I've generally assumed Apple could update the iOS on older phones, but chose not to so that you are eventually forced to upgrade. It's the only reason I upgraded from my 4 and then 5.

But I never bothered to try to find out until now, and can't find the info anywhere (might be my lack of knowledge on what to search for).

So I am asking here. Hope that's OK.

Could my "old" phone run a newer, and more secure, iOS, and if not, why not?

Comments

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Educational_Worth906 t1_ixq21my wrote on November 25, 2022 at 12:16 PM

#665,386

It’s often stated that the lower processing power, memory, storage and other hardware would make it unusable.

TheIngestibleBulk t1_ixq27cl wrote on November 25, 2022 at 12:17 PM

#665,400

Could it ? Yea but with the outdated hardware many of the newer features of the OS may not function well. Likely drain your battery at a significant pace and slow down your phone. Also I’m sure they see the number of people still using an older phone and determine if the user base is big enough to keep supporting.

Embarrassed_Win9189 t1_ixq309t wrote on November 25, 2022 at 12:27 PM

#665,484

Minimal system requirements are in place for a reason. They prevent you from ruining the experience (look back at the iphone 4s last ios update).

Pizzastevee t1_ixq6vfl wrote on November 25, 2022 at 1:12 PM

#665,926

It can get security updates. They did it recently with iOS 12

coilwhinehell t1_ixqk6im wrote on November 25, 2022 at 3:13 PM

#667,473

Replying to Embarrassed_Win9189 (#665,484)

Yes. I am still frustrated at how extremely slow my old iPhone 4s was back in 2016 on iOS 9. This forced me to buy a new phone even though my 4s was in great physical condition. Looking back, I should have kept it on iOS 8 and used it for another year.

handry997 t1_ixqpce1 wrote on November 25, 2022 at 3:54 PM

#668,170

I think that technically they could release it for the older model but the hardware isn’t optimized to run the new os so it will result in a slow version that can’t utilize the new functions.

Amitriptyline7 t1_ixrbsqn wrote on November 25, 2022 at 6:41 PM

#670,928

Imagine running the latest Windows on an old Pentium 4 era computer

Is it possible? - Yes

Would you want to do so? - Maybe not

It would eat up so much storage, RAM, and compute processes

Also a big re-engineering of the Windows will be required to run on the ancient hardware, not to mention most newer functions will not work as the hardware parts just didn’t exist

If you somehow manage to solve that enormous software compatibility problem, it’ll work

But it will also run at a crawl and make for a less ideal user experience, and battery life will take a big hit from all the processing

It doesn’t really makes sense to do it in the first place