iPhone SE (2016) Can't upgrade iOS on iPhone SE

[BarkingGhost]

Wife has a 64GB iPhone SE running 9.3.1 and has 12.4GB available space. When I try to upgrade her iOS wirelessly it says the version of iOS running on the iPhone doesn't support upgrading wirelessly. But, previously she would get annoyed with pop-up reminders on her phone almost weekly about applying the latest iOS that got automatically downloaded. I changed this behavior by turning off automatic iOS updates.

So, I go onto an iMac with the second most recent version of MacOS running and the latest version of iTunes. I can perform a backup and a sync. I have enabled wireless syncing and re-enabled automatic iOS updates, etc., but when I try to follow the original warning's direction to update by iTunes it errors out say it lost network connectivity. The network has never been lost. And right before I try to update via iTunes I surf-test on the iPhone and do another backup/sync.

I have now tried three times, rebooting both phone and iMac, and neither upgrade by iTunes nor wirelessly works. Heck, I even went through the hassle of de-authorizing the iMac and re-authorizing it, logging out of and back into the iTunes account, etc.

 

[chscag]

There may not be enough free space on her phone to update to 13.4.1. You might want to backup everything on the phone, reset it, and then try the update. After it updates, you can restore the phone. Back it up with iTunes and iCloud both to make sure. Check first to see if she has apps on the phone that may no longer be available from the app store.

 

[now i see it]

While connected to your Mac, reset it (wipe it). Then when it wants to install iOS, it'll pick the version that's most recently available- iOS 12.x

Report back here if that method works or not. That's the advice ive read on other threads. I've got an iPhone 6 on iOS 9 and I'm in the same boat, but never attempted to upgrade it.

 

[chscag]

While connected to your Mac, reset it (wipe it). Then when it wants to install iOS, it'll pick the version that's most recently available- iOS 12.x

The original iPhone SE can be updated to the latest version of iOS which is as I stated above - 13.4.1. After he resets it, it will want to install that version.

 

[BarkingGhost]

Following the Apple support page for performing an iCloud backup is Step 1: upgrade the iOS to the latest version, and once that is done to make an iCloud backup. This is a catch-22.

And while I do appreciate the other options everyone is offering me, it doesn't explain why previously this SE could perform wireless upgrades, nor the fact that 12.4GB of free space might not being enough for an iOS upgrade. I am also wondering if the 'network disconnect' during the iTunes wired attempt might be because that iMac is itself wirelessly connected.

I do have an older iMac in the basement that is hardwired to my home network and I use to sync the SE on it whenever I used its optical drive to import new CD-based music. I'll try that route later tonight.

 

[rui no onna]

Skipping multiple major iOS versions can be problematic for OTA updates. I tried going straight from iOS 10 to 13 on one of our SE (2016) and ended up needing to do a DFU restore.

 

[BarkingGhost]

This evening I had some success. I booted a 9.5 year old iMac, did a backup and then successfully upgraded the iOS to the latest version. It took a while, but considering the age of the iMac I was just happy to get the job done so I could give the wife back her iPhone.

Thanks all for helping. Much appreciated.