How to check iPadOS 18 upgrade availability for iPad Pro M4

I have the same issue with the new Ipad. I spoke with support on 10/2/24. They have no idea when IOS 18 for the M4 Ipad will be released. The options they voiced were to basically wait for the update at some unknown future date or return the new Ipad if I don't want to wait.

Completely unacceptable response in my opinion.

Apple released 18.0.1. New M4 updated and reset. Currently transferring data from my old iPad to the M4. Should be good to go in a few hours.

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 saw it last night and was able to download to the new M4 11" pro (and other older iPads) so that I could restore my wife's old Ipad onto the new one. All of them are working fine so far.

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.

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

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.

I had same issue about a week ago, and when I went to setup my new M4 iPad Pro and restore from iCloud backups from my old iPad (which I already upgraded to iPadOS 18), I chose the option for other backups (instead of just the default latest). I was able to chose the backup right before I upgraded my old iPad to iPadOS 18. It worked perfectly. Obviously, any new apps or setting changes that occurred between then and now wouldn’t be there, but that wasn’t an issue for me. Just one other potential solution.

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.

None of my previous backups are from before iPadOS 18 was installed on my iPad Pro M1, so this doesn’t help me. Glad to hear you got around this issue, but it still affects me and countless of others.

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….

Thank you for the Product Feedback link. I provided my frustration with Apple. Purchased my iPad Pro M4 two days ago, and all was seamless until I attempted to transfer from my traded-in iPad Pro data backed up on the iCloud. Like others on this page, my backup was populated with IOS 18 and I could not transfer the information to my M4 which was running IOS 17. I did reach out to Apple support and both the initial advisor and the subsequent senior advisor were aware of the problem. However, the Apple store made no mention to me earlier in the day at the time of purchase.

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 ordered an IPad M4 Pro on-line (I'm in UK) to collect from its Brighton store. That was all fine.

However, I had already upgraded my iPad Air 4 to OS18. I couldn't upgrade my new M4 iPad to OS18, but I thought at least I should be able to transfer the data/Apps/existing setting across to the new iPad. But no, it was asking me to upgrade to OS18, which of course I couldn't.

I called Apple support and despite their efforts, for an hour, to do a work-around, we couldn't transfer anything across. I'd have to install all my App and website shortcuts from scratch. This was unacceptable, so I arranged the immediate return and refund of my new iPad M4.