iOS 18.6 ― Bug Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

[Nomad-X]

Funny enough I’m on 17 and went to use the Apple support app yesterday. There’s a mandatory update that you have to be on 18 to download. So you can’t use the support app unless you’re on the latest version.

And the Apple Store app requires 17 and up, which is insane to me lol

They do all they can to force you to upgrade.

I got refused support because I flat out didn't want to upgrade my M1 Studio from Sonoma which has been rock steady (I did upgrade to Sequoia and it was a horrible experience with lag etc so downgraded again).

Really think that if I'm forced or see nag screens to go to Tahoe then I'll look into other options to upgrade the Studio.

At the moment though I'm loving the machine and the UI of Sonoma. It's nice and clean, and legible and a perfect work machine.

 

[thadoggfather]

So far so good

18.6 battery life seems better on 13 mini in limited testing

16 plus and mini 7 seem to be working well so far too

I guess an almost 2 month gap between this and 18.5 final they figured a lot of crap out

Maybe one or so more major iOS 18 release before we restart all over again in the fall

 

[Populus]

They do all they can to force you to upgrade.

I got refused support because I flat out didn't want to upgrade my M1 Studio from Sonoma which has been rock steady (I did upgrade to Sequoia and it was a horrible experience with lag etc so downgraded again).

Really think that if I'm forced or see nag screens to go to Tahoe then I'll look into other options to upgrade the Studio.

At the moment though I'm loving the machine and the UI of Sonoma. It's nice and clean, and legible and a perfect work machine.

Maybe Sequoia is now not horrible? I mean, you could try 15.6 and see if it’s finally a smooth sailing. Otherwise you can fortunately downgrade back to Sonoma.

Keep in mind that, just like iOS 18.6 (and eventually 18.7), macOS 15.6 (and eventually 15.7) will be the most recent operating system before the design mess of macOS 26.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Does the switch in keyboard settings to turn off stickers in the keyboard work for anyone else? My keyboard shows them regardless of that switch being on or off.

 

[yeahtyeaht]

Does the switch in keyboard settings to turn off stickers in the keyboard work for anyone else? My keyboard shows them regardless of that switch being on or off.

It works but in some apps it still shows the stickers. I think the app dev needs to fix it. Saw an update for a an app a few days ago which said that it was fixed the stickers appearing even though they were deactivated in system settings.

 

[reinem85]

It feels super cool on my 14 pro max. Have you noticed that in low power mode the animations are no longer as “slow” as they used to be?
I think I'll stick with this iteration of IOS, upgrading from 17 to 18 started ruining my battery month by month and with 26 I don't plan to risk it again for a few animations designed by gentlemen with big, colored glasses.

 

[ipooed]

everything is smooth, battery life so far decent. Only issue I am having is connectivity wifi craps out from time to time (no speed issues) and cellular data in lowish coverage areas takes double the time to load anything compared to 18.5.

I would prefer (slightly) better battery and smoothness over connectivity or I’d be going back to 18.5 right now.

IPhone 16 pro max DFU restored set up as new.

 

[elementalwingma]

This is running so well I don't think I will update my iPhone to iOS 26 come September (hopefully).

 

[James6s]

Two days on 18.6 now with my 16 Pro and it’s running great.

Super smooth & super fast with decent battery life. Very happy with this release.

 

[Populus]

Seems like we have a winner!! I’m so glad Apple finally focused on stability, performance and efficiency…

 

[jha]

City no longer showing up under contact name who is sharing location with me on iOS 18.6 after setting up as new

 

[krvld]

decent battery life

Seems like Apple did it again. A downhill in terms of battery performance for 16 series according to iAppleBytes.

 

[thadoggfather]

Seems like we have a winner!! I’m so glad Apple finally focused on stability, performance and efficiency…

This should always be priority numero uno

The rest is much less important

 

[yearoftherat]

I'm hesitant to install this latest update as I was running the beta and was unable to use CarPlay as the deck would recognize my phone when plugged in but the icon was greyed out. Has anyone else has issues like this?

 

[HarryMudd]

I was really hoping that this update, along with the watch os update, would fix the problem I have with “left behind” no longer working. Sadly no.

Anyone have any tips on how to fix that issue. And before you ask, I’ve gone though all the settings several times, and reboots as well. It just isn’t working.

 

[James6s]

Seems like Apple did it again. A downhill in terms of battery performance for 16 series according to iAppleBytes.View attachment 2533294

Battery life on my 16 Pro is better on this release vs all previous 18.6 betas. I never experienced it on anything before 18.6 as I had to update it to 18.6 beta 2 when I got it to do a data transfer.

 

[Artemiz]

Anyone else’s Siri got dumber with 18.6?

I say “Siri, take me home” and the dumber than usual version takes me to the Home app now instead of driving directions to home. Both home and work addresses are already set in the contact card.
Don’t see Apple bothering fixing any more bugs with all the focus on iOS 26 now.

 

[Helmsley]

So far so good. Seems nice and slick.

Same here. Very nice on my iPhone 15. No issues at all to report.

 

[aniketsharma9865]

This has been the best update for my 11 so far. So smooth, no heat no lags and battery feels like mew again.

 

[generdude]

No problems with 18.6 on my 13 mini.
As far as my m3 air goes, I've been using Sonoma but will chance it and go to Sequoia next week and see what happens. Good to know I can still revert to Sonoma on the App Store if it's got problems.

 

[James6s]

Maybe I’m classed as a heavy user, but despite earlier posts I think battery life should be better than this on a 16 Pro?

 

[Populus]

Maybe I’m classed as a heavy user, but despite earlier posts I think battery life should be better than this on a 16 Pro?

According to the tests performed by iAppleBytes, while this isn’t the most power efficient release, as it loses a bit of screen on time on most iPhone models, it shouldn’t be a big drop in battery life and, on the other hand, performance should be much improved, and apparently many bugs have been addressed.

Honestly, I don’t know how to interpret your graphs because apparently you charge your iPhone when it’s still at 45%, so I don’t know if the second graph is accurate enough. But assuming it is, it consumed 80% of the battery in 7h and 30m, which gives us a total of 9h and 20m from 100% to 0%.

While I’m used to get between 7h and 8h of screen-on time from my iPhone SE3 (with battery health at 86% and still running iOS 18.1), I admit that I have my iPhone very optimized to minimize battery drain, and I guess a bigger iPhone with a bigger battery and a more power efficient chip should last longer. How much longer? I don’t know, maybe 10h? The thing is, it depends a lot from what you’re doing with your iPhone

Maybe Apple Intelligence is making the iPhone consume more battery? Maybe it’s just reindexing? Maybe some of your apps should be updated? I don’t know.

 

[Maloney~888]

This is running so well I don't think I will update my iPhone to iOS 26 come September (hopefully).

This is where I’m at! Got iOS 26 on my iPad. It’s a bit stuttery and sluggish. Hopefully it will improve but I don’t want to ruin the experience I’m having on my iPhone 15 Pro with 18.6 which is running great atm.

 

[James6s]

According to the tests performed by iAppleBytes, while this isn’t the most power efficient release, as it loses a bit of screen on time on most iPhone models, it shouldn’t be a big drop in battery life and, on the other hand, performance should be much improved, and apparently many bugs have been addressed.

Honestly, I don’t know how to interpret your graphs because apparently you charge your iPhone when it’s still at 45%, so I don’t know if the second graph is accurate enough. But assuming it is, it consumed 80% of the battery in 7h and 30m, which gives us a total of 9h and 20m from 100% to 0%.

While I’m used to get between 7h and 8h of screen-on time from my iPhone SE3 (with battery health at 86% and still running iOS 18.1), I admit that I have my iPhone very optimized to minimize battery drain, and I guess a bigger iPhone with a bigger battery and a more power efficient chip should last longer. How much longer? I don’t know, maybe 10h? The thing is, it depends a lot from what you’re doing with your iPhone

Maybe Apple Intelligence is making the iPhone consume more battery? Maybe it’s just reindexing? Maybe some of your apps should be updated? I don’t know.

I’ve just plugged it in now to charge up to 95% limit, battery was at 34% when I woke up not long ago. I also never let it drop below 25-30%, certainly nowhere near 0%.

Performance and smoothness are excellent on 18.6 and I can’t knock it at all. I’m not sure what I was expecting with battery life, maybe too much from the 16 Pro with 3582mAH battery! I guess if it managed 9-10hrs of screen time fron 100-0% then that’s not bad? Like I said I’ve never let any iPhone drop to 0% and power off.

It’s been nearly a week since the install and I would assume all the background stuff indexing etc has finished? Also I keep my apps up to date and check regularly.

No heavy optimisation set up and I very rarely use Apple intelligence tbh, background app refresh is off but some apps still manage to have some lengthy stuff happening in the background according to the battery consumption graphs.

I only have previous 18.6 betas to compare it to as I had to update it to 18.6 beta 2 out of the box.

Another thing… I find it hard to believe, Apple states the 16 Pro battery life is pretty much the same as the 15 & 16 Plus models which have much larger batteries.

 

[UliBaer]

Yesterday on a birthday party a friend of mine told and showed me, his iPhone 14 Pro was damaged by installing the release of 18.6 from 18.5. After completion of the update the iPhone complained the camera was not a genuine Apple one, but the phone was never opened or modified. The camera doesn't work once startet and only shows a black screen, but if one changes the lens to another one the picture appears and a photo can be taken. Unfortunately the resulting picture is some kind of psychedelic mess with colors way off and heavily saturated. Today we reinstalled 18.6 via ipsw, but the fault remains. I told him to go to the nearest genius bar, to ask for help. He stated, the iPhone left warranty about a week ago... 🤦‍♂️
Will be interesting to hear, what they have to say, since the iPhone never was tampered with, has never fallen and is in complete untouched condition.