Rumor: These iPhones and iPads may not get the iOS 17 update

Apple may drop software support for a number of iPhones and iPads when iOS 17 is released later this year. Find out if your device made it to the list.

In case you missed it, the Cupertino company will release reveal iOS 17 at WWDC 23 on June 5th. While beta testers may gain early access to the latest iteration of the operating system, the stable version of iOS 17 will only be rolled out in September this year, when Apple unveils the iPhone 15 line up.

The news was first reported by Macrumours, and comes from a source who has a reliable track record for reporting about iOS updates.

Rumored list of iPhones and iPads that won't get the iOS 17 update

• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone X
• iPad (5th gen)
• 9.7-inch iPad Pro (1st gen)
• 12.9-inch iPad Pro (1st gen)

Removing support for older phones isn't particularly new, each year Apple does the same when it ditches a handful of legacy devices. For reference, When iOS 16 was released, Apple ended support for the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE (1st gen), and the iPod touch (7th gen).  Coming back to the list of devices that won't be updated to iOS 17, some people may view this as a forced upgrade, but is it? The oldest one in the list is the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 1st gen, which was announced in 2015. The next oldest device is the 9.7-inch iPad Pro 1st gen from 2016. All the other devices, i.e., the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X and the iPad (5th gen) were launched in 2017. Now, that list doesn't look particularly bad, does it?

Aside from the larger iPads which were supported for 8 and 7 years respectively, the other iPhones and iPad received 6 years of iOS upgrades. I'd say that is actually pretty impressive if we take Android OS upgrades into account, which usually range from 2 to 3 years, except for Samsung's Galaxy S series phones which will get 4 major Android OS upgrades. Even Google's record isn't exactly stellar, as it only provides OS updates for 3 years, and security updates for a total of 5 years.

Just because Apple won't provide the iOS 17 update doesn't necessarily mean the end of life for a device. The company occasionally releases security updates for old devices to keep users safe from vulnerabilities. The most recent example would be the iOS 12.5.7 update that was released in January 2023 for the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th gen). The update patched a remote code execution issue that hackers could have exploited to run malicious code on a user's device.

It is also worth noting that all iPhones and iPads that have a chipset from A5 to A11 have a major bootrom security vulnerability that has been called "checkm8". The iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X are equipped with an A11 chipset, the iPad 5th gen has an A9 chip and the other 2 iPads have an A9X chipset. The risk cannot be patched via a software update, since it is a ROM (Read-only memory) vulnerability. The exploit is quite commonly used to jailbreak iOS and iPadOS devices.

So, it looks like my iPad 5th gen won't get the iOS 17. Do you have a device that won't get the update?

Rumor: These iPhones and iPads may not get the iOS 17 update