Imagine you’d just spent $5,179 on your schmick new iPad Pro M4 bundle.
On Monday, just after Apple released the much-vaunted iOS 18, you downloaded it. Well, you tried to download it. But in response, your brand new $5,179 top-tier iPad Pro M4 shut down. No update for you.
For many iPad Pro M4 users recent days have been hugely frustrating. Calls are being made. Apple stores are being visited. Confusion reigns.
The iPad Pro M4, released in May, comes with all sorts of new features, including Apple Pencil Pro and a thinner, lighter Magic Keyboard. But they’re about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle if the screen stays black.
You can get in the iPad Pro M4 game for A$1,699, but if you want a contraption that is supercharged (13-inch, 2TB, nano-texture glass, Wi-Fi plus cellular, Apple Pencil Pro and USB-C) you’re in the hole for A$5,179, per Apple Australia website.
Now Apple has pulled iOS 18 updates for owners of iPad Pro M4 in an attempt to iron out kinks that will save other machines from bricking it. 9to5Mac reports that “Apple even stopped signing the IPSW files to restore the M4 iPad Pro with the iPadOS 18 firmware”.
It appears as if the error may have something to do with the iOS 17.7 security update released days before iOS 18. Those who went directly to iOS 18 are reporting fewer problems than those who went from 17.7 to 18.
Chat boards are rife with tales of woe. But also tales of success.
Here’s a taste:
“I have the M4 13 Pro. I had two updates for my iPad today, first I installed iOS 17 something with no issues then I immediately tried to install iOS 18. At some point during the update my iPad turned off, and would no longer turn on. I walked away during the update so I’m not sure when it broke. I tried all of the reset options but nothing worked. I just took it to the Apple Store who confirmed it’s completely bricked, but they said they had to send it out to their engineers before they can give me a replacement even though I have Apple care.”
“Folks complained a lot about this during the betas on all platforms, not just iPadOS. It was actually macOS that seemed to have a lot of these cases. Apple knew there was a big issue but they had to ship.”
“I actually purchased a new iPad Pro M4 today and as I tried to get it activated, it prompted me to install iPadOS18 and promptly wouldn’t update nor install my old iPad backup (which was backed up from iOS18 on the old iPad). Took it to Apple Store where they had just found out about this issue and refunded me for everything. I will buy again when Apple works out its issues.”
“It seems impossible to set up a brand new M4 iPad. I just got a 13” M4 and you can get most of the way through set up, including setting up your credit cards in your wallet. But then it tells you there’s the iPadOS 18 upgrade, and it doesn’t give you any choice other than to download it. After downloading the update, it prompts you to install it, but that does nothing. There is no way to skip any of this and once you’re here you’re at a dead end.”
“My iPad Pro M2 turned off during the update and now it’s not starting.”
“It’s not even an available option to install 18. After reading all the above, I stopped at 17.7 on my M4 13” iPad Pro. Patiently waiting I guess . . . Maybe a week or more that Apple gets it right?”
“I updated my m4 iPad pro 11in to iOS 18 and did the prior one as well. No problems but now I’m scared to turn it off or do anything with it because I’m afraid it will brick.”
“I kept getting an error when trying to update to 18. So I went through iTunes and as soon as the update finished my iPad went black with a http://support.apple.com/ipad/restore image on it. I manage to restore it. Customer support was no help. They didn’t even know about the issue.”
“It’s crazy to me how people are willing to upgrade to the newest iOS/iPadOS before even the first bug fix is released. You’re really taking a gamble with destroying your device.”
“Same thing happened to my iPad Air.”
“I just contact apple help support and they said ‘I see. Found the source of the issue here! I can confirm that the update is not yet available for this model of iPad! However we’re working already to launch this iOS version for this model of iPad … our engineers are working to prepare it for the following days.”
“iPadOS 18 is temporarily unavailable. Try again later.”
At the time of publishing Apple did not appear to have addressed the issue publicly.
