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The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
Hello,
I have an iPhone 3G S.
It has iOS 5.1.1, and I would like to update it to 6.1.6.
iOS 8, is already released a couple of months ago, and Yosemite for Mac is also released.
Is my iPhone going to crash, if I update it, because of being simply too old?
Or is it safe to update?
Thanks
-pokekart
<Email Edited By Host>
iPhone 3GS, iOS 5.1.1, null
No harm should come to it after updating; just make sure you backup your data first.
There is always the possibility that something will go wrong during the update, but in most cases they complete without any issues.
~Lyssa
THanks! This update went fine!
Good to hear 🙂
~Lyssa
I have an old iPhone 3GS which I am looking to give to relative... would I be naive in assuming iTunes would allow to be upgrade the OS to the last version available for that model i.e. iOS 6? Or am I permanently lumbered with the earlier OS and therefore unlikely to be compatible with most apps?
iTunes will always update a phone to the latest version of iOS available for that phone.
So, while iOS 9 is available in general, iOS 6 is the latest version available for the 3GS. You should be able to update the 3GS to iOS 6 just fine.
A newer phone, like the iPhone 4, would have to be updated to iOS 7, as that's the latest version available for that model.
Does that help?
~Lyssa
Can I update my iPhone 3gs to iOS 6?
