Persistent Ads in iOS Settings
The ‘ads’ in question appear in the Settings app in iOS. They can be found near the top of the iPhone’s display and promote several products to the user, including paid-for iCloud+ storage, free trials for services like Apple Music and Apple TV, and the AppleCare+ extended warranty.
Infuriatingly for iOS users, the only way to disable these promos is to either let them expire — which in many cases could take weeks or even months, leaving a persistent notification badge on the Settings app in the meantime — or pay for the service being offered. There is not always a “dismiss” button to shoo them away for good, and when there is, some people have reported that it doesn’t seem to work.
Previously:
- Advertising Cognitive Dissonance
- Apple Financial Statements: Products vs. Services
- Ads in Apple Maps
- Apple News Scam Ads
- More App Store Ad Spots
- $10 Off at Fandango
- Apple Turnaround
- Ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu and in iOS
- iOS Announcements and Offers
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The Apple Care renewal nag will not go away for me, no matter how many times I select "Don't Show Again"
Add in the OS is about the least Jobs thing I can imagine. It’s a mark of low quality, a clear statement that the user’s experience isn’t the priority
Annoying red badge on iOS system settings.
I just got off a call to Apple service representative.
And yes this is mostly unfixable by users. You can try to sign out of Apple services, and log back in. But this works rarely. On my iPad it was asking me to upgrade iCloud storage, but it has been reported to ask for other upgrades.
The Apple representative said they are swamped with calls and texts.
They know about it.
It has been escalated.
He said yes it's a bug, and he apologized.

I'm pretty sure this is a thing in macOS too. When I got my refurb M3 MacBook Air, there were notifications / nags in System Settings offering me three months free Apple Music, Apple News+ and other services. Considering this was my third Mac machine I've owned, and I'd subscribed to Apple Music for a while previous, you'd think Apple would twig that I might not be interested now. But I guess they were hoping to wear down my resistance somehow.
I suspect, at the rate they're ramping up these nags and placing them in more default (and often non-removable) apps, they'll catch up and pass Google in that department. Which isn't an achievement anyone at Apple should celebrate.
Yeah, it's irritating AF, but the usual trick of just tapping through, then cancelling the payment at the very last step still seems to work for now. Obviously though, shame on Apple for making this necessary.
I get that these messages are a little annoying. "Infuriatingly" though? That seems a little strong. If you're "infuriated" by such a small thing, you may need to get outside more or something. Maybe an anger management class.
A
At this point, the fact that they're advertisements is almost inconsequential. Modern applications (and webpages) are almost universally overloaded with interruptions. Buy this. Click to learn more. Agree to this legalese. This feature is all-new. Here's a tutorial. I'm an AI agent and I'm here to help.
I've (mostly) switched to free software. It's not about the price, or even about access to the source code. I just want my computer to stop nagging me so I can get some work done.
It's amazing how times change. Back in the 2000's, Apple was the choice for us techies who just wanted their computers to get out of the way. We gladly paid money for simplicity.
