Unable to update my iPhone 7 software beyond iOS 15?

An iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, or iPhone SE 1 isn't capable of 16 or above; they require an A11 or better CPU. If you're trying to install 15.8.3, describe what happens.

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Lesliescheidler4 wrote:

15 loaded but it won’t let me update to anything higher

That's correct as Niel pointed out above, iPhone 7 cannot run anything higher than the latest iOS 15 release. It cannot run iOS 16, iOS 17 or the newest iOS 18. It will never run anything higher than iOS 15.

15 loaded but it won’t let me update to anything higher

This is correct. iOS 15 is the end of the road for the iPhone 7. No more updates will ever be available.

You need an iPhone 8 or iPhone X if you want to run iOS 16.

But, it would make much more sense to look at a phone that can use 5K cellular and be able to run iOS 18. That would be an iPhone 12 or higher model.