Okay, now I’m ticked. Apple, in their infinite obsession with updating without positive consent, turned back on automatic OS updates on my spouse’s iPhone SE 2 and brought her up to iOS 26.2. We discovered this when certain things started acting in ways she didn’t expect and I checked it out. She’s not sure when it happened, but it was sometime in the past few weeks.
Is there any reasonable and safe way to get her back to iOS 18? She’s not happy with the changes, especially with how much slower it’s made her phone. Upgrading the device to something that can handle iOS 26 more easily isn’t a good option at this time.
I had no idea that Apple now offered spousal upgrades. Can I get a discount if I trade in my wife for a new one?
The slowdown should resolve itself over time. Immediately after an update there are background tasks running to complete the job. These are more obvious on older devices and/or those with less free space available for housekeeping.
I preferred the skeuomorphic spouse design to iOS 26’s Liquid Glass approach. If nothing else, it’s downright spooky to see the background of the room behind her.
I checked both of my iPads that could run iOS 26 after reading this, just to make sure they are not set to allow any automatic updates of anything. So far they are unscathed. We should not have to be so vigilant about this kind of thing.
