Is ios 15 no longer supported? I see that apple did not do a 15.8.1 when they released the other updates this week. So is it dead?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Ios 15 no longer supported?
- Thread starter wellander1
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
iOS 15 is still supported, Apple supports the 3 most current releases along with MacOS. It's also the final version for several devices so will likely be supported for several years as is iOS 12.
Not every iOS version receives a monthly update depending on the vulnerabilities identified. iOS 12 tends to receive a yearly update now that it is 5 years old.
Not every iOS version receives a monthly update depending on the vulnerabilities identified. iOS 12 tends to receive a yearly update now that it is 5 years old.
Source?
I'm 99,99% sure iOS 12 is unsupported.
iOS 12 went nearly a year without an update. We will have to see if there's another update in the next few weeks to know "for sure". Of course Apple's support policy is unpublished and ambiguous to say the least.
I have found many apps in the App Store that still support iOS 12. There are plenty of iPhone 5S, iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, and iPod Touch (6th generation) still out in the wild.
I know A LOT of people who gave their old iPhones and iPads to their young kids for YouTube. And Roblox only requires iOS 11.
I have found many apps in the App Store that still support iOS 12. There are plenty of iPhone 5S, iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, and iPod Touch (6th generation) still out in the wild.
I know A LOT of people who gave their old iPhones and iPads to their young kids for YouTube. And Roblox only requires iOS 11.
People vastly overestimate the impact of being on an outdated iOS version. The vast majority of popular apps support iOS 12, because even if you can’t install their latest versions, they work flawlessly.
I don't mean to be rude or anything like that, but there are a lot of apps on Google Play Store that require Android 4 and it hasn't been supported for ages.
As far as I remember, many apps supported iOS 9 too, but the OS itself didn't get any updates either. The fact that apps are being supported on iOS 12 doesn't mean that the OS itself is receiving any updates anymore.
I asked the same question awhile ago and I'm surprised that iOS 12 was supported for longer than iOS 15. We can only make assumptions, but I am certain that iOS 12 won't receive any updates.
For devices that are on iOS 12 but support newer versions this has no impact though, I have my iPhone Xʀ and my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12 and I can’t install these new updates to iOS 12 even if Apple were to release them; however, app compatibility is far more relevant.
I would not call incidental security updates for older version of iOS “support of that iOS”. For all intents and purposes, Apple only supports any given iOS version for 12 months. Past that, no more active support (feature update, security update, bug fixes) from Apple. You are either stuck at whatever version latest available or need to update to still receive active support from Apple.
I don’t know the real purpose of “leaving out iOS 15” for this particular security update, but iOS 15 is out of active support just like iOS 12. I would call both iOS versions “unsupported by Apple”.
I don’t know the real purpose of “leaving out iOS 15” for this particular security update, but iOS 15 is out of active support just like iOS 12. I would call both iOS versions “unsupported by Apple”.
The release candidate has just been released. The public release should be out any day now.
Releases - Apple Developer
Get the latest operating system releases and learn about updates to App Store Connect, TestFlight, and other developer tools.
A security vulnerability / security bug is a thing that attackers can use to hack your device. Programmers are bound to make mistakes, and so software is bound to have vulnerabilities. There were 22 listed for iOS 17.1 and 12 listed for 17.2. If you look over all of the security content notes in the past year of the most recent iOS version at the time, it's about 10 a month. The kind of things the hackers can do after exploiting a chain of vulnerabilities - reading your text messages, getting your location, exfiltrating your bitcoin wallet private key, etc.
There are unknown (to Apple) vulnerabilities. If Apple don't know about them, it cannot be fixed. Once the use of an unknown vulnerability is picked up by researchers, they are reported to Apple and it gets fixed. These are like trade secrets. The attacker keeps them in small scales to prevent them from being detected. So attackers use them only on the most valuable targets. It is strongly suspected that Jamal Khashoggi (location tracked and communication leak) and Jeff Bezos (text message leak) were targeted by this kind of vulnerability. So even staying on the latest iOS release won't protect you completely if you're super high value.
Because known vulnerabilities are already known and to be fixed quickly, and most people would have automatic updates on, the attackers no longer need to keep these vulnerability in secret. To extract the maximum amount of profit, known vulnerabilities get sold on common exploit marketplaces and becomes very cheaply accessible very quickly. The attacker will deploy these as early and as widely as possible to catch people who have not applied an update to make any money there is to be made before the door shuts (the vulnerable population gets smaller over time, as people apply updates or purchase new devices).
The latest iOS release is supported with the highest priority. If you are worried, then stay on the latest iOS.
An update may not fix all known vulnerabilities. That means after an update, your device can still be vulnerable. Sometimes security fixes simply get delayed or skipped entirely. This is typical for older iOS releases.
Apple seems to designate a few versions of iOS for continued support (usually the last release on some of its models). So far, based on speculator observations, these are iOS 12, 15, and 16. The level of support from Apple is up for debate, but one thing is for sure - this level of support cannot compare with the latest iOS version. Initially, Apple still fixes most of the known vulnerabilities in regular cadence coinciding with the latest iOS. At some point, the level of support drops drastically, where Apple only fixes 1 out of the 10 or so known vulnerabilities each month (mostly WebKit, because Safari is a system-level component that cannot be updated through the App Store). For example, the last meaningful update with non-WebKit vulnerabilities fixed to iOS 12 is iOS 12.5.5 from September 2021.
iOS 16 is still getting very meaningful fixes at the moment. But the last few security content of iOS 15 since 15.7.9 has been quite thin. From this observation, I think iOS 15 has been dropped to low effort support. If that were true, then iOS 15 would receive 1 less year of security support compared to iOS 12. That would cancel out the extra update to iOS 15 the iPhone 6s/7 got when it was speculated to stop at iOS 14, so 6s/7 would get roughly the same amount of security support as 5s/6 over their entire respective life.
You should continue seeing a few updates a year for iOS 15 for WebKit for the next year maybe two. But those don't keep you entirely safe.
There is no functional problem with using an older device / OS. Most software will continue to work. It is simply a matter of how much you worry about the security of your devices. If you're Jeff Bezos or Jamal Khashoggi, I would not recommend keeping your 6s as your daily driver no matter how much you love 3D touch.
There are unknown (to Apple) vulnerabilities. If Apple don't know about them, it cannot be fixed. Once the use of an unknown vulnerability is picked up by researchers, they are reported to Apple and it gets fixed. These are like trade secrets. The attacker keeps them in small scales to prevent them from being detected. So attackers use them only on the most valuable targets. It is strongly suspected that Jamal Khashoggi (location tracked and communication leak) and Jeff Bezos (text message leak) were targeted by this kind of vulnerability. So even staying on the latest iOS release won't protect you completely if you're super high value.
Because known vulnerabilities are already known and to be fixed quickly, and most people would have automatic updates on, the attackers no longer need to keep these vulnerability in secret. To extract the maximum amount of profit, known vulnerabilities get sold on common exploit marketplaces and becomes very cheaply accessible very quickly. The attacker will deploy these as early and as widely as possible to catch people who have not applied an update to make any money there is to be made before the door shuts (the vulnerable population gets smaller over time, as people apply updates or purchase new devices).
The latest iOS release is supported with the highest priority. If you are worried, then stay on the latest iOS.
An update may not fix all known vulnerabilities. That means after an update, your device can still be vulnerable. Sometimes security fixes simply get delayed or skipped entirely. This is typical for older iOS releases.
Apple seems to designate a few versions of iOS for continued support (usually the last release on some of its models). So far, based on speculator observations, these are iOS 12, 15, and 16. The level of support from Apple is up for debate, but one thing is for sure - this level of support cannot compare with the latest iOS version. Initially, Apple still fixes most of the known vulnerabilities in regular cadence coinciding with the latest iOS. At some point, the level of support drops drastically, where Apple only fixes 1 out of the 10 or so known vulnerabilities each month (mostly WebKit, because Safari is a system-level component that cannot be updated through the App Store). For example, the last meaningful update with non-WebKit vulnerabilities fixed to iOS 12 is iOS 12.5.5 from September 2021.
iOS 16 is still getting very meaningful fixes at the moment. But the last few security content of iOS 15 since 15.7.9 has been quite thin. From this observation, I think iOS 15 has been dropped to low effort support. If that were true, then iOS 15 would receive 1 less year of security support compared to iOS 12. That would cancel out the extra update to iOS 15 the iPhone 6s/7 got when it was speculated to stop at iOS 14, so 6s/7 would get roughly the same amount of security support as 5s/6 over their entire respective life.
You should continue seeing a few updates a year for iOS 15 for WebKit for the next year maybe two. But those don't keep you entirely safe.
There is no functional problem with using an older device / OS. Most software will continue to work. It is simply a matter of how much you worry about the security of your devices. If you're Jeff Bezos or Jamal Khashoggi, I would not recommend keeping your 6s as your daily driver no matter how much you love 3D touch.
Last edited:
iOS 15 will most likely receive its final update this fall shortly after iOS 18 is released. This would be consistent with iOS 13 and iOS 14. Apple "usually" only supports the current version (N) plus the previous two versions (N - 2)
Despite iOS 16/17 being released, iOS 15 has continued to receive support due to the vast amount of legacy devices that cannot run iOS 16/17. This is similar to iOS 12 which was supported from 2018 through 2023.
I would guess iOS 16 will be supported through Fall 2025 or Fall 2026, since that was also the final version for devices like iPhone 8.
Final updates
iOS 13 September 2020
iOS 14 October 2021
iOS 15 September/October 2024??
Yes but 13 and 14 supported the same devices this is different as 15 is the end of line of some models.
Correct, that's what I wrote above. "Despite iOS 16/17 being released, iOS 15 has continued to receive support due to the vast amount of legacy devices that cannot run iOS 16/17. This is similar to iOS 12 which was supported from 2018 through 2023."
The continued "support" for iOS 15 is contingent on how many devices are still running it, which based on StatCounter is only ~3.5%. Only Apple knows the actual number of devices, and I am sure they will take that into account when deciding when to drop support.
I stand by my belief iOS 15 support will end this fall. When iOS 18 is released Apple will be supporting iOS 16 (iPhone 8 etc), 17, and 18 all at the same time. I assume the iPhone XS/XR, released with iOS 12 (!) will not get iOS 18 so they would continue to get iOS 17 updates.
If this holds true Apple would be supporting 3 iOS versions at the same time, which is the same support model they use for MacOS (N - 2).
If they continue to support iOS 15 they would have to maintain 4 iOS versions concurrently which I find highly unlikely.
The iPhone 6S/7/SE are fantastic phones but they are coming up on almost 10 years so despite how usable they are I don't think Apple will want to support them any longer. This doesn't mean they aren't usable--the iPhone 6 is still usable but many companies have dropped app support by now.
iOS 15 security update is already dead. The kernel, the system components, the built-in userspace programs, the modem, everything other than Safari is not going to get fixes.
iOS 16 and 17 are the the only versions getting the latest security fixes. If you are in IT, you should start enforcing iOS 16/17 in your management policies.
iOS 16 and 17 are the the only versions getting the latest security fixes. If you are in IT, you should start enforcing iOS 16/17 in your management policies.