If your iPhone won’t update, make sure that you have a strong, reliable WiFi connection, that there is enough free space on your iPhone, and that your battery is sufficiently charged. You can also restore or reset your iPhone and reinstall the update.

  • Your WiFi connection isn’t strong enough. If you get a message that says, “Unable to Check for Update” or “Unable to Verify Update,” your WiFi connection might not be strong enough. You can either try again when you have a better connection, or you can change the WiFi network your iPhone is connected to by going to Settings > Wi-Fi

  • You don’t have enough free space. You might need several gigabytes of storage space to download a software update. For example, the iOS 14 update was almost 3 GB large, and you might need even more space than that if you are updating from an older iOS. To free up space on your iPhone, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

  • Your iPhone battery is too low. You will need your battery to be at least 50% charged to update your iPhone properly. If your battery level is below that, then plug your iPhone in and try updating again.
  • Restore your iPhone and reinstall the update. If your iPhone still won’t update, you might want to consider restoring or resetting it. Restoring your iPhone will revert it back to a previous backup. That means you’ll have all the app data, settings, messages, photos, and purchased content, but it will take a while for your data to download. Resetting your iPhone will erase everything on your iPhone and revert it to factory settings. You can still recover your contacts, calendar, notes, and more through iCloud.