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sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
Just bought a brand new iPad 9 for our family today and it came with iPadOS 16. Planning to add AppleCare. Did I hit the jackpot?!!

DE7FCAD7-9430-48F3-9932-86C5BB37B9E4.jpeg
 

sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
You mean because it's on iPadOS 16 instead of a newer version..?

Yes. I was expecting it to come with iPadOS 18, and I was going to downgrade it to iPadOS 17.7 with the IPSW.

Should I leave it on iPadOS 16? Or should I upgrade it to 17.7 before Apple stops signing it? What a dilemma.
 

arw

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2010
1,235
978
If it helps, I own a significantly older iPad 6th gen and the update from iPadOS 16 to 17 did not affect its performance in any relevant way.
So is there a specific advantage you anticipate by staying on iPadOS 16?
iPadOS 17.7 feels very mature and I will also keep it on my newer iPad 10th gen until some later iPadOS 18 release.
So if I were you, I'd take the iPadOS 17 security fixes / features as long as I still can.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,630
52,388
In a van down by the river
Yes. I was expecting it to come with iPadOS 18, and I was going to downgrade it to iPadOS 17.7 with the IPSW.

Should I leave it on iPadOS 16? Or should I upgrade it to 17.7 before Apple stops signing it? What a dilemma.
You wouldn’t have been able to downgrade to 17.7.

I don’t believe you hit any jackpot.

In my opinion, it is best to update to at least iPadOS 17 as said update contains important bug fixes as well as security updates.
 

sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
You wouldn’t have been able to downgrade to 17.7.

I don’t believe you hit any jackpot.

In my opinion, it is best to update to at least iPadOS 17 as said update contains important bug fixes as well as security updates.

Has something changed with the downgrade process? I remember downgrading a phone from iOS 16 to iOS 15 by using the still-signed IPSW. iPadOS 17.7 is still being signed.

https://ipsw.me/iPad12,1

3AE215F1-AFF6-439C-ACC4-CB7DCC09581F.jpeg
 

sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
It worked on my iPhone SE 2020 as you describe. I tested the official iOS 18 and then restored iOS 17.7 via iTunes ipsw.
Appreciate the confirmation. It would be cool to stay on iPadOS 16 if there was a way to later upgrade to iPadOS 17 or any other version of my choosing. Unfortunately once Apple stops signing it, iPadOS 18 is the only upgrade path. So I’m inclined to update to 17.7 before the upgrade window closes. 🤦‍♂️
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,261
11,764
Just bought a brand new iPad 9 for our family today and it came with iPadOS 16. Planning to add AppleCare. Did I hit the jackpot?!!

View attachment 2439822
Yes! That’s indeed a nice jackpot, considering you got one of those early stocks brand new with ability to purchase AppleCare+. As for the software version, unless you are REALLY into new iPadOS stuff which this iPad might not be able to take advantage of, don’t upgrade.
 

arw

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2010
1,235
978
Unfortunately once Apple stops signing it, iPadOS 18 is the only upgrade path.
I have blobsaver running to constantly save the available shsh blobs for all of my devices.
It's purely for good measure just in case but I have not yet tried to actually restore an unsigned version.
I could try so though for not spreading false hopes 🤔.
 

sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
I have blobsaver running to constantly save the available shsh blobs for all of my devices.
It's purely for good measure just in case but I have not yet tried to actually restore an unsigned version.
I could try so though for not spreading false hopes 🤔.

We already have a few iPads on iPadOS 17.7 so now I’m wondering how long I could milk 16.3.1 with app support. Then bite the bullet and go on to iPadOS 18. In a big family we still have some phones on iOS 12 (kid’s iPhone 6 for Roblox and games), as well as 14/15 and they still work, iOS 15 still has quite good app support and improved Focus feature.
 

ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,546
1,566
Yes. I was expecting it to come with iPadOS 18, and I was going to downgrade it to iPadOS 17.7 with the IPSW.

Should I leave it on iPadOS 16? Or should I upgrade it to 17.7 before Apple stops signing it? What a dilemma.
I got on a launch 2 9gens for kids. It was a cool snappy table for what it is 250 bucks.

Ios17 made them a lot slower. It is kids ipads so I couldn’t care less about snappiness, but for my taste they are unusably slow. I kind of regret updating.
 
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sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
I got on a launch 2 9gens for kids. It was a cool snappy table for what it is 250 bucks.

Ios17 made them a lot slower. It is kids ipads so I couldn’t care less about snappiness, but for my taste they are unusably slow. I kind of regret updating.

Appreciate the feedback. I’d prefer not to turn it into a ~$400 paperweight (including case) the same day I bought it.
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Dec 27, 2020
1,330
2,523
Sydney, Australia
Yes. I was expecting it to come with iPadOS 18, and I was going to downgrade it to iPadOS 17.7 with the IPSW.

Should I leave it on iPadOS 16? Or should I upgrade it to 17.7 before Apple stops signing it? What a dilemma.
iPadOS 16 is perfect for my usages. I particularly like that Airdrop doesn't force-open an app, as it does in 17. I haven't updated my M1 iPad Pro.
 
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ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,546
1,566
Appreciate the feedback. I’d prefer not to turn it into a ~$400 paperweight (including case) the same day I bought it.
ok so did more thorough testing, as i happened to have one on 16.2 vs 17.2.1.

Geekbench: ios 17 got couple percent better results.
Antutu: 890K vs 898K with ios 16 leading.
antutu shown interesting results. Ios 16 take the lead in all cpu and hardware tests, while ios 17 was faster in Uix.
Speedometer: 3.0 were not able to run on ios 16. Speedometer 2.1 - ios 17 is by 40 pts faster.

Multi app open test. They were on par most of the time. Once loaded with a bunch of equal software, ios 17 glitched 2 times opening apps but showing white window. Eventually they did open after 10 seconds. While nothing similar on ios 16.

App library page always lags with ios 17 while never on ios 16 - given midst and end of the test when RAM is full of open apps. Pressing home button led to a little bit of jittery closure animation on ios 17 and a little bit slower. Reopening the apps were the same from memory.

Safari tabs reopen were the same. Ios 17 greyed out the web page icons but reopening or reloading was on par with ios 16 - just the icons loss until tab is active.

Overall, my impressions carried over from day 1 of an update. Days later, ios 17 feels OK but still less so than ios 16.

Went to update 17.2.1 with 17.7 cause have nothing to lose on that one. The one with ios 16.2 will remain on it.
 
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AlanMarron

macrumors regular
Jan 31, 2023
150
262
Why not update to iPadOS 18?

I have my gen9 on 18.1PB, and after letting it “learn” the OS, the only sluggishness that I notice is copy/paste. I don’t demand that all my devices use the same generation of OS, but prefer it when they do.
 
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sdfox7

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Jan 30, 2022
291
181
USA
I bit the bullet and upgraded to 17.7. 17.7.1 will be out next week. Also turned off automatic OS downloads/updates.

-Improved lock screen customizability vs iPadOS 16

-Stage Manager and PDF improvements vs iPadOS 16

-iPad 9 will not benefit from most iPadOS 18 enhancements like AI. I only see extra overhead (requires 3GB RAM vs 2GB for iPadOS 17).

-We don't have a lot of data on how iPadOS 18 runs on the 9th, or if it will run like a dog by the end of 18's lifetime. There is no way to downgrade from iPadOS 18 and up to iPadOS 17 once iPadOS 17 is unsigned by Apple.

-We don't know how much longer app support will exist on 16. Most iPadOS 16 devices support iPadOS 17 so if I'm going to stay outdated after iPadOS 17 I'd rather be on a one-year-newer OS:

The devices dropped with 17: iPhone 8 and iPhone X, iPad 5, 2016 iPad Pro 2016 9.7, 2015 iPad Pro 12.9. The iPhone X and iPad Pros were revolutionary (subjective) and it's unlikely these owners would not have upgraded their devices once the successors came out. Which leads me to believe fewer of these devices may still be in the wild excluding resold devices.
 
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