How to check iPadOS 18 upgrade availability for iPad Pro M4

iPadOS 18.01 is out now for m4 iPad

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This hurts…I just bought the newest iPad to take advantage of the Educational savings, did the trade in and everything. Finally got around to setting up only to find out that my latest backup can’t even be accessed because of this iOS issue…Apple please fix this soon because my entire livelihood is on that back up and I don't want it to get deleted for something as trivial as this.

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.

Recently, I made the switch from an 8th-generation iPad to the new iPad Pro M4, expecting a smooth transition. My 8th-gen iPad had already been upgraded to iOS 18, so naturally, I wanted the same experience on my M4. However, despite my attempts to update, the highest version available to me was iOS 17.7. While the device performs well enough on this version, I’m eager to access the enhanced features and functionality of iOS 18 that I had grown accustomed to on my previous device.

Determined to bridge the gap, I took matters into my own hands and reverted to an "old school" approach. I manually migrated all of my data, painstakingly reinstalling each app one by one. It made me wonder—have we lost the skill of manual migration in the era of automatic backups and transfers? Where’s the joy in nerding out, troubleshooting, and finding creative solutions?

As an engineer, my iPad is more than just a device—it’s a tool that I rely on for most of my day-to-day tasks, replacing what I would typically use a physical notepad for. For now, I’m content running my sleek, fast M4 on iOS 17.7, but I can’t help but anticipate the added capabilities that iOS 18 will hopefully bring soon. (BFG)

I know they're not here, and in principle I agree with you.

BUT I also think this is a major fail on Apples behalf. This should have been QA'd before release. It's almost as embarrassing as the fact that Apple Intelligence is not delivered for of the new product line in 18.0.

Unfortunately the only way of telling if the m4 is preloaded is to open one up and see... However in order to do that the apple store requires you to purchase the ipad... The employees have no idea and no way of knowing what operating system these iPads are loaded with.... I purchased 2, both had 17... returned them both and then ordered from best buy since i had discount coupons... When it gets here tomorrow it will sit until 18.1 is available

Same problem here. Apple said to let my trade-in window to expire and that they may extend it. I’m not happy about that response and won’t send my old iPad in until I can transfer the data to the new M4.

Yep, info.plist can be changed on windows/mac with any text editor.

youll want to search for “product version”, you’ll see “18.0” - change that to the current version of the m4 new ipad, for me was “17.7”. Then you’re able to plug your new iPad in and restore it. I did this earlier, worked perfectly.