iOS 16 is so bad I can hardly stand it anymore

[CarAnalogy]

OK rant time. Starting my own post so no one else has to read this but I can't be alone here.

I even posted on this forum saying I should stay on 15 until at least 16.2 or .3. God I wish I had listened to my own advice.

WatchOS9 is actually ok, but 16 makes me feel like I'm back on my Pixel 2. This is damn ridiculous.

The lock screen has added so much lag. Touch inputs fail to register. Most of the time my first attempt to swipe left is interpreted as an up or down swipe.

Siri suggestions for apps in Spotlight is broken, and I used that all the time.

Autocorrect is the worst it has ever been. I don't know what the hell happened but every single suggestion is absolutely stupid. I turned automatic correction off already as it was never great, and went back to retroactively break sentences that I had typed correctly.

But now the damn thing won't suggest any contractions. Or when it does, it ONLY suggests the contraction to a word like "yesterday." If I type "yester" the only autocomplete suggestion is "yesterday's" and not "yesterday." However if I type "il" it only wants to suggest "illegal" and never ever "I'll" no matter how many times I type it. So yes, I have gone into text replacement and added every single English contraction, and also words like "yesterday" since it doesn't seem to comprehend.

Oh and I would use Gboard but that's all but abandoned, and third party keyboard support has never worked properly.

And now it looks like 16.1 is focusing solely on trying to shove the rest of the crap out the door that Apple has been working on instead of fixing bugs.

This won't be sorted out until Christmas at this rate, if even. And then another WWDC will roll around and they will announce a dozen more half baked features that won't ship until January 2024.

I'm starting to get on board the "Tim Cook needs to go" bandwagon. If this year is any indication of the future, it looks like I'm headed back to Android. If it's going to be buggy and half baked then I'll at least get a good keyboard, a MUCH better phone application, and all the freedom I am denied on iOS.

I've been on iPhone since the 3GS by the way. I switched to Android around iPhone 6 time frame because Apple was falling behind. Then Google started screwing up even harder and Apple got their **** together again for a while.

Now there's simply no good option.

Edit: Now that 16.1 is out, it does actually seem to have addressed a lot of issues. Touches are responsive again, and the Siri suggestions show up just about every time now, so far. Autocorrect seems not quite so bad but probably just because I've added most of the annoying failures into the custom dictionary at this point.

So I really should have just listened to my own advice and waited for 16.1.

 

[thadoggfather]

And now it looks like 16.1 is focusing solely on trying to shove the rest of the crap out the door that Apple has been working on instead of fixing bugs.

I love a good rant and not shilling for Apple but if your experience is that bad why not try 16.1 RC now? What do you have to lose? ..Or just wait until Monday and see?

In my experience, 14PM hardware outshines 16.0.x flaws but with 16.1 RC it feels like a new device to me all over again, a month later.

ymmv - as always but.

 

[MisterSavage]

I have noticed some lag with waking up the lock screen but other than that iOS 16 hasn't been a big deal (in a bad way) for me.

 

[iStorm]

I don't think any of these are widespread issues with iOS 16, sounds more like problems only you are experiencing. Have you tried resetting the keyboard dictionary, or wipe and restore from a backup (I had to do that to fix something during the betas).

Also, if you hadn't upgraded to watchOS 9 already, you could have rolled back to iOS 15.7, which is still being signed.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I love a good rant and not shilling for Apple but if your experience is that bad why not try 16.1 RC now? What do you have to lose? ..Or just wait until Monday and see?

In my experience, 14PM hardware outshines 16.0.x flaws but with 16.1 RC it feels like a new device to me all over again, a month later.

ymmv - as always but.

The new hardware will always run better. I’m sure some of the bugs are because it was designed for the new hardware first.

I’ll just wait until Monday, because based on available information there aren’t any fixes for older hardware or certainly for autocorrect anyway.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I don't think any of these are widespread issues with iOS 16, sounds more like problems only you are experiencing. Have you tried resetting the keyboard dictionary, or wipe and restore from a backup (I had to do that to fix something during the betas).

Also, if you hadn't upgraded to watchOS 9 already, you could have rolled back to iOS 15.7, which is still being signed.

I didn’t do a full Finder backup first (doubly stupid I know) so I can’t roll back without losing everything.

Resetting keyboard would just delete my custom dictionary entries. I have never typed most of the words it suggests, so I don’t think it’s something it learned from me.

Part of the reason I made this post was to see if it was just me. Maybe I will do a backup and reset if 16.1 doesn’t help.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I’m on new hardware every year so I normally don’t experience a lot of the bugs associated with updates but there is definitely issues with more recent releases that I feel are completely unacceptable. I was always the guy pushing iPhones in the family and have been mostly successful but lately I’ve started scaling that back. The last couple of holdouts are either very pro-Samsung or Apple haters using six year old android phones.

Scrolling on the widgets page is super frustrating. I have a few news widgets so I’ll typically do at least a little scrolling a few times a day and the chances I’ll inadvertently open an app are stupid high.

Autocorrect? Gimme a break. It’s always sucked. Those contractions you’re referencing? I’ve had them in my Settings for years. I’ll is the longest running offender.

Edit: right back in to fix autocorrect’s mistakes. “High” in the first paragraph had been switched to Hugh (none in my contacts) and “I’ll” in the second had been changed to ill. 🤬

 

[iLG]

Which device are you running ios16 on? I’m using 11Pro with 16.1 and it does not have any of the issues you mentioned.

You could synch all your data to iCloud then erase al content and settings and don’t restore from backup. Just sign in to iCloud and let it sync instead. You’d have to download your apps manually.
I do it this way every time I get a new phone to prevent transferring over too much clutter and any possible bad data. Good thing about not using backup to setup devices is that it doesn’t really matter what version they’re on.

One thing to note if you do it this way and use OTP authenticator apps you may want to make sure you have phone number as secondary authentication method or some other cloud sync/backup. I messed up one of my accounts access my OTP app did not synch with iCloud and after setting up as new and downloading the app again I could not get access back to my LinkedIn account without my OTP code and ended contacting linkin for identity verification.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Which device are you running ios16 on? I’m using 11Pro with 16.1 and it does not have any of the issues you mentioned.

You could synch all your data to iCloud then erase al content and settings and don’t restore from backup. Just sign in to iCloud and let it sync instead. You’d have to download your apps manually.
I do it this way every time I get a new phone to prevent transferring over too much clutter and any possible bad data. Good thing about not using backup to setup devices is that it doesn’t really matter what version they’re on.

One thing to note if you do it this way and use OTP authenticator apps you may want to make sure you have phone number as secondary authentication method or some other cloud sync/backup. I messed up one of my accounts access my OTP app did not synch with iCloud and after setting up as new and downloading the app again I could not get access back to my LinkedIn account without my OTP code and ended contacting linkin for identity verification.

I could do something like that but it’s a massive amount of work I don’t have time for and in the end I don’t have confidence I’d be any better off.

To answer your question it’s a 13 Pro. One would think it wouldn’t be that badly affected since the upgrade this year wasn’t that big.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I’m on new hardware every year so I normally don’t experience a lot of the bugs associated with updates but there is definitely issues with more recent releases that I feel are completely unacceptable. I was always the guy pushing iPhones in the family and have been mostly successful but lately I’ve started scaling that back. The last couple of holdouts are either very pro-Samsung or Apple haters using six year old android phones.

Scrolling on the widgets page is super frustrating. I have a few news widgets so I’ll typically do at least a little scrolling a few times a day and the chances I’ll inadvertently open an app are stupid high.

Autocorrect? Gimme a break. It’s always sucked. Those contractions you’re referencing? I’ve had them in my Settings for years. I’ll is the longest running offender.

Edit: right back in to fix autocorrect’s mistakes. “High” in the first paragraph had been switched to Hugh (none in my contacts) and “I’ll” in the second had been changed to ill. 🤬

Yeah I had autocorrect turned off for about a year now since it was always doing exactly what you described. I type a whole sentence correctly and when I hit send, it changes several words.

I feel like I would have noticed before if it was this bad though. It didn’t bother me so much before but since 16 it’s driving me crazy.

And it’s a great example of exactly my problem with Apple right now. Nobody asked them to completely reinvent notifications to hide a hole punch camera. But people have been begging them to pay attention to autocorrect for literally a decade. They just ignore the real issues and keep trying to push out flashy crap, and can’t even get that right.

And yeah same issue with friends and family, I’ve stopped recommending iphones. See right there. It wouldn’t suggest simply capitalizing iphone. It wanted to suggest “iphone so”. What the actual ****, Apple.

 

[iLG]

Yeah I had autocorrect turned off for about a year now since it was always doing exactly what you described. I type a whole sentence correctly and when I hit send, it changes several words.

that’s a real strange behaviour. I have only ever seen corrections occur after sending in macOS when a specific setting was enabled. On my iPhone I have all the keyboard features enabled and never had the corrections occur after completing the sentences or sending. Corrections and suggestions occur on a per word basis for me

 

[CarAnalogy]

that’s a real strange behaviour. I have only ever seen corrections occur after sending in macOS when a specific setting was enabled. On my iPhone I have all the keyboard features enabled and never had the corrections occur after completing the sentences or sending. Corrections and suggestions occur on a per word basis for me

I think it’s supposed to be grammar checking. It didn’t do it every time but enough to be annoying. Usually happened in Messages.

 

[fatTribble]

Sorry to hear about all of those issues! My 14 Pro Max has been stable but a bit sluggish at times. 16.0.1 helped but hoping 16.1 will make a notice difference.

 

[Fruit Stand]

I am running iOS 16.0.3 on an iPhone 13 Pro and it’s running like butter.

I am running this setup as a new iPhone setup as opposed to upgrading from 15 to 16 on the same config.

I highly recommend this path for everyone and especially since don’t really need to back up anything anymore and instead you can sync all your data to iCloud.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I am running iOS 16.0.3 on an iPhone 13 Pro and it’s running like butter.

I am running this setup as a new iPhone setup as opposed to upgrading from 15 to 16 on the same config.

I highly recommend this path for everyone and especially since don’t really need to back up anything anymore and instead you can sync all your data to iCloud.

It's not that it's running slowly, it's just running unreliably.

On the home screen, if you swipe down and don't type anything (assuming you have this setting turned on,) does it give you the row of app suggestions, every time? On iOS 15 that worked every single time.

For me on 16 it does it about 10% of the time. Most of the time it's just blank. But if I hit space and then backspace, there they are, every time.

For me, one of the single best things about iPhone vs Android is the ability to actually transfer the entire config reliably. I really don't want to have to wipe this phone and set everything up again from scratch just to fix bugginess that didn't exist in 15. I have done several transfers since I went back to Apple with the 11 Pro Max, and never had issues like this until now.

 

[Helmsley]

I am running iOS 16.0.3 on an iPhone 13 Pro and it’s running like butter.

I am running this setup as a new iPhone setup as opposed to upgrading from 15 to 16 on the same config.

I highly recommend this path for everyone and especially since don’t really need to back up anything anymore and instead you can sync all your data to iCloud.

I haven't done a fresh install ever on my iPhone 11 (it was new on 28th July 2020) and I've had zero issues.

Maybe I'm just lucky, or people on here look too hard and worry about everything lol.

 

[I7guy]

Two devices: xs max and iPhone 14 PM on 16.0.3 no issues with ios 16. Seems like it’s hit and miss.

 

[chevyboy60013]

No issues that are annoying enough to complain. Autocorrect has always been trash no matter what version of ANY os so that’s not even a complaint. Really like my iPhone 14, iOS 16 and cannot wait for iPad 16 for my iPad Pro 3rd generation with the m1

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Springboard still crashes when you pull down and slide back up on the lockscreen.

 

[sorgo †]

Springboard still crashes when you pull down and slide back up on the lockscreen.

Wow.. wtf

 

[fakestrawberryflavor]

Honestly I have similar observations with autocorrect and predictive text. Something changed drastically and it’s unusable. It’s not learning or adapting like iOS 15 did, and it’s much easier to turn it off completely. On iPhone 14 Pro, fresh install from the Apple Store of the complete OS, 16.0.3.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I haven't done a fresh install ever on my iPhone 11 (it was new on 28th July 2020) and I've had zero issues.

Maybe I'm just lucky, or people on here look too hard and worry about everything lol.

I read this to mean that when you got that phone you restored from backup? I restored every iPhone I ever got from 3GS to 5 from backup without issues like this, or issues that were fixed in patches. When I got my 11PM I didn’t restore that ancient backup, but I did move that install over to my 13 Pro and upgraded it without a fresh install to 15 and then 16. No issues like this until 16. Of course 15 was a bit buggy at first but not like this.

I fully admit that I worry about small technical issues (I work in IT so it comes with the territory) but man I have never been driven this crazy by an iOS release before.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Springboard still crashes when you pull down and slide back up on the lockscreen.

Now that one I have not seen. I have had one or two app crashes which were very rare pre 16, but I’m giving the benefit of the doubt on that. Maybe those apps need an update.

But Springboard reproducibly crashing is a big one.

 

[CarAnalogy]

No issues that are annoying enough to complain. Autocorrect has always been trash no matter what version of ANY os so that’s not even a complaint. Really like my iPhone 14, iOS 16 and cannot wait for iPad 16 for my iPad Pro 3rd generation with the m1

Gonna have to disagree a little there on autocorrect being trash on every OS. Gboard is actually really good. But on iOS it’s not nearly as good because the input simply doesn’t work properly on third party keyboards. I make way more mistakes when typing on Gboard on iOS, and it still autocorrects better than the iOS one. I even leave autocorrect on in that keyboard because it actually works. On Android it’s far better performing and with just as good correction.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

OK rant time. Starting my own post so no one else has to read this but I can't be alone here.

I even posted on this forum saying I should stay on 15 until at least 16.2 or .3. God I wish I had listened to my own advice.

WatchOS9 is actually ok, but 16 makes me feel like I'm back on my Pixel 2. This is damn ridiculous.

The lock screen has added so much lag. Touch inputs fail to register. Most of the time my first attempt to swipe left is interpreted as an up or down swipe.

Siri suggestions for apps in Spotlight is broken, and I used that all the time.

Autocorrect is the worst it has ever been. I don't know what the hell happened but every single suggestion is absolutely stupid. I turned automatic correction off already as it was never great, and went back to retroactively break sentences that I had typed correctly.

But now the damn thing won't suggest any contractions. Or when it does, it ONLY suggests the contraction to a word like "yesterday." If I type "yester" the only autocomplete suggestion is "yesterday's" and not "yesterday." However if I type "il" it only wants to suggest "illegal" and never ever "I'll" no matter how many times I type it. So yes, I have gone into text replacement and added every single English contraction, and also words like "yesterday" since it doesn't seem to comprehend.

Oh and I would use Gboard but that's all but abandoned, and third party keyboard support has never worked properly.

And now it looks like 16.1 is focusing solely on trying to shove the rest of the crap out the door that Apple has been working on instead of fixing bugs.

This won't be sorted out until Christmas at this rate, if even. And then another WWDC will roll around and they will announce a dozen more half baked features that won't ship until January 2024.

I'm starting to get on board the "Tim Cook needs to go" bandwagon. If this year is any indication of the future, it looks like I'm headed back to Android. If it's going to be buggy and half baked then I'll at least get a good keyboard, a MUCH better phone application, and all the freedom I am denied on iOS.

I've been on iPhone since the 3GS by the way. I switched to Android around iPhone 6 time frame because Apple was falling behind. Then Google started screwing up even harder and Apple got their **** together again for a while.

Now there's simply no good option.

Curious - what phone do you have now?

Edit: Just say in a post you have the 13 pro? Assume it's not the 13 PM. Pretty sure before 16 I had issues with typing Ill not being corrected to I'll. I've noticed some of what you typed as well. Being in IT too, I recognize the flaw but consider it low enough of a priority to just move on.