iOS 26.2 Update causing major issues on iPhone 16 Pro

You have a massive amount of System Data, it should be nearer 10GB

(see the total at the end of the list.)

This process is your only option, (other than updating to the next iOS version when it is released on a Mac.)

Back up the phone, Erase all content & settings, Set up the phone again, restoring the backup.

Resources:

Back Up: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

Erase & Restore: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

 Then add back credit cards, sign back into accounts etc.

ConfusedBrit wrote:

Thank you for your response & comments.

Judging by the amount of posts on YouTube about overcoming issues after updating to iOS 26.2, particularly in relation to iPhone storage issues, it is pretty obvious that I am not alone in having issues with the update.

After working through some of the suggested fixes it appears to me that having only 128 GB of iPhone storage is insufficient to run the latest update unless• you:

Turn off Apple Intelligence on your iPhone

• Remove a lot of underused Apps from your iPhone

• Delete a lot of files on your iPhone that sync to iCloud

After I had carried out the above tasks my iPhone then became stable enough to run normally.

I would not recommend installing iOS 26.2 unless you have double the iPhone storage capacity that I have.

I run 26.2 perfectly well on 128GB iPhone SE. No AI of course, but fully syncd to iCloud and no socials. It is the data hungry social and message apps like Whatsapp and Youtube channels that are the culprits, not iOS26.

That 4.8GB of photos is 18,324 images and videos.

I beta test ios26 on a 64GB iPhone SE

force restart it https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios

I’m sorry you have a problem with 26.2, however, hundreds of millions of other users don’t have a problem. It never ceases to amaze me that because someone has a problem it must be a bug that affects millions of users.

As a month-long tester of 26.2 (with thousands of other users), I can tell you it is one of the cleanest upgrades in recent memory.

What troubleshooting have you done?

I decided to update my ipad pro to 26.2 before doing my iphone 16 pro max. the iPad pro froze so I'm doing update on computer. This is the first update that failed me in 10 years or so. I'll wait longer before trusting this on my iphone

I am having issues now since the update with my new 17 pro max. Now when I ask Siri to turn on torch it says torch is not available. My music is laggy and stops, skips songs and sometimes the app fails. Today I found I cannot attach photos to text messages. A few of my apps no longer work, and there are no updates for those apps. Worst update ever please fix this asap