How to check iPadOS 18 upgrade availability for iPad Pro M4

iPadOS 18 is expected to be available for iPad Pro M4 users in late September or early October 2024, following Apple’s typical release schedule. While it can be frustrating not to receive updates from Apple, they usually announce software release dates during their events or through press releases. Keep an eye on Apple's official channels for the latest news! In the meantime, make sure your device is backed up and ready for the upgrade once it’s available.

p3trol3ro wrote:

Same experience. upgraded old iPad to 18, traded it in at the store expecting to upgrade my new IPad Pro 13 M4 to 18 later and then restore from backup. WRONG.

Someone suggested trialing iPadOS 18.1 BETA but guess what…Apple thought of that and disabled Developer Mode for the M4 iPads. So I am stuck unable to restore, full stop.

That Apple has not flagged this issue for purchasers of new IPad Pro M4s is inexcusable. No one at the store had any clue about this issue or if they did they didn’t tell me. Godawful considering this problem has been known for 2 weeks. Is it the end of the world for my use case? No. Well…maybe. Depends how long it takes Apple to re-release 18.

Another thing I didn’t know…the Apple Pencil is incompatible with the new iPads because they moved the camera to the long edge. So the salt in this wound is that I have to buy a new Pencil Pro in order to do my CAD work.

iOS/iPadOS 18.0.1 for iPhone and iPad are [externally] widely reported as being tested pending imminent release.

As for your Apple Pencil, the inductive changing system for the iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air M2 has been redesigned to accommodate repositioning of the front-facing camera to the centre of the long edge of the iPad screen bezel. The Camera now occupies the cavity previously occupied by the inductive charging coil and associated components.

The iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air M2 support the Apple Pencil Pro and USB-C Pencil:

Apple Pencil compatibility - Apple Support

Select Apple Pencil - Apple

Maureen Svagera wrote:

I had a 3 month old iPad Pro with M4 chip and upgraded to iOS 18 and it screwed up the iPad and had to get it replaced. Apparently there’s an issue so they aren’t letting any with the M4 chip upgrade yet.

If you take a little time to read some of the most recent replies to this thread, you will see that iPadOS 18.0.1 has been released for all compatible models of iPad - including iPad Pro M4.

nextr wrote:

I just wasted an hour trying to painstakingly go through this with Apple support. Shockingly, even at the supervisor level they are not even AWARE of this issue and off ZERO guidance other than…I’m sure it’s being worked on and an update will be available “soon.” As both a customer and shareholder, I am beyond disappointed. It’s patently obvious that all available resources are being diverted to “Apple Intelligence,” and all I can say is I sure hope it’s better than Siri. It’s late to the party and simple features that would make the iPad Pro useful (see the disappointing feature list for iPad OS 18) without threatening the MBP we’re not only left out, but the update bricked the flagship model. Do better and please at a minimum, communicate about a fix!

Perhaps understand the Apple Support Community is a user-to-user technical forum. Contributors here are all end-users, just like you. Other than the site Moderators, Apple neither monitor nor participate here.

As such, if you hope to reach (or have your comments seen by) Apple via these forums, you will be disappointed.

Apple does invite submission of comments and constructive feedback via its Product Feedback Portal. For iPad and iPadOS:

Feedback - iPad - Apple

I’m running beta on my M4. There is a back door around it. Just download a 3rd party app and trust it under certificates and then it will let you turn on developer mode. You can also register on apples developer website.

jbauer wrote:

Now, I gotta decide which iPad to get, but I know that the only one that will work with Apple Intelligence is the M4 model.

Apple just released an update to iPadOS 18 to fix the M4 iPad Pro issue.

As for Apple Intelligence, Apple says that the beta will be available on iPad Pro with M1 and later, and on iPad Air with M1 and later. So the M4 iPad Pro is not "the only one that will work with Apple Intelligence". In the current iPad lineup, both the M2 iPad Airs and the M4 iPad Pros should be in line to get the Apple Intelligence beta.

Apple Intelligence Preview - Apple

There has.

The initial release was bricking some M4 iPads so it was withdrawn for those models.

Unknown when an updated version will be released.

I am afraid That is not true. I have tried updating my iPad M4 directly to IPad OS 18 first and got the error message “the update cannot be verified. “ I then updated the M4 successfully to iPad OS 17.7 and the Ipad OS 18 link disappeared . No other updates for the M4 is available for the M4 at this time.

I have updated both my iPad M1 and the iPad air M2 to Ipad OS 18 with no problems.

CKL

chaslau wrote:

I am afraid That is not true. I have tried updating my iPad M4 directly to IPad OS 18 first and got the error message “the update cannot be verified. “ I then updated the M4 successfully to iPad OS 17.7 and the Ipad OS 18 link disappeared . No other updates for the M4 is available for the M4 at this time.

I have updated both my iPad M1 and the iPad air M2 to Ipad OS 18 with no problems.

CKL

This scenario is easy to explain.

Your iPad Pro M4 had downloaded - but not installed - the initial iPadOS 18 while it remained available for download. When you subsequently attempted to install the already download update, verification failed (this being a check performed when the update runs) as the digital signature of the update had been revoked.

As iPadOS 17.7 was now the only available update for the iPad Pro M4, this was available for update.

I have returned my 13inch iPad Pro M4. They booked me at a Genius bar and the staff told me there was nothing they could do at the moment but just wait till Apple release iPadOS18 again for M4 iPad Pros. I didn’t want to waste my warranty and Apple Care Plus doing nothing with the iPad so that I returned it at the Apple Store. I was quite disappointed because there was no warning sign when I ordered it Apple online store for the issue and even staff didn’t mention anything of it when picking it up in the Apple Store. It is quite obvious that Apple is getting down.

hendrik7667 wrote:

Not sure how or why you would use your Mac to update your iPad M4. Why not just download and install. I just downloaded 18.0.1, and ran the install on my iPad Pro M4 without issue.

I've read in these forums that sometimes, if you skip a few iOS / iPadOS upgrades, you might need the aid of a Mac or PC. I wouldn't think that would be the case for updating a M4 iPad Pro. (Even if you got one when they first came out, and never updated it, it would be on iPadOS 17.4.)

A new iPad Pro with iOS 18 pre-installed would probably work without problems. It appears that it is only the update procedure, and from skimpy reports possibly only with devices that had been updated to iOS 17.7, that were affected. So you may have been able to get the new iPad set up without encountering the bug, though I cannot be certain. Why the Apple Store employees were unaware of the issue, though, I have no idea. It's certainly not been a secret.

In any case, we are all just fellow users here. Apple does not participate in these forums. So posting a complaint here will do no good.  If you wish to provide feedback to Apple, you can do so here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Otherwise, we all will have to wait until Apple has identified the problem and provided a new update.

Regards.

Same experience. upgraded old iPad to 18, traded it in at the store expecting to upgrade my new IPad Pro 13 M4 to 18 later and then restore from backup. WRONG.

Someone suggested trialing iPadOS 18.1 BETA but guess what…Apple thought of that and disabled Developer Mode for the M4 iPads. So I am stuck unable to restore, full stop.

That Apple has not flagged this issue for purchasers of new IPad Pro M4s is inexcusable. No one at the store had any clue about this issue or if they did they didn’t tell me. Godawful considering this problem has been known for 2 weeks. Is it the end of the world for my use case? No. Well…maybe. Depends how long it takes Apple to re-release 18.

Another thing I didn’t know…the Apple Pencil is incompatible with the new iPads because they moved the camera to the long edge. So the salt in this wound is that I have to buy a new Pencil Pro in order to do my CAD work.

I'm in the same boat, but this will be my unpopular opinion, I got mine after doing the research, so I knew the iOS 18 was pulled, mangers wouldn't know anything as Dev teams are still trying to figure out the trigger to the bricked ipads, I know I would rather have my brand new ipad working and waiting for a re-release instead of a bricked one waiting to have it replaced, I'm not an apple fanboy in the least, but even my phones I keep multiple backups, these are things all users can and should do to protect what is valuable to them I got 2 back ups right before upgrading (if you don't have at least 2-3 backups, you have no backups) to iOS 18 "just in case" this is tech field after all the unexpected can and will happen and as end user we should have some common sense in the matter, I know I got screwed in the past and learned from that mistake as everyone else should. Complaining won't fix it and if it is that much of a pain switch ecosphere's but best believe they all have their unexpected issues.