Final technology upgrade

I now have a new iPad (pictured during unboxing yesterday) to replace my iPad Air from 2013, which was struggling more and more with Apps (and speed…), and no longer received iPad OS updates (I’ll come back to that). I got a 2021 (9th Generation) 256GB wifi silver one (I only use my iPad at home or places with wifi, so the cellular option—and the added cost—wasn’t necessary).

I realised as much as a year ago that my iPad was going slow on some new Apps, and in recent months, there were some it wouldn’t open correctly—or even at all. Over the past year, I’ve been modernising my tech so I’ll be sorted for a few years, and this was the last thing to upgrade. I figured a new iPad might last me nearly a decade, too—now I understand what a bad idea that is.

Apple makes it really easy to transfer settings, Apps, etc., to a new similar device if the two devices are close to each other and have Bluetooth turned on. I easily transferred my basic settings—Apple ID, home wifi settings, that sort of thing—from my Air to the new iPad—and then I hit a major problem.

It turns out that to transfer Apps and their data, the original iPad has to be running iPadOS 14 or above: The iPad Air runs 12.5.5. Next option was to restore from an iCloud backup, but I stopped those because I kept running out of space (I later upgraded iCloud). I could, it said, back it up to a desktop Mac using iTunes—which was discontinued years ago. No problem, I thought, I could do a manual local backup using the desktop App for Apple Music, the same way I make a manual backup of my phone. The Air wouldn’t load (I even tried different cables, “just in case”).

I thought about checking an old MacBook I have to see if it still had iTunes, but I thought it’d be easier just to do an iCloud backup of the old one, then have the new one access that. Easy?

It took a few attempts, and more than an hour, to get the backup (it was from scratch, of course). Then there were issues getting the new iPad to download everything from the backup. By around midnight, only a few Apps were downloaded, and most were grayed out with “Waiting…” underneath. I went to bed.

This morning, everything seemed to be there—and 35 Apps needed updates, but they were at least there (some of those updates are necessary because the new iPad is running the current OS). Later in the day, that number expanded to 75 Apps needing updating (they’re all up-to-date now).

The moral of the story is that waiting nearly a decade to upgrade a piece of technology is probably not a good idea, particularly when it’s part of a closed ecosystem. However, I only had the iPad for around four years: It was Nigel’s, and he gave it to me because he didn’t use it, and it was better than the one I had at the time (Second Gen, I think it was—it had also been Nigel’s, as was the one before that, which is now in a box).

Over the past year, I’ve replaced all of my main devices: Desktop Mac, phone, and tablet (I replaced my MacBook in 2019). The iPad is also the first brand-new one I’ve ever had.

I now realise that if I’m lucky, I might get five years out of any of those devices, maybe. However, as the Right to Repair movement gains speed (along with regulations mandating it), it may become easier to upgrade in the years ahead. Maybe.

I obviously haven’t had much of a chance to use the new iPad yet, but I’ve definitely noticed how much more quick and responsive it is—and how much lighter. But getting to this point was definitely a much bigger job than I anticipated.

Still, I’m glad that final tech thing is now taken care of, and I can relax for a few years—I hope.

This is a revised and extended version of something I posted to my personal Facebook this morning.