iphone max pro (15) and spent hours on this issue.

Thanks, this really helped me to setup my new iphone 15. I have done erase contents after iOS 18 update without pairing. After erase contents I did pairing with my old phone and transferred data.

po_victory's suggestion to set up as new phone then update to ios 18.1 before erasing device worked for me. Afterwhich, you just transfer the data either thru cloud or direct from phone.

thank you.

Hello, I got to this stage when setting up a new iPhone 15. Messages photos present but nothing else initially. Can you tell me if your apps and other data downloaded onto your new phone eventually?

thanks

Same issue! Setting up new iPhone 15 and getting stuck on non optional update. Followed po_victory advice and it worked!! Had been stuck for hours on a never ending loop. Apple needs to address this issue!!

My wife and I were setting up our new phones and she chose to transfer from her iCloud and I tried the phone to phone transfer. Mine froze during the iOS download while hers went smooth. That’s exactly how I had to do it. I tried to do the phone to phone transfer initially and it froze spinning its wheels for 2 hours before a did a reset on the new iphone15 and chose to download from my iCloud instead. Worked good.

Thanks for your advice I have done this but nothing happens when I reset all settings. Will I erase the iPhone 15 and start again? Will I erase the iPhone to start again? I signed in using my Apple ID and now I’m worried I’ll loose all my apps and data? Thanks

I just had exactly the same issue. Spoke to two Apple support reps who were both very nice but were absolutely convinced it was a problem with my router and couldn’t possibly be a problem with the phone.

I followed your instructions and found that iOS 17.7 was waiting to be installed and already downloaded which is probably why it was tripping over itself trying to install 18. It deleted the 17.7 version and got on with the update in about half an hour, had my data transferred over in another 20 mins.

Thank you for the helpful post! I’d probably still be stuck staring at that spinning wheel otherwise!

After my phone hung during the transfer/update, I did the same by doing the initial setup without transfering old phone data. The iOS18 installation took about 20 minutes. Then I did the reset but kept the eSims. At this point you just go through the normal transfer of data without having to update the iOS.

Thank you so very much. I ran into the same issue when trying to set up my brand new iPhone 15 and transfer over my info from my iPhone 13. My new phone got stuck on the new 18 software download. I tried starting from scratch twice, waiting over 5 hours and nothing changed. It just hung on the software update screen. I admit that I was starting to freak out until I found this page. Thank you for the clear and step by step explanation that even a Luddite could navigate! I followed your steps and now have an updated and working new iPhone 15. Much appreciated!

I have purchased an iPhone 15. I am trying to set it, copying from my old phone. My new phone keeps getting stuck when trying to update the software to IOS 18. Can you please advise how I can resolve this as currently my phone has been stuck on the software update screen since 930 this morning (it is now nearly 530pm)

Dude! That was exceedingly awesome. Thanks, @po_victory, for the walk through. I've done everything now except for the last step. How do I get the data from my old phone onto the new phone, now that the new phone thinks it is all set up and ready to rumble? I've tried General > Transfer or Reset > Reset All Settings, but that doesn't seem to trigger the "Welcome to your new phone! Let's play the set up game (again...)" prompt.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I have been struggling with this for three whole days! Finally an answer that worked! I was beginning to think I was too old to have the latest technology. Was about to contact a kindergarten student to assist me! lol