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iOS 17 Bug Switches Apps While Typing - How to Fix

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Apr 12, 2001
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An increasing number of iPhone users are reporting a persistent iOS 17 bug that causes the app switcher to suddenly appear when they are typing on the screen. If you have experienced this frustrating issue, you are not alone.

iOS-17-General-Keyboard-Feature.jpg

Apple Community forums and Reddit contain similar reports of people being kicked out of Messages, Notes, and other apps mid-sentence only to find themselves in another app because they were still tapping the screen when the app switcher suddenly appeared.

You can see it in action here. The bug can be hard to replicate, but it seems to happen to affected users when they have been typing on the virtual keyboard at pace for a while. The bug has been reported in all versions of iOS 17 up to and including the most recent iOS 17.1.2 update, and some users have returned their iPhone only for it to occur on the replacement device, suggesting that Apple is not sufficiently aware of the problem.

Until Apple deals with the issue, there is a temporary fix – or more accurately a workaround, since it involves turning off Reachability, a feature that some users will undoubtedly miss. Reachability is an optional feature that lowers the top half of the screen so it's within easy reach of your fingers. Here's how to disable it.
  1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
  2. Tap Accessibility.
  3. Under "Physical and Motor," select Touch.
  4. Turn off the switch next to Reachability.
turn-off-reachability.jpg


Disabling Reachability appears to stop the typing bug in its tracks for everyone affected, which suggests Apple has an unidentified sensitivity issue linked to the accessibility feature.

(Thanks, Anna!)

Article Link: iOS 17 Bug Switches Apps While Typing - How to Fix
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-17-bug-switches-apps-while-typing-fix/
  • Haha
Reactions: addamas and ghanwani
Apple seems to have bugs in their dictation dictator too! That cursed floating microphone when activated doesn’t allow the cursor to be moved when the dictator is activated! Also, the recognition of many words are extremely inaccurate!
 
Only happened once to me so far but was shocked when it did!

Ona side note, I find reachability so much more fickle to activate since ios17. It’s almost not worth having it switched on now it’s so inconsistent in activating
 
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Reactions: SLUAstro, Mihailo88, klasma and 3 others
you should make these posts in apples internal chat or something

maybe they should fix things instead of us turning off features
 
Anyone else have a bug on iPad where the cursor randomly moves while you're typing, even with an external keyboard?

I don't just mean the mouse cursor, I mean the typing cursor, the point where your letters are input. So you end up typing nonsense because the letters go in the wrong places.
 
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Reactions: centauratlas, missingar, michaelnugent and 2 others
Apple, please, at least let me put icons on the Home Screen where I want them. The argument for over a decade has been that iOS can't be that customizable because it's so stable. Well, if I can't have the stability, at least give me the customization. If everything, even at the system level, is going to be buggy anyway I might as well just use Android.

The new autocorrect is vastly improved but it seems to have introduced a ton of keyboard and input bugginess all over the place.
 
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  • Haha
Reactions: Mother Nature, centauratlas and MarcK73
Reminds me of Mr. incredible saying: "I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!" :p
 
mazz0 said:
Anyone else have a bug on iPad where the cursor randomly moves while you're typing, even with an external keyboard?

I don't just mean the mouse cursor, I mean the typing cursor, the point where your letters are input. So you end up typing nonsense because the letters go in the wrong places.
Click to expand...
Yes! Not 17 related since I haven’t updated it, but it has been an issue for a while. At first I thought maybe I was touching the screen elsewhere by mistake (no external keyboard) so I started being extra careful, and it’s not me.
 
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Reactions: Surf Monkey and mazz0
I haven't had this but I've had a bug once or twice where Apple Music just starts playing by itself, without the app open or a widget on the screen I may have accidentally tapped. Not sure what causes it. The only bluetooth device I really use are my airpods but they're not always in my pocket when I'm at home.
 
mazz0 said:
Anyone else have a bug on iPad where the cursor randomly moves while you're typing, even with an external keyboard?

I don't just mean the mouse cursor, I mean the typing cursor, the point where your letters are input. So you end up typing nonsense because the letters go in the wrong places.
Click to expand...
Yes! This has been driving me crazy. It'll be fine for a while and then I'll look and my cursor will be in some random spot, typing away. I just figured I was accidentally touching the touchpad on my keyboard with my palm or something.
 
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Reactions: missingar
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