IPadOS 27 Drops iPad Air M1 After Just Three Years of Support

Apple is cutting a larger-than-usual number of iPads from iPadOS 27 compatibility, with the iPad Air taking the sharpest hit: three generations dropped at once, raising the minimum from the M1 to the M2.

That context matters. The iPad Air 5th generation, which shipped with M1 in March 2022, is only three years old. Apple typically supports devices for five to six years before dropping them from major OS updates. Cutting a 2022 iPad from a 2025 OS release compresses that window noticeably, and it affects a model that was still on sale well into 2023.

The full list of newly unsupported devices:

• iPad Air 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation (A12, A14, M1)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and 11-inch 1st generation
• iPad 8th generation (A12 Bionic)
• iPad mini 5th generation (A12)

A pattern emerges from that list. The A12 Bionic chip, which Apple introduced in 2018 and shipped in iPads through 2021, appears to be the common thread. Every device dropped this cycle runs A12 or older silicon, suggesting Apple has drawn a quiet architectural line rather than simply counting calendar years.

What Changed From Last Year

iPadOS 26 dropped only a single device, the 7th generation iPad, from the iPadOS 18 list. The jump to dropping eight or more models in one cycle is a meaningful acceleration, even if Apple has not said anything publicly about why the pace changed.

The practical consequence is that anyone who bought an iPad Air in early 2022 will be running a supported but frozen OS within months. For a device that cost $599 at launch, that is a shorter runway than most buyers would have expected.