I did not want it but accidentally updated to 26. Now at latest version.
It has destroyed my iPad performance and battery. I always ran a tight PadOS ship. No frills, little to no background apps, etc. etc. I can’t do anything more. I’d like to go back to 18 but, now cannot.
What do I do? It feels like Apple has destroyed a perfectly fine iPad. Apple needs to let us go back to 18.
iPad mini 5, iPadOS 26
I feel your pain. It has happened to me in the past but not recently with iPadOS 26. I too have a mini 5 Wi-Fi and am keeping it (as well as my other iPads that can run it) well away from iPadOS 26 for numerous reasons.
You might want to sit tight for about a week to see if the performance improves when indexing and housekeeping of the system files has finished. As a last resort, you may want to try to reset the iPad as new, without using a backup. It will admittedly be a pain and a long process that may or may not help matters.
Sometimes, performing a clean install from scratch can help performance issues with older iPads that may not be well suited or qualified for the "latest and greatest".
Slow 26 on iPad mini 5 wi-fi model
