Is It Really Necessary To Always Update Your iOS? We Asked Apple Experts

Be honest: how many times do you see a pop-up that tells you it’s time to upgrade your iOS software – and how often do you ignore it? Pausing everything to update iOS means losing time that you could be spending on your phone, we get it. But you might be wondering how important it is to keep software current. If you’re on the fence about saving upgrades for another day, here’s the bottom line on whether it’s really necessary to always update your iOS.

Sure, you can stall on updates and maybe nothing bad will happen to your phone and your data. But there’s a much greater chance that you’ll be vulnerable to issues if you ignore updates.

“When you don’t update your iOS, you are putting yourself in a risky situation,” says Michael Jan Baldicana, SEO and Technical Content Specialist with Dream Chasers. “You are risking losing all your data and apps in case the device gets damaged or stolen. And if you don’t have backups for all your data, then you risk losing everything. If you don’t update your iOS, your device will be unable to run at its best capacity and you might experience slow performance or even problems with some apps. If you’re still using an older version of iOS, then you need to update your device as soon as possible to avoid any potential problems.”

If you want to be on top of things, then updating your iOS should be one of your priorities, Baldicana stresses. “There are many benefits of keeping it updated such as better performance, improved security and bug fixes,” Baldicana says. “These updates are important for the user to reap the benefits of a more stable and secure operating system.”

Wondering what specific features you’re missing out on when you fail to keep your software current? Here’s a rundown of some of the most note-worthy ones:

The first thing that will occur when you don’t update your iOS is that the performance of your device will slow down,” says SEO Expert Emma Jones. “Yes, I know you might be thinking that this is just a myth but it is true.”