Apple pauses iPadOS 18 rollout for M4 iPad Pro after bricking complaints

Enlarge / iPads running iPadOS 18. (credit: Apple)

Apple has temporarily paused the rollout of the iPadOS 18 update for M4 iPad Pros. The company has stopped signing the update for these iPads, meaning it will no longer be offered to users when they check, and Apple’s servers won’t activate the update if it’s installed some other way.

The update has supposedly been “bricking” devices for some M4 iPad Pro users; anecdotal reports from Reddit and MacRumors forum users suggest that some users have installed the update without issue, and others have ended up with unresponsive devices. Apple is apparently offering hardware replacements to users who have been affected, which points to a pretty serious bug—usually devices can be put into recovery (or DFU) mode as a last resort in the event of a botched software update.

Some people affected by the problem reported that they installed the iPadOS 17.7 update first and then attempted to install iPadOS 18.0. The 17.7 update is provided primarily as a security update for people who aren’t ready to upgrade to an entirely new version of iPadOS just yet, and the 17.7 to 18.0 upgrade path may not have been tested as thoroughly as the 17.6 to 18.0 upgrade.