How to Get Your iPhone Ready for iOS 18

Apple officially releases iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 on Monday, September 16, bringing a host of new features to existing iPhones and iPads, such as new Home Screen customization options, an overhauled Control Center, a revamped Photos app, Mail improvements, and more.

This article covers some of the things you can do to prepare your ‌iPhone‌ or iPad for Apple’s latest mobile operating system, including storage maintenance tips, backup advice, and a few other useful tidbits to consider before upgrading. First though, you’ll need to make sure your ‌device is compatible with the new software.

Is My iPhone Compatible With iOS 18?

iOS 18 is compatible with the iPhone XR, and therefore also the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max models with the same A12 Bionic chip.

In other words, iOS 18 is compatible with the same iPhone models as iOS 17:

iPadOS 18 drops support for iPad models with the A10X Fusion chip, therefore iPadOS 18 is compatible with the following iPad models:

Note that iOS 18 will come pre-installed on new iPhone 16 models when they launch on Friday, September 20.

Reclaim Device Storage Space

Before you attempt to make the leap to iOS 18, you’ll first want to make sure your device has adequate space to download and install the new operating system over the air.

With that in mind, it’s worth looking at what apps you currently have installed on your devices and whether you really need them. Swipe through your home screen and check inside your folders to root out any long-forgotten apps that are taking up precious storage space.

You can delete apps by holding a finger on them and tapping the X that appears at the corner of their icon. Alternatively, go to Settings ➝ General ➝ iPhone/iPad Storage, tap any apps you don’t use, and select Delete App. Note that this action can’t be undone, but be ruthless – you can always re-install removed apps at a later date if you change your mind.

Check on the size of any social media or messaging apps you have installed, such as Facebook and WhatsApp. These apps can often balloon in size after long periods of activity because of chat history, media caching and the like, so you might want to delete and reinstall them to start afresh.

Also, be sure to heed any personal recommendations on the ‌iPhone‌ Storage screen, like keeping high-resolution photos in iCloud and smaller-size versions on your device, or letting iOS automatically offload any apps you don’t use often.

Make an Archived Backup of Your Device on Mac

It’s best practice to have a local backup of your device stored on your computer in case something goes awry, or the worst happens and installation of iOS 18 fails. If you need to downgrade shortly after installing a new iOS update, making an archived local backup beforehand is necessary, otherwise you won’t be able to revert back to ‌iOS 17/iPadOS 17‌ if things go wrong.

1. Plug your iPhone into your Mac using the supplied cable.
2. Allow the accessory to connect by clicking Allow in the dialog prompt.
3. Open a Finder window by clicking the Finder icon in the Dock.
4. Click your iOS device’s name in the sidebar.
   
5. If this is the first time connecting your device to your Mac, click Trust in the Finder window.
   
6. Tap Trust on your device when prompted, then enter your passcode to confirm.
7. In the General tab, click the circle next to where it says Back up all of the data on your iPad to this Mac.
8. If you want to encrypt the backup, check the box next to Encrypt local backup, then enter a password to protect your data.
9. If you don’t want to create an encrypted backup, or you’ve already set up encrypted backups, click Back Up Now. When the backup is finished, you can find the date and time of the last backup in the General tab, just above the Manage Backups button.
   
10. Lastly, archive the backup: Select Manage Backups ➝ Select Backup, then right-click the backup and choose Archive. This protects it from being overwritten by the next local backup or automatically deleted if your Mac is low on storage space.

Remember that this backup will not be overwritten when you manually or automatically back up your iPhone in the future, so you can restore it at any time by using the Restore Backup… option in the same Finder screen.

Make an Archived Backup of Your Device on Windows

The iTunes app is still the main tool for managing a connected iPhone on Windows.

1. Plug the iPhone into your Windows PC.
2. In iTunes, click the iPhone button at the top left.
3. Click Summary.
4. If you want to encrypt the data, select the Encrypt local backup option and set a password.
5. Click Back Up Now.
6. Click Manage Backups.
7. Right-click the backup you created and choose Archive. This extra step prevents the backup from being overwritten by the next local backup or automatically deleted if the computer runs low on storage space.

Installing iOS 18

When iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 becomes available (likely around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the official release day, based on past releases) as an over-the-air update, make sure your device is fully charged before you start the process over Wi-Fi, as it may take some time to complete.

To check that the update is available, go to Settings ➝ General ➝ Software Update, and wait a moment for your device to contact Apple’s servers. If you’re in no rush, you can wait for iOS 18 to be delivered to your iPhone when you next plug it into your computer.

Note that the first release versions of ‌iOS 18‌ and ‌iPadOS 18 don’t include Apple Intelligence features, with Apple set to introduce the first Apple Intelligence capabilities in an update coming next month.