iOS 26 is out, but a striking number of iPhone owners are hesitating to install it or are already looking for ways to roll back. Instead of the usual early rush, adoption is crawling as users trade stories of lag, heat, and battery drain. The pattern is clear: people are not just wary of change, they are reacting to a version of iOS that often makes their phones feel worse before it feels better.
From new visual effects to heavier background processing, iOS 26 pushes older and midrange iPhones hard, and the result is a release that many users are actively avoiding. I want to unpack why performance complaints are so widespread, what is actually happening under the hood, and which fixes work well enough to convince skeptical owners that upgrading is worth the trouble.
Early adopters are reporting lag, heat, and battery pain
The first thing slowing iOS 26 adoption is word of mouth from people who already upgraded and are not happy. On Apple’s own forums, one user describes a phone that suddenly feels warmer, with a noticeable Battery hit and sluggish response after installing the new software. That experience is framed as “exactly what you should be experiencing” right after a major update, which is not the reassurance most people want to hear when they are deciding whether to tap “Download and Install.” When early adopters describe a phone that feels like it is working harder just to keep up, others understandably wait on the sidelines.
Similar complaints show up in other community threads where users say their iPhone feels slow and laggy after the iOS 26 update, with some noting that the device runs hotter and that simple actions like opening Messages or Mail now stutter. One support reply lists several possible causes and stresses that There may be “several reasons” for the behavior, including storage pressure and background tasks. That nuance matters, but for someone deciding whether to upgrade, the headline is still that “Some of” the people who jumped in early are dealing with a phone that feels worse, not better, which is enough to stall the usual upgrade wave.
Liquid Glass and visual flair are punishing older hardware
Underneath those complaints is a design choice that hits older iPhones especially hard. iOS 26 leans into a new visual layer called Liquid Glass, which adds more fluid morphing effects, transparency, and motion across the interface. In practice, Liquid Glass has drawn criticism since Apple first showed it in early betas, because those animations and blur effects demand more from the GPU and CPU. On an iPhone 15 Pro, that extra work is barely noticeable. On an iPhone 11 or iPhone 12, it can turn unlocking the phone or swiping between apps into a stuttery experience.
Some of the most practical advice circulating now is not about embracing those visual upgrades but about turning them off. One popular walkthrough on YouTube walks through “The settings TO FIX” lag, then moves into segments literally labeled FIX, “Give It Time,” “Settings Recap,” “Looking Ahead,” and “Conclusion,” and even calls out specific metrics like “56, 55 G” while recommending that users disable the fluid morphing effects in Display & Text Size. When the best experience on a new operating system comes from dialing back its signature look, many owners of older phones decide to stay on the previous version instead.
Background indexing and storage pressure make the first days miserable
Another reason iOS 26 feels so rough, and why adoption is slow, is what happens in the hours and days after installation. The system spends time indexing the handset, scanning photos, messages, and files so that search and on-device intelligence can work properly. One detailed guide notes that the new operating system will index the handset in the background and that this process can slow performance and hurt battery life until it is finished, especially on Liquid Glass heavy builds. That is a predictable part of any big iOS release, but the combination of indexing and more aggressive visuals makes iOS 26’s “settling in” period feel harsher than usual.
Storage is the other quiet villain. A separate support thread spells out that a full iPhone can slow everything down, from app launches to camera performance, because the system has to work harder to juggle temporary files and updates. The reply explicitly warns that Storage pressure can affect functionality, and that is before you add a multi‑gigabyte system update on top. Security experts echo the same point in broader performance advice, noting that Your iPhone will slow down if the built‑in storage is packed, if too many apps are refreshing in the background, or if you are running a lot of heavy games and social apps at once. For anyone already near capacity, the prospect of installing iOS 26 and then spending days cleaning up space is enough to delay the upgrade indefinitely.
Older iPhones feel the strain first
While even recent models can feel choppy on iOS 26, the slowest adoption is clearly among people holding on to older hardware. A troubleshooting guide on update times points out that Device Model matters and that “Older” iPhones tend to update more slowly, both in terms of download and installation. That same hardware gap shows up after the reboot, when features like Liquid Glass and new background services run on chips that were already a few years old. If you are using an iPhone 11 or iPhone 12, you are more likely to feel every extra animation frame and every indexing pass.
Real‑world anecdotes reinforce that divide. In one video, the creator shows an iPhone 14 upgraded to iOS 26.2 and notes that the Phone “instantly began to ‘hang’” when coming off the lock screen, until they “Enabled” settings like “Reduce Motio” to cut down on animations. Another clip aimed at people with iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14 walks through “26 Fixes” to speed things up and is framed around owners whose devices feel slow after the iOS 26 update, which is exactly the group that usually drives early adoption. When even those relatively recent models need a checklist of tweaks to feel smooth, owners of older iPhones understandably assume their experience will be worse and hold off.
The fix culture around iOS 26 is scaring off casual users
Perhaps the most telling sign that iOS 26 is struggling to win people over is the cottage industry of “lag fix” videos and tips that has sprung up around it. One short clip, posted in Sep, pitches a “quick iOS 26 tip” for anyone on the latest update who is “experiencing a bit of lag,” and immediately sends viewers into Settings to toggle motion and visual options. Another short from Sep bluntly asks whether iOS 26 “made your phone slower” and ties that to complaints about battery draining “like crazy,” before recommending more performance‑first settings. When casual users see that upgrading means hunting through menus to disable features just to get back to baseline, many decide not to bother.
Longer guides echo the same theme. One walkthrough titled around iOS 26 running slow tells viewers to perform a forced restart by pressing volume up, volume down, then holding the side button until the Apple logo appears, before moving on to deeper settings changes. Another video that surfaced in Sep and a separate “26 Fixes” tutorial on iPhone 11–14 both assume that lag is a given and that the solution is a long list of manual tweaks. Even mainstream performance guides now include iOS 26‑specific advice, telling You to clear storage, limit background refresh, and restart regularly. For power users, that is manageable. For everyone else, the perception that iOS 26 needs this much hand‑holding is a powerful reason to stay put.
There is also a psychological effect when official‑adjacent spaces normalize rough performance. On Apple’s own forums, one reply in Sep tells a frustrated user that their lag and heat are “exactly” what they should expect after a big update and advises them to “Giv” it time. That might be technically accurate, but it also sends a message that iOS 26 is something you endure before it becomes usable. Combined with the heavy visual layer of Liquid Glass, the need to disable motion, and the emphasis on forced restarts and storage triage, it is no surprise that iOS 26 is creeping onto iPhones more slowly than Apple would like. For many owners, especially those on older hardware, the cost in performance and battery life simply outweighs the promise of new features, at least for now.
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