IOS – iPad mini wont update over iOS 10

It won't be possible to updated to iOS 4.3 unless you have a software image for iOS 4.3 handy. This is because Apple wants to force you to install the latest version which is iOS 5.0. The test app you have been sent should still run on iOS 5.0 though.

Since iTunes isn't being nice about letting you upgrade, what you can do is go download the iOS 5.0 software image from Apple and then you can force iTunes to update using the image. Here's what you do.

1. Download iOS 5.0 for your iPad from the following link (please be aware that this link is not a direct download from Apple. Apple doesn't offer the ability to download iOS outside of iTunes which is why I've provided this link)

   http://www.ijailbreak.com/ipad/download-ios-5-firmware/

2. Plug your iPad into iTunes. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click the "Check For Update" button in iTunes. An Open File dialog box will open. Select the software image you downloaded in step #1.

3. iTunes should upgrade your iPad.

I can't find any reference for exactly what goes on behind the scenes with an iOS app update, but for pretty much any program upgrade, the system shouldn't just delete the existing app then install the new one. It will unpack and install the new one, copy the settings, save games, etc. then remove the old one. Even if you only remove the app binaries (program code) prior to installing the new code and not the user data, you run the risk of getting a bad download or corrupt compression and not having a valid program for the user to run.

So, the reason you can't install is that iOS needs some scratch space to decompress the file, and will almost certainly have a large portion of both versions on disk at some point. And I believe iOS also needs a bit of breathing room, so I suspect the app updater program has fairly conservative limits on how much free space it needs when installing something.

Unless you don't have any saved games or other data that you want to keep, I would recommend not deleting then installing the new version, but rather try to free up some other space by deleting apps or media that you can replace.