The latest iPad Pro with the M4 chip is a triumph of software and hardware, so users may have been champing at the bit to upgrade to the latest iPadOS 18 software when it launched on Monday, Sept. 16. However, some users have claimed that their iPad have become useless, and Apple has now removed the option to update to it.
Apple iPad Pro with M4 processor.
Since the software has some cool upgrades, like a customizable home screen, improved handwriting with the Apple Pencil, live audio transcription and the long-awaited arrival of the Calculator app, you can see why people would hurry to install it.
The iPadOS 18 software has now been withdrawn, as pointed out by MacRumors, so it’s no longer available to be downloaded or installed.
Well, you can download it for other iPads—I’ve just done it on an iPad Air—but Apple is apparently holding it back for its latest, most premium iPad.
You can understand why: some users on Reddit have reported that when installed, the iPad Pro simply stopped working. As I began writing this post, I checked my iPad Pro and was momentarily flummoxed when it wouldn’t work. Happily, it righted itself and is back to normal now.
For those not so lucky, the iPad Pro turned off during the update process and can’t even be revived with a computer—restoring it after this issue is not possible, it seems. One user on Reddit, in a post headed “iPad OS 18 bricked my M4 13-inch, said that when they took the iPad Pro to the Apple Store, a replacement was ordered.”
It’s not clear what is causing the problem, though MacRumors has suggested that it could be linked to installing an earlier update, iPadOS 17.7 before going on to iPadOS 18. For what it’s worth, I didn’t install iPadOS 17.7 first.
In a statement to Apple Insider, Apple said, “We have temporarily removed the iPadOS 18 update for M4 iPad Pro models as we work to resolve an issue that is impacting a small number of devices.”
There’s no indication when the update will be made available to M4 iPad Pro users, but for sure Apple will be working overtime to make sure it’s soon.