I purchased an M4 iPad Pro and it arrived today. I went to set it up from my previous iPad Pro but it is running iPadOS 18, and 17.7 is the highest for the M4 currently. I updated on the 17th I think (a day or two after 18 came out) and wondering if I should wipe the new iPad and start again and try using a 17.x backup, or set up as a new device.
If I remember correctly, there is only ever one generation of backup stored in iCloud. Especially in scenarios like yours with different software versions, this is not enough. My recommendation is both still keeping the previous iOS/iPadOS version as long as Apple still supports it during the transition period. And additionally to iCloud backups, do manual backups to a PC or Mac with iTunes/Finder. There you can have multiple backup generations.
I think there were three or four back ups available from my pro. I ended up using the 18.1 beta and then doing a restore. I forgot i can do a back up to my MacBook. I will do one of those tomorrow.
I ran into this a bit over a week ago when I upgraded. I had been running the public beta on my 2020 iPad Pro, and upgraded 2 days after 18 officially launched, but after it was pulled for bricking M4 Pros. It sounds like 18.0.1 is in progress and should be out soon, however I installed the 18.1 public beta on mine after seeing others have success with it from 17.7.
That said, my prior upgrade sat around for at least a week before I threw the beta in and there were no issues.
If you have another iOS device, you should be able to go to settings>Account Settings (the one with your Memoji)>iCloud Backup and see all backups stored in your iCloud.
I am only able to see the most recent back up. I thought I would be able to see them all as well. I could see a few while trying to set up the new ipad. But gave up and tried to update it to 18, before remembering it was pulled from m4s.
I only had like 3 backups and they did not go even close to far enough back. Guess i will try installing the 18.1 beta and try my 18 backup that way.
