Apple says iOS 14 security updates will last forever

Apple pointed us to a support page posted in September 2021 that mentions that iOS 14 is receiving updates for a “period of time”as evidence that iOS 14 security updates were always meant to be a short-term offer. The lack of specifics in this notice is not addresses our main complaint about Apple’s lack of timelines and security transparency, but we’ve updated the article accordingly.

Original story: When iOS 15 was first introduced, Apple announced that the update would not be mandatory for people who want to stick with iOS 14. The new operating system will still be offered on every device it can run, but iOS 14 will continue receive security updates so that people are not left vulnerable just because they were happy with the performance and stability of the OS they were already running.

But last week, 9to5Mac and others noticed that the iOS 14.8.1 update was no longer offered for phones running iOS 14. The only update option was the latest version of iOS 15, currently 15.2.1. We have confirmed to Apple that this is not a bug; iOS 14 is no longer being updated, and anyone who wants the latest security updates will also need to accept the other changes in iOS 15.

Apple told Ars that it always assumed the iOS 14 security update option would be temporary. Basically, people might have a short grace period while Apple fixes the worst of the new operating system’s early bugs, but you’ll always end up having to update to stay on the fix.

The features page for iOS 15 simply states that users can “continue to use iOS 14 and still receive important security updates”without mentioning any time limits, although this support page published after the release of iOS 15 does mention The iOS 14 security update will only be available for an indefinite “period of time.”This approach is inconsistent with the way Apple treats macOS, where the two previous versions of the OS continue to receive security updates (however imperfect) in sync with the latest version of macOS.

There was also precedent when Apple took a long time to update an old version of iOS, namely iOS 12, which received security updates throughout the lifecycle of iOS 13 and iOS 14. The difference is that iOS 12 was the last version of the OS that could run on multiple iDevices, including the iPhone 5S, 6 and 6 Plus, and the original iPad Air and iPad mini 2 and 3. All devices that can run iOS 14 can be updated to iOS 15. Presumably the next time an iOS update drops support for a number of devices, Apple will also be more generous with the security update schedule.

And that brings us back to the core issue with Apple’s security update policy – the lack of transparency, predictability, and communication. Giving iOS 14 users the option to stay safe before eventually pushing them to iOS 15 actually seems like a reasonable compromise, allowing users to skip the bugs that come with any brand new iOS update, while still giving developers the benefits of a large, unified platform. where you can reasonably assume that most people use the same OS version.

But Apple should have been clearer about the limited time window for this strategy if that was the intention from the start. Users of older hardware and software don’t have to guess, based on past precedent and reading tea leaves, whether their devices will still be secure because they don’t (or can’t) run the latest OS version. For example, it seems that support for iOS 12 has ended since its last update was in September 2021 and Apple has released several new iOS updates since then, but without an actual announcement, all we can do is speculate.

Apple loves to keep secrets and hates to talk publicly about its plans for the future. But these are all mature operating systems with established update patterns. For the sake of the people who use this hardware and software, and the developers and administrators who maintain Apple devices in the real world, a little more transparency would go a long way. And we’ll keep saying this until Apple gives it to us.