How to check iPadOS 18 upgrade availability for iPad Pro M4

Seems really dishonest to me.... My current iPad pro is not working properly so i went to best buy this morning and bought a new M4 iPad pro... I brought it home only to discover iOS 18 couldn't be loaded which means none of my backups could be transferred.... Best Buy should never let it out the door.. I returned the purchase to Best Buy

But it didn't end there.. I then went to my local apple store where they could not tell me whether the iPad pros they had in stock were preloaded with 18... The only way to find out was to purchase one there and begin the set up in the store to find out... .Thats what i did and i ended up returning that one as well .... The best part is not one apple employee was aware of this problem that happened on 9-17.. That's appalling, When you put down over $1100 you expect that when you get it home it would work...... Once again apple employees had no clue and were selling iPad pro m4's and not telling customers of the software problem... I find that totally unsatisfactory.. So now i have to wait and search online to find out when i can spend my money to buy a new iPad

Updated older iPad Pro to iOS 18 just prior to ordering new M4 iPad Pro. Now I can’t migrate data because even the backup is iOS 18. Can’t process trade- in either. Should not have bought new iPad until later

Apple has provided no indication as to when the iPadOS 18 update will be re-released for iPad Pro M4. As for Apple's limited public communication concerning this issue, the reasons are known only within Apple.

Same issue here. Bought the new M4 iPad Pro to take advantage of the Back To School promos before they ended on Monday, plus a good trade in value for my M1 iPad Pro… but I can’t restore my iPad Pro backup to the M4 because it doesn’t run iPadOS 18. WHAT?! I didn’t even know this was a thing until I couldn’t for the life of me restore a backup on my new M4 iPad Pro… and spent hours on the phone with Apple Support, and even encountering an awful customer service conversation after I had previously chatted to two people who helped me with certain issues. This could’ve been prevented if at the Apple Store they said that the iPad Pro currently doesn’t run iPadOS18. Anyway, I think this iPad Pro is going back to the store, and once the issues are resolved hopefully I can buy it again and get a semblance of the Education discount promos and trade in value that I was quoted when I bought my M4 today.

Late sept has come and gone. Early Oct is Tues. in the meantime my new paid for M4 iPad is sitting in the box useless. Apple like may other large companies has chosen profit instead of being transparent with their customers

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 offer 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 were not only left out, but the paltry update bricked the flagship model. Do better and please at a minimum, communicate about a fix. And allowing the M4 iPad Pro to multitask properly won’t prevent me from buying a new 16” MBP….

My understanding is that M4 iPads that had updated to iOS 17.7 first (the last update for iOS 17 generation) and THEN updated to iOS 18 experienced the undesirable result of not being able to turn on the iPad at all. Basically it turned the iPad into a brick resulting in loss of all data (unless it had been backed up to iCloud) and the need for Apple to replace the device. My understanding is if one had NOT first updated to 17.7 and THEN updated directly to iOS 18 you would have been OK. Apple of course pulled all ability for M4 pro iPads to update to iOS 18 until they figured out what caused the issue. It is surprising that a company as good as Apple would not have fully tested its update protocols for all possible scenarios before releasing iOS 18.

No, but I’m sorry, this opinion of yours is worse than not popular; it’s garbage. As a company that prides itself on their products just “working”, this is actually inexcusable to expect their average end user to know about these issues. Heck, their own staff don’t know about it! You might have the know how, but average Apple consumers who expect their products to “just work” with their existing ones, as advertised. Also, as for blaming us for not having backups, I had backups; however, all of them happen to be iPadOS18 ones and not 17.7 which the current M4 is stuck on. So much for automatic iCloud backups… who knew this would lead to something that ensures peace of mind ending up being problematic because of this OS debacle?! So no, don’t try to throw this all on the consumer. Apple failed royally on this iPadOS release, and now their customers are hooped (whether it be bricked devices, or with many of us on here, without the ability to restore their backups from a previous iPad).

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.

This is incredibly frustrating. I bought a replacement for my iPad Pro, I splurged and got the M4 with all the bells and whistles, and I can’t use it. It’s been here for a week now. I’d really like to know when this will be fixed so my new *very expensive* iPad will be usable.

Contact Apple Support to get them to extend your trade-in return time. Also get them to guarantee that they will honour the trade in value if either your extended trade in time expires, or you decide to return the M4 and decide to buy it in the near future. Sorry to hear that this iPad 18 M4 debacle is affecting you too. It’s an awful situation all around, and a very bad look for Apple.

You are addressing this issue as though users have been asking for the release date of a major update (eg the original release of iPad OS 18, which already happened and was PULLED because it caused potentially irreparable harm to some users’ iPad Pros).

That is NOT what anyone here is asking about. We want to have BETTER COMMUNICATION on releases that address this CRITICAL FIX. The scenario you describe is entirely appropriate for major release dates and point-feature releases, but again, that’s not the issue here. It’s not like people are asking for the release date of the next iPhone…. People with iPad Pros damaged by the original release and those stuck unable to restore a backup from a different iPad already updated to iPad OS 18 to their Pros running iPad OS 17 deserve some guidance.

You are pretending that Apple didn’t make a serious mistake, which could not be further from the truth. Doubling down that customers should be content to twist in the wind is insulting.

You couldn't be more right......Apple totally dropped the ball on this and chose sales over customer satisfaction and transparency. I my case i bought an m4 at best buy plunked down $1100 or so and expected my new purchase to be usable.. I ended up returning it and then went to the apple store after doing some online research and not one apple employee in that store knew about the glitch..... I purchased another m4 at the store and returned it immediately after finding out that 18 wasn't preloaded.... Since i had some big credits at Best buy i once again ordered an M4, this time on line not caring when it will arrive In my mind apples behavior is totally unacceptable

iPadOS 18 is expected to roll out soon, but Apple typically staggers updates across devices. If you haven't received it yet, it should be available within the coming weeks. Keep checking Settings > General > Software Update for availability. Apple doesn't always announce specific dates in advance.

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.