Restoring iPad Pro forces iOS 26 upgrade?

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Level 1

4 points

Restoring iPad Pro forces iOS 26 upgrade?

My mother’s iPad screen had become intermittently responsive, so she bought a refurbished replacement (another 3rd gen; she’s not big on change) and asked me to transfer all her data. Everything seemed peachy until just after I told it I only wanted to download updates (not automatically update), when I hit a screen telling me to “upgrade to iOS 26”. I don’t want to upgrade to iOS 26. My mom, as mentioned, isn’t big on change; I’ve heard some very negative reviews of, among other things, Liquid Glass creating accessibility issues that would certainly crop up for her; and she’s about to leave the country and have limited internet access for several months. I am NOT getting into a situation where I’m troubleshooting some frustrating iOS bug over an international phone line. However, when I say “telling”, I mean it — there’s no “maybe later” or “cancel” options on this screen; the only button available is the “upgrade” button.

I backed out, started over, and told it I didn’t want to transfer data. That got the iPad functioning just fine with iOS 18 but now none of my mom’s data is on it.

Is this a glitch? Should I try again? Is there some way I can get her data onto the iPad without it updating to an OS I absolutely do not want?

Thanks for any help!

Posted on Oct 22, 2025 6:49 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

LotusPilot

Community+ 2025

Level 10

300,914 points

Oct 23, 2025 2:37 AM in response to dzlotnik

Now that you have successfully set-up the replacement iPad "as new" - without upgrading to iPadOS 26 - you should now be able to transfer data from the old iPad to the replacement without needing to upgrade to iPadOS 26.x. Having completed the initial setup, per your description, the replacement iPad should now be running iPadOS 18.7.1.

To do so, you simply need to erase the replacement iPad and restart the transfer process. You will find it helpful to have both iPads connected to their respective Power Adapters throughout the process - and ensure that both are unlocked.

On the replacement iPad, from settings:

Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad > Erase All Content & Settings

Once the erase process completes, the transfer should be offered while setting-up the iPad.

Be aware that remaining with iPadOS 18.x is only a temporary measure - as, sooner or later, security updates for this iPad will only be available for iPadOS 26. At this time, it will be highly advisable to upgrade to the latest version. With this in mind, given that you are remote from your mother, you might arguably be best advised to upgrade now - thus avoiding difficulties near future.

As for iPadOS 26 Liquid Glass, while this cannot be fully disabled, its effects can be hidden/minimised using Accessibility settings:

Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size >

Reduce Transparency
Increase Contrast

Enabling one or other (or both) of these settings will largely eliminate the visual effects of Liquid Glass.

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Answer 2

Ingo2711

Level 9

79,077 points

Oct 22, 2025 10:15 PM in response to dzlotnik

If you check for updates in Settings -> General -> Software Update on your iPad still running iPadOS 18, you should get the option to either install the latest iPadOS 18 update, or install iPadOS 26 as an upgrade, as explained in this article:

Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

You can only restore the new iPad from a backup of the old one, if the iPadOS version are at least the same, or the new iPad has a newer version installed. iPadOS 18.7.1 would be the newest version, if you do not want to upgrade to iPadOS 26.

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Answer 3

Oct 23, 2025 3:00 AM in response to dzlotnik

Additional...

When running iPadOS 26.x, you may also benefit from verifying that the Home Screen icons are set to display in their default (pre-upgrade) settings.

From any Home Screen, touch-and-hold any empty area of the screen. When the screen icons start to wobble, tap the Edit button seen at top-left of the iPad screen; this will open a menu.

From the menu, select Customise - this will open a new window at the bottom of the screen where you can customise various aspects of the screen appearance:

With the exception of the Customise title, every element within this window is a functional button - that changes an aspect of the window appearance.

The brightness/contrast button (top-left) is perhaps most subtle in its effect - noting that this button has two settings, this being indicated by an equally subtle appearance of the associated icon.

Selecting the Default button and setting the brightness/contrast buttons as shown here might (re)set the appearance to your accustomed settings.

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Answer 4

dzlotnik Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 23, 2025 7:43 AM in response to LotusPilot

I did the erase/transfer step on the newly setup iPad, but unfortunately it's still sending me to the same "no option but iOS26" screen. I cannot seem to get around it no matter what I do.

While I do take your point about needing this update someday, iOS 26 has only been out for a month at this point and has known issues, and my folks will be off the grid for potentially weeks at a time and unlikely to be able to download 4GB+ updates even when moored. I am not sticking them with a new-and-buggy OS that they can't fix until April.

Unless anyone has any other suggestions, I guess I'll have to go through the tedious business of getting all her apps, prefs, etc, moved by hand.

(The old iPad I'm trying to transfer data from is running an up-to-date version of iOS 18, for the record)

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Answer 5

Oct 23, 2025 3:01 AM in response to dzlotnik

< duplicate post removed >

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