While Apple is finally starting to push people to update<\/a> to iOS 26, you don\u2019t need to go along with the crowd. Obviously, you can disable automatic updates to put on the brakes, but it won\u2019t be long before Apple starts sending push notifications and red badges, encouraging you to update.<\/p>\n Luckily, there\u2019s a secret trick to hide those and make sure your phone stays on iOS 18 for as long as you like.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n Stop the iOS 26 update and stay on 18<\/p>\n Apple rolls out its major software updates incrementally. On release day, you can manually download and install an iOS update from Settings. About a month later, Apple starts recommending the update by default when you go to your iPhone<\/a>\u2018s Software Update screen. The final stage is when Apple begins sending notifications and badges urging people to install the new version.\u00a0<\/p>\n This can be frustrating if you don\u2019t want the update, but there\u2019s a trick to make sure your phone never gets it. And even if you don\u2019t update to iOS 26, you\u2019ll still get a few years of security updates on whatever version of iOS you stay on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Granted, you can\u2019t delay forever \u2014 when you replace your iPhone, it\u2019ll come with the new version. And after a while, apps and features might start to break or stop updating on older versions of iOS.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, here\u2019s how to avoid iOS 26<\/a> and Liquid Glass<\/a> until you\u2019re ready for the update.<\/p>\n Table of contents: How to stop your iPhone from updating to iOS 26<\/p>\n Change your iPhone\u2019s update settings<\/a> Change your iPhone\u2019s update settings If you want to avoid updating to iOS 26, the first thing you need to do is turn off automatic updates. Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates. Switch off the setting at the top that automatically installs iOS Updates. Then, turn off the other setting for automatically downloading iOS Updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, to be on the safe side, you can leave the middle setting on to install Security Responses & System Files. According to Apple, system files will \u201cimprove iPhone functionality without changing the software version.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Switch to the iOS 18 beta Now for the sneaky part, where you stop the iOS 26 update dead in its tracks. Go back to Software Update, then tap Beta Updates. (If this option doesn\u2019t appear, open this link to enroll in the Apple Beta Software Program<\/a>. Then tap Start your enrollment, sign in using your Apple Account, and agree to the terms. After that, you should be able to see the \u201cBeta Updates\u201d section in Software Update.)<\/p>\n In\u00a0Beta Updates, you\u2019ll see three options: Off, iOS 26 Developer Beta and iOS 18 Developer Beta. Tap\u00a0iOS 18 Developer Beta. Switching to this beta track means Apple will never present an iOS 26 update to you.<\/p>\n You might see a warning that your iOS 26.1 download will be deleted. That\u2019s exactly what you want. If you see this, tap OK.\u00a0<\/p>\n Install iOS 18 updates<\/p>\n Finally, go back to Software Update and you\u2019ll see the iOS 26 update replaced by an iOS 18 update. Or, you might see nothing at all. Feel free to install these security updates to iOS 18.<\/p>\n Congratulations \u2014 you\u2019ve stopped the iOS 26 update, and you\u2019re free of Liquid Glass (at least on your iPhone).<\/p>\n New features in iOS 26<\/p>\n If you\u00a0do end up updating to iOS 26, you can check out some of its new features here:<\/p>\n D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster<\/a> and video producer<\/a> for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC \u2014 but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn\u2019t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early \u201980s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not ready to take a gamble on iOS 26? You can stop an iOS update in its tracks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[49,48,10522,3692,12598,191,1575,149569,11180,190,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-342338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-how-to","11":"tag-ios","12":"tag-ios-18","13":"tag-ios-26","14":"tag-iphone","15":"tag-iphone-how-to","16":"tag-liquid-glass","17":"tag-mobile","18":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSwitch to the iOS 18 beta<\/a>
\nInstall iOS 18 updates<\/a>
\niOS 26 features<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"Disabling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Disable-Automatic-Updates-1440x1359.jpg\" "\\"Disable")
<\/a>Disable downloading and installing updates automatically.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones\/Cult of Mac<\/p>\n
\n![\"Switching](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Stop-iOS-Update-Developer-Beta-1440x1359.jpg\" "\\"Stop")
<\/a>Make sure you never even see iOS 26.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones\/Cult of Mac<\/p>\n<\/p>\n