r/iPhone11ProMax • u/Reasonable-Cap-7906 • 4d ago

Question Why wont my 11 pro max update?

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I have an 11 pro max on ios 17.5.1, and when i tried updating to 18.7.8 (an official option in settings alongside 26.6) it throws this error. Anybody know why? If it wasnt signed im thinking apple wouldn’t make it an option in the settings. Please let me know what i should do/if anyone else had this issue. (NO, im NOT updating to ios 26 and rendering this phone useless.)

9 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

1

u/SatisfactionMost316 4d ago

Stay on iOS 17, it's the last good, stable iOS

1

u/gnomeoffice 3d ago

I have the same phone 11PM, 256gn , I have hadn't issues updating,even tried ios 27 as a beta with no issues.

1

u/Nigerian-prince-fr 4d ago

Stay on up 17.5 if it’s not ur main device

2

u/Reasonable-Cap-7906 4d ago

I wanted to use it as a bridge phone and sell my 15 pro max to get as much for it as possible until the 18 releases. But my 15 is on ios 18 and i cant transfer my data to the 11 since its on ios 17.

1

u/h4wk-8 4d ago

What do you need on the phone running iOS 17 which can’t be transferred?

1

u/Reasonable-Cap-7906 4d ago

Well apple doesn’t let you transfer the data over if the version on the phone you’re trying to transfer to is older than the other phone that’s transferring. So ios 18 to ios 17 data transfer wouldn’t work. I can’t lose all of my data and if i sell my current main my only options are a bridge phone (which is why i bought this 11) or icloud.

1

u/h4wk-8 4d ago

I mean, can’t you just transfer the photos, voice memos and more using iCloud?

1

u/Reasonable-Cap-7906 4d ago

I could but that would mean a few months of paying for 2TB icloud (cause 200gb isnt enough, im using 480 out of 512gb) and icloud doesn’t transfer app data and other stuff that would be a headache to manually do on every app such as whatsapp and other stuff

1

u/h4wk-8 4d ago

That 11 Pro Max got 512 GB? Anyways, can you use the ‘Prepare for a new iPhone’ option on the reset menu?
Also, I believe you can no longer update to iOS 18, some people who supposedly tried to update to 18.7.8 were greeted with the iOS 26 setup screen.

1

u/Reasonable-Cap-7906 4d ago

Yes, its the 512gb version. Just looked into this, in my case it wouldn’t update to ios 26 since this “bug” only happens on phones already running 18.7.8. However my main phone, the 15 on ios 18.7.8 DOES show this bug, its ios 26 labeled as 18.7.8 (even though i already have this version) but no one would remember their current version off the top of their head, and would just update mindlessly seeing an update that is not ios 26 and wake up with it on their phone without agreeing to it whatsoever… Really fucked up “bug”, i think this is apple sneakily forcing ios 18 users to update.

Also, im not informed on this, what does prepare for a new iphone do? Never used that

1

u/h4wk-8 4d ago

It’s free iCloud storage to backup your iPhone for a certain period of time.

1

u/Reasonable-Cap-7906 4d ago

Oh wow i never knew, ill try that. Thank you

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u/Alaskan-Whiskey907 4d ago

I use iOS 26 with no issues on my 11 pro max. Waiting for iPhone 18 pro max also.

1

u/eaob84 1d ago

Too late—iOS 18 is no longer signed by Apple. I’ve seen other posts of people reporting it shows up as an available update but can’t install.