Technologies9: How to update iOS 9 Operating System on my iPhone

Update to iOS 9 Operating System on my iPhone/iPad/iPod

iOS is the operating system software that runs on iPad, iPhone and iPod. It is a inbuilt framework that organises, launches and runs other apps, and can perform a number of features of its own. iOS 9 is the newest update to iOS, and launched officially to the public on 16 September 2015.

If you've got an iPhone 4s (or later), an iPad 2 (or later), either of the iPad mini models, or a fifth-gen iPod touch, your device is officially rated as iOS 9-compatible, and you can update to iOS 9 for free. 

 When you update your device to iOS 9 you will automatically get the most recent version that is available.

How to update to iOS 9: Which iPhones & iPads can get iOS 9?

Essentially, if your iPhone is an iPhone 4S or later, if your iPad is an iPad 2 or later (or an iPad mini or later) and your iPod touch is fifth-gen, you're safe - Apple has confirmed that all of those devices support iOS 9. Needless to say, the new iPhones - the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus - and the new iPad Pro will all come with iOS 9 pre-installed, so you won't need to worry about updating those devices to iOS 9.

We feel compelled to point out that devices on the borderline - the somewhat older iPhones and iPads that only just make it on the list - have in the past often struggled to run new software effectively. The iPhone 4s was the oldest iPhone that was allowed to run iOS 8, but lots of users found that it slowed down as soon as the installed the new software. iPhone 4 owners had a similarly negative experience when they upgraded to iOS 7.

These devices were powerful enough to run the new version of iOS - but only just. And you don't want to be in that position. We therefore used to advise people not to update their iPhones and iPads if they were at the older end of the list of compatible devices. It's generally very hard to downgrade from one version of iOS back to the previous one.

That said, normally iOS gets more and more demanding to run each year; but Apple claims iOS 9 isn't just level with iOS 8, it's actually less demanding. In other words, devices that were starting to run a little slowly with iOS 8 may even speed up when upgraded to iOS 9.