What's Up With the Excessive Updates?

IOwnTheWorld1994 wrote:

I'm getting sick and tired of all these weekly updates that are large in size. The most recent update was 400.5MB only to be notified that it's actually 11.09GB; forcing to delete and reinstall numerous apps. This is been occurring a lot lately and very annoying to say the least. What's up with that?

There is a lot of confusion in your post. First of all, there have been, nor has there ever been weekly updates. In fact, this year, iOS 26 has been one of the most stable iOS releases in memory. There are feature updates, which come out about every 6 - 8 weeks or so, like 26.1/26.2/26.3/26.4 and these have followed the pattern of iOS updates in years past. There are point updates, like 26.1.1, etc., which are usually bug fixes and there is no particular pattern to them, but certainly NOT weekly.

As to your comment about how much data an update is, the update itself may be a few hundred megabytes, but the iOS itself is far larger, like you've noted in the 11+ GB range. This is not unusual and is completely normal. But if you are having to remove things from your phone in order to accommodate an update, then you don't own a phone with enough memory to meet your storage needs in the first place. Once purchased, the memory on an iPhone is fixed and cannot be made larger. If you don't own a phone with enough available space, then yes, you have to delete things. And an iPhone without enough memory suffers from other issues, like things running slower or not at all. When you purchase your next iPhone, storage should be a bigger consideration. We always advise people to buy their phone with the most storage they can afford. You can never have too much storage, but you surely can have too little.

Cacy001 wrote:

I'm OK with updates that enhance security or performance, but a lot of what I see seems to be only for appearance, and I also see my phone getting filled up until it runs out of room. This phone belongs to me. I paid a lot money for it. I understand Apple's commitment to security and usefulness, but when the phone runs out of room I'm forced, and have been forced, to buy another one, a cycle of continuing expense, and for what? This has made me start wondering if there is a competitor that isn't so concerned with features that are merely attractive, but does keep up with security. Perhaps there is some product that is concerned more with basic functionality.

Updates DON'T cause an iPhone to run out of room. User data, causes a phone to run out of room. This wouldn't be any different no matter what brand cellphone you own. Updates overwrite the previous iOS version and usually don't take up much more space after the update indexes the data on your phone. But all the apps, emails, message, photos, music, files, cache and other system data do take up space, which when full, makes a phone less able to operate normally.

If you're running out of space, you cannot blame updates. Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage and look at what's using the most space on your iPhone. Delete things you don't need or use to free up space if you need space. And the next time you buy a call phone (Apple or otherwise), give more consideration to buying one with the most storage you can afford. With cell phones, once purchased, you can never make them hold more data than the amnount storage they came with.

IOwnTheWorld1994 wrote:

It's way too much and it did increase by that much. It showed as 400MB and then up to 11GB just to install which is ridiculous and now another patch has come out and now I have to delete all my apps just to clear enough space when we should be able to optimize storage and then it can do its job.

lkrupp is absolutely right. If you are having to offload apps, etc., in order to update your phone to include new features, bug fixes and security protection, then you own an iPhone which doesn't have enough memory to meet your needs. That's not Apple's fault. Updates will continue to come and this year, we've actually seen fewer updates than in past years. Likely because iOS 26 has been very stable. Before iOS 27 arrives in the fall, we'll surely see more updates if history repeats.

You either need to remove a lot of things from your phone, or buy a phone with enough storage to meet your storage needs. The operating system will continue to need more space as technology advances. And in the newest iPhone models, the lowest level of storage is 256GB. And that's not enough, in reality. I now buy my iPhone with 512GB. You should strive to maintain from 10GB-12GB of free space on your phone at all times.

I have to delete all my apps just to clear enough space when we should be able to optimize storage and then it can do its job.

Updating using a Mac or PC will only require a fraction of the storage space required if you are trying to update using the iPhone.

Might be worth a try.

Otherwise, your issue is that you have run out of storage space on your iPhone.

If security updates are not important to you. you can of course not update your iPhone.

Keep in mind the operating system along with its storage is replaced each time with the newer version. it does not add on, meaning it is not 11 GB bigger than the previous update.

Also if you haven't been catching up with the updates, to update to the latest version will require even more storage as it includes all the previous updates you missed.

When you say it was first 400 MB then 11 GB, that update did not increase by that much. What it's saying is that update is 400 MB and your iOS storage is 11 GB. That's pretty standard for what this update includes, bug fixes, security patches, and a few new features.

Your problem is that you have exhausted your storage capacity and that’s not Apple’s problem. You should seriously consider offloading data to an external storage device or cloud service. I’m surprised you aren’t experiencing other issues as well. iOS gets cranky if it doesn’t have enough space to do its thing, and so does Android, believe me.

Of course you have the option to stop applying updates. Settings->General->Software Updates->Automatic Updates->turn everything OFF.

these forums are user helping other users like yourself, it's sort of going

to a physical apple store and asking other customers their advice

his is a user helping users with tech questions forum, we are not apple and apple do not read your posts here

if you wish to complain to apple use their feedback channel

Product Feedback - Apple

if you wish to reach out to their official support channels to complain use

Get Support (apple.com)

And or

Contact - Official Apple Support

And or

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

Or

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

ios 26.4.1, 18.7.7 on April 1 and April 8 respectively. ios 26.4 on March 24.

You've listed 1 update for the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max series and 2 updates for the newer models.

That's not exactly what anyone would call weekly updates.

It's way too much and it did increase by that much. It showed as 400MB and then up to 11GB just to install which is ridiculous and now another patch has come out and now I have to delete all my apps just to clear enough space when we should be able to optimize storage and then it can do its job.

Install every third or second time they make one. I do it like this. They are just lazy and can’t work harder so patches were more accumulated. Instead they do annoying updates to show off how much they care. On android it was far worse, pop up blocking your screen.

Jewelsky wrote:

I find that Google updates their apps way too often. Sometimes less than 24 hours other times every 2 to 3 days. no other app updates as often as Google.

I would say Meta updates their apps just as often as Google if not more. Not a fan of either developer myself, just keeping it honest.

For example:

• Google Gmail has been updated 8 times in the last month
• Google Maps has been updated 12 times in the last month
• Google Photos has been updated 9 times in the last month
• Facebook has been updated 11 times in the last month
• Instagram has been updated 11 times in the last month
• WhatsApp has been updated 16 times in the last month

I'm OK with updates that enhance security or performance, but a lot of what I see seems to be only for appearance, and I also see my phone getting filled up until it runs out of room. This phone belongs to me. I paid a lot money for it. I understand Apple's commitment to security and usefulness, but when the phone runs out of room I'm forced, and have been forced, to buy another one, a cycle of continuing expense, and for what? This has made me start wondering if there is a competitor that isn't so concerned with features that are merely attractive, but does keep up with security. Perhaps there is some product that is concerned more with basic functionality.

How about if Apple start keeping a list of updates and features that are not necessary for security or performance, stuff that some people may think are interesting but not necessary for their use of the phone. We could maybe reject anything like that, as long as it isn't tied into security or performance, and maybe we could select and remove items we never use. I go through my phone occasionally removing apps I never use. Something like that. I used to be a programmer. I do realize that features that were not installed by the most recent update might not be removable without a lot of reprogramming. Maybe Apple could develop a very basic iPhone? Something useful for texting and telephone and little else.

Apple has never put out weekly updates.

Without saying what the updates are for, we otherwise can't make a suggestion.

ios 26.4.1, 18.7.7 on April 1 and April 8 respectively. ios 26.4 on March 24.

So you would rather Apple not patch security problems when they are found...

Gotcha.

For an official answer you need to ask Apple, but they do not participate in these user-to-user forums.

I find that Google updates their apps way too often. Sometimes less than 24 hours other times every 2 to 3 days. no other app updates as often as Google.

Define “excessive”…

Chris CA wrote:

Define “excessive”…

Hello ~ Don’t get me started…🤭🤭

~Katana-San~