Will iPadOS 18 work on iPad 6th Generation?

Which kinda conflicts with other information:

Which devices can get it? All Apple smartphones from 2018's iPhone XS or newer can install iOS 18. All tablets from the 2018 iPad Pro, 2019 iPad Air (3rd gen), iPad mini (5th gen) or iPad (6th gen) and newer can install iPadOS 18. All Apple Watches from 2020's Series 6 or newer can install watchOS 11.

Sadly time to upgrade. My 6th gen has served me well, a bit short on storage at 32 MB but otherwise did everything I needed it to do. . Looking at the upgrade possibilities.. it seems a bit overwhelming.

Definitely will go for a minimum of 256. Reading your article confused about versions. Mine is Ver 6 but I see later models with versions 4 & 5 then there re also versions 9.. 14.

Not sure if purchasing for AI compatibility is important, quality of my screen on my ver 6 is more than adequate so don’t see a need for higher quality..

Too many choices….. but thanks for your advice

So I went with a iPad 10 and upgraded the storage. A few new things to get used to, but happy enough. Now if someone can tell me how to stop getting emails about responses, I would be done with this thread. EDIT: found it in preferences

Thank all for advice/comments

Cheers

Ralph

cx500d wrote:

Why? iPad 6 gen has the same processor as IPad 7 gen.

The 6th-generation iPad has an Apple A10 Fusion processor and 2 GB of RAM.

The 7th-generation iPad has an Apple A10 Fusion processor and 3 GB of RAM.

I have not done a comprehensive check of the MacTracker database, but it looks like all of the iPads that can run iPadOS 18 have at least 3 GB of RAM – with some having as much as 16 GB.

My iPad 6th gen has the option to run the public beta for iOS 18 and it has the same A10 Fusion chip as the iPad 7th gen, which is among the listed devices to get iOS 18, so why isn't the 6th gen iPad getting it?

TimpossibleOne wrote:

My iPad 6th gen has the option to run the public beta for iOS 18 and it has the same A10 Fusion chip as the iPad 7th gen, which is among the listed devices to get iOS 18, so why isn't the 6th gen iPad getting it?

Apple is not here, but a likely answer is simply that the 6th-generation iPad does not have enough RAM.

The 6th- and 7th-generation iPads may both have Apple A10 Fusion processors, but the 7th-generation iPad has 3 GB of RAM, and the 6th-generation one has only 2 GB of RAM. I have not done an exhaustive scan of MacTracker, but I believe that every iPhone and iPad that is compatible with production versions of iOS / iPadOS 18 has at least 3 GB of RAM. Some iPhones have as much as 8 GB of RAM, and some iPad Pros have as much as 16 GB.

Apple may have decided that iOS / iPadOS 18 would not run well in 2 GB of RAM – or that it was not worth limiting the features available to newer iPhones & iPads in order to support old devices with only 2 GB of RAM.

In any event, when Apple introduced the 6th-generation iPad in March 2018, it ran iOS 11.3. Since you can update that iPad to iPadOS 17, that means that Apple supported it with six major version updates.

Jvt1974 wrote:

Does this mean I’ll have to replace my 6th gen iPad if I want to keep using what’s on it?

For the most part, no.

Sometimes app vendors force you to upgrade to a new app, or a new version, to keep using a particular service at all. I've had that happen on a few occasions. If they do that, and the new app or new version is incompatible with your device, you'd be locked out of it.

For the most part, you can just keep using what you have. You just won't get the new features in the new version of iOS, or the ability to run new apps that require that version.

Eventually, Web standards may change enough that having an old version of Safari becomes an issue – but that typically would be several years down the road.

This is ridiculous. They just stopped sales of pro 6th March2024 and now it is already antique technology unable to be upgraded, but my wife's iPad pro 5th from 2 years earlier is still on the cusp of technological development and can be up graded to IOS 18

I have iPad6 and tried to download IOS 18 several times and I got “failed to download”. After deleting several apps and cleaning up pictures and messages I was able to download. I think I got to 19 - 20 GB used out of 32 and it worked. I plan to use iCloud to load apps back and any other space I need.

Pls ios 18 for me ioad 7

Does this mean I’ll have to replace my 6th gen iPad if I want to keep using what’s on it?