How can I prevent my iPhone from updating to iOS 26?

You cannot be forced to upgrade. You can simply ignore the notifications to do so. However you need to understand that as time passes your iPhone will become less and less secure because it won’t receive updates to fix things. And if you ever buy another iPhone it will come with the latest version of iOS installed.

Interesting though that you hate iOS 26 without having installed or used it.

Stay where you’re currently comfortable until critical apps stop working and/or you can’t add critical security updates is the only other option.

Please follow this path,

iPhone > Settings > General > Software Update > disable the three automatic updates

andersonew wrote:

I hate iOS 26 and refuse to update my iPhone. What other choice do I have?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Refuse update

How does one hate what they haven't even tried? If you're basing your hatred on what others have told you, that's unfortunate. iOS 26 is actually very stable and pretty cool.