iOS 18.6 ― Bug Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

[imagineadam]

Well… finally took the plunge Friday night from 16.7.2 all the way to 18.6 on my 14 pro. It’s only been a couple of days but initial thoughts are some things are better some are worse!

So far battery is worse but that could be because of the “ongoing device setup” listed in the battery section. Also the ram management is noticeably worse. Less apps stay in the background for sure. App launching speed for most apps is the same or a titch slower. Some are oddly faster. Otherwise most things feel the same. I updated directly from my Mac hoping that’s the best way to do it.

I’ll have more to report I’m sure but what do you guys think? Give it some more days and the battery should level out or am I stuck with worse battery life? Could the ram management get better as the days go? Maybe background processes are killing apps and those will go away with time? Also going from watch os 9 to 11 on my series 6 is kicking its butt too in battery life. Could the meter just need a few days to level out also?

I’m happy to have a cooler looking home screen and have RCS and messages over satellite but I sure miss my great ram management and solid battery life. Plus my device runs warm now too where it used to be alway ice cold before on iOS 16.

 

[James6s]

You’ve took quite the jump and gone up two major software releases. I’d give it several days or so for things to settle down whilst all the background stuff and indexing etc takes place and finishes.

As someone posted on the last page, iApplebytes tests show 18.6 has reduced screen time and battery life even on the 16 series, which is disappointing. Hopefully things will settle down with improved battery life and ram management.

 

[giannisb]

iphone 16 pro here, a week after the update and can’t say I see much of a difference from 18.5 battery life wise, which was already pretty bad for me. At least thermals are better 🙄 I don’t seem to notice any major bugs resolved either, if anything they seem worse. Example, the saturation thingy in previous ios 18.x versions, where colors get saturated when you get to the multi app view then get back to normal when you enter an app. Now, if I get to the multi app view and kill all apps one by one so that it gets me to the home screen, my stack widget flickers for a moment… try it 😂 not to mention the random screen stutters while scrolling in ios menus (control center “add a control” list) and in 3rd party apps that are still here.

All in all, mixed feelings for a version meant to be “the most polished” one for 18.

 

[ScrumpyDaniel]

Not sure if it's been mentioned here (Not checked the whole thread as I was on holiday last week), but Game Mode is finally working again. It's been broken since 18.4 but it now works again, at least for Pokemon GO.