Some iOS 16 Users Continue to Report Plethora of Bugs Months After Launch

[Sportpoz]

I have graphic problems. Sometimes notifications are simply square on the corners and only after a while become rounded

 

[Choco Taco]

Jobs would not have allowed this. He would have thrown all the iPhones in a fishtank by now to only see that the damn thing keeps running, bugs and all.

in all seriousness... I have almost never had customers complain about issues with their iPhones until iOS 16. calendar bugs, notification errors, screen orientation problems. email refresh issues (though that isn't exclusive to iOS 16 ... it just seems more frequent.). what happened to it just works... now it kinda sorta usually works.

This has been the buggiest version of iOS since that Calculator app debacle that took far too long for them to fix. Half the apps were broken or didn't work at all (like the Weather app) when it first launched. It's now finally ... mostly ... stable. I'm going to wait probably 4 months before I upgrade to iOS 17. That seems about the length of time it takes Apple to normalize everything these days.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Running 16.2 on iPhone 13PM, 14PM, and M1 iPad Pro — zero issues — everything works as it should. I always set up my devices as a “new device” — could this be part of it? I don’t use the Home app, so no opinion there.

 

[svish]

Hope Apple can fix these bugs quickly.

 

[GtrDude]

This is what happens when they don’t hire the best people for the job anymore and let them work at home for years

You are 100% right. I won't get into it here but you nailed it. I'm especially speaking of your first point.
60/40 on both.

 

[GtrDude]

Always on. Not so. So many occurrences where the screen goes entirely blank and on occasion a hard reset was needed to fix as screen not responsive.

That's the same problem I'm having.
Apple is just a joke company at this point.
They have become everything they used to make fun of with Microsoft and so much more.

 

[The1Biz]

I got tired of change and kept everything at Big Sur and 15.x because I got sick of weird bugs after a brand new OS. Everything is solid and I won't be upgrading my M1 or 13 mini soon. My iPad is stuck at 15 so they can't mess up anything.

I was considering 16.3 but I'll just wait and see.

 

[ambientdaw]

Was about to finally transition from 15 to 16. Figured the bugs would be out. I think I will wait some more!

 

[haruhiko]

I fixed it by deleting all automations.Apparently a measly 2 light bulbs and an Apple TV is too complicated for homekit.

I just have a camera set to automatically record when everyone has left home… 😔 and it still fails.

 

[Fraserpatty]

I really hope they fix the problem in accessibility when you try to have Siri speak screen. All I have been getting suddenly is “sorry there’s nothing to read here”. I even went on Apple Support through my text messaging and the person tried to help me for a full half hour, but we could not get it back working again. I had already tried to reboot it three times before getting in touch with Apple. This is an annoying bug especially for people who have sight problems. Hope they fix it soon.

 

[Dom_]

Our family uses the following: 5 iPhones, 4 iPads, 2 Homepod Minis, 2 Apple TV 4K, 2 MacBook Pro (Intel and M1 Pro), 3 Apple Watches and maybe I'm even forgetting something, but you get the gist of it.

We've invested a lot in Apple's ecosystem. We also have iCloud, Apple Music, stuff like that. And a plethora of Homekit accessories.

Ever since iOS 16 came out (mind you, ALL our devices are capable of running the latest OS versions) and macOS 13 as well, our digital life has been ONE BIG HELL!!!

I hope Apple is reading this, because I'm really fed up with this. We're paying premium prices for premium products and a bug here and there is acceptable, but this is absolutely ridiculous and TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.

What we experience on a (nearly) daily basis:

• Screen time requests do not come through, either: at all, for 1 of us (at random)
• Screen time requests now come in as iMessage, after 5-10 are in the history of the chat the Messages app gets extremely slow, both on iPhones, iPads and worst of all: MacBooks.
• Screen time request approval on Apple Watch does NOT work
• App approval (Ask to buy) for the kids does NOT work, they can request it from their device, but we never get any notification or way to approve. Have to turn it off, then install locally and then turn on again to prevent them from installing anything else.
• Multiple Apple apps often freeze/hang and then are killed: Find My, Maps, Apple Music, Camera, etc.
• AirPlay video to Apple TVs sometimes only sends out audio, restarting Apple TV or iPhone helps until it happens again sometime later.
• Keyboard doesn't show in lots of apps, app needs to be killed.
• Battery drain is exceptionally high, I cannot get over 4 hours of screen on my iPhone while this used to be easy 5 and sometimes 6.
• Apps and camera often stutter, easily visible that it either goes down to a very low fps/Hz like 10 fps or something and/or it stutters at 1 fps for a few seconds.
• Automations don't work often times. And I know that this is Homekit and not my WiFi or anything else, because I also heavily use Philips Hue and since that is much more detailed in terms of automations for motion sensors (it reads the lux for one) and switches (I can actually configure short and long presses on my FoH switches for turning off/on and dimming) and those NEVER FAIL. Same with the few Aqara specific automations, for stuff that Homekit doesn't support: it's not as robust as Hue itself, but 95% of the time it works. Homekit? It's like 50/50 right now, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Deleting an Automation seems to work, but temporarily.
• Homekit accessories don't respond at random moments. Rebooting the Apple TV seems to help the most, but it's not a given.
• Homekit notifications for cameras are inconsistent. I own multiple Netatmo Presence cameras and to test I enabled notifications from their own app as well. Sometimes the notifications are almost instant for both (Netatmo and HKSV) but 7/10 times HKSV lags behind for at least 2-3 seconds. Sometimes it's minutes later.
• My only AirTag which is attached to my home keys has already started ringing when I picked it up when I was about to leave the house. I had my phone in my pocket, no notification, no way to stop it and simply no idea why this happened. It never was away from my phone during that period.
• My 64 GB iPhone 12 became incredibly slow after updating to iOS 16, found out that it only had 2 GB of storage left, while it was 4.5 GB before! Where the heck has those 2.5 GB gone to Apple?! I rigorously deleted some apps since it was slowing to a crawl with everything from unlocking to even opening apps, it literally felt like I was using a €50 Android phone with stutters, no response, freezes and everything along those lines with literally everything I did. Now I'm hovering at 4 GB and it's back to somewhat normal (apart from everything else above) but a 2 year old iPhone 12 need 4 GB of free storage space on a 64 GB model to run smoothly? Unacceptable. And there's no way for me to remove caches like the 4.1 GB of the Photos app while I have a total of 2.2 TB iCloud storage with Photos enabled in iCloud and not even 1 TB in use with the whole family? Same with Apple Music: I specifically said it to not download anything, I don't have local music or playlists saved (I've got unlimited 5G anyway) and it takes up 1.28 GB?! I don't mind if it does this to smoothen things up, but I find it absolutely STUPID from a company like Apple and an almost €1000 phone that it cannot see that I only have 2-4 GB storage free and stubbornly keeps a hold of over 5 GB in caches in apps that are cloud-based. At least be smart about it, just like the Offload Unused Apps feature (which I want to keep in control myself, thank you very much) or give users the option to specify how much cache can be used, like: 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, etc. Even if that makes viewing my photos slightly slower.

And there's lots more, but this has already become a novel almost.
Don't get me wrong: apart from this, I still love Apple hardware and software. But we specifically decided to go all-in on Apple and things like Homekit, because it would make our lives easier. We're a busy family with work, school, sports and a social life, like most families I suppose, so we just want stuff to work. I don't mind paying a premium, I don't mind subscriptions (there is a limit, I'm not paying for a calendar app or something), but then stuff should work. And right now it's a complete **** show from Apple. I bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Android phone just to test it out, it was just €230, not even a Black Friday deal or anything, and that works much more bug-free than my iPhone 12 right now. Yes, the camera is **** (but that's what you pay for as well, or not in case of the Xiaomi) and it's slightly slower than most recent iPhones when they perform as they should, but it's performing consistent and definitely not slow at all. For my son I even tried out Genshin Impact which is a huge game and it runs flawlessly. I've literally been using it side-by-side with all the exact same apps installed as on my iPhone and it gives me over 7 hours on-screen time. The only difference of course being Homekit not running on there and some apps I had to swap out to an equivalent.

In short: I know for example that my iPhone 12 with 64 GB is too much on the limit, so I need a 128 GB phone next time, I wanted to buy the 14 Pro, but I'm waiting to see if Apple finally fixes this **** show with 16.3 or something. My son's iPad 6th gen is also getting slow for some of his games, so a new iPad is on the wish list, just as replacing the 2nd Apple TV 4K with the same one as in the living room (with Thread support), but right now I'm not buying anything until this is fixed. And I'm a patient person, but if even iOS 17 doesn't fix this, then I don't give a **** about how much pain it will cost me and my family to move away, but that would straight away mean that I would sell everything from Apple and go full in on Android+Windows+Google Home. I used to not want that, partly because of privacy, but I rate working products and services higher than my privacy (to a limit of course), especially when paying premium prices.

Let's end with a bold statement: Apple has lost it, their teams have become too big so they can't handle it and either need to go back to the drawing board on how they work or at the very least stop releasing a new iOS version every year. Just focus on getting things to actually work, then nobody will mind waiting 2 years in between major releases.

My whole family uses Apple devices (several MacBooks, 11+ iPhones, several iPads), pretty much everything works flawless. 🤷‍♂️
Well, everything except HomeKit. I hope this becomes better once the devices start having Thread support...

 

[ZebraDude]

And this is somehow the fault of Apple software? Not buying it.

My understanding is that Apple controls the posting of voicemails in the dialer app.

It seems very buggy to me that voicemails that were left for me for over 4 weeks would just appear after I restarted my handset.

It could be a coincidence but I’m not buying it.

 

[Isamilis]

Running 16.2 on iPhone 13PM, 14PM, and M1 iPad Pro — zero issues — everything works as it should. I always set up my devices as a “new device” — could this be part of it? I don’t use the Home app, so no opinion there.

My iPhone 11 and iPad M1 also run smoothly (it’s been on day 4). I update through IPSW and restore from backup. Measured Geekbench before and after are also similar.

 

[Danfango]

That's the same problem I'm having.
Apple is just a joke company at this point.
They have become everything they used to make fun of with Microsoft and so much more.

This is clearly the voice of someone who hasn't used anything Microsoft recently.

So just today:

Windows Hello does not recognise me for some reason. Two Zoom crashes resulting in the audio stack on windows 11 crapping itself and requiring a reboot before my headset will work again. Windows update ate 1/3 of the battery in the machine. Outlook will not open so I'm having to use O365 web interface.

The other side of the fence is a field covered in dog poop.

 

[MacBH928]

Except, staying behind is not safe. Update to latest is not safe. Where to go then?

Debian long term support I guess! More realistic answer below

It's common knowledge? I totally agree with not jumping on a brand new x.0 release when it comes out and wait for bug fixes to roll out, but waiting to update to last year's major iOS version before the current year's to ensure it's stable/usable is embarrassing for Apple to say the least.

I'm on 16.2 (didn't have much of a choice given my iPhone 14 came with 16.0), there are bugs that are mostly manageable, but it's indeed still buggy.

Its not just Apple but many/most software vendors now days.

To answer your questions, the best release is the bug-fixed security patched releases of last year. Apple should be updating 2 OSs behind, we are on 16, so ios14 and ios15 should be gold now!

 

[Jason J. Schneider]

Hahaha! Who still uses WhatsApp? Way to show your stone age lol.

Literally all of Europe

 

[neuropsychguy]

This is clearly the voice of someone who hasn't used anything Microsoft recently.

So just today:

Windows Hello does not recognise me for some reason. Two Zoom crashes resulting in the audio stack on windows 11 crapping itself and requiring a reboot before my headset will work again. Windows update ate 1/3 of the battery in the machine. Outlook will not open so I'm having to use O365 web interface.

The other side of the fence is a field covered in dog poop.

I have that same Outlook issue. Windows is on my main computer and is don’t generally have issues but this Outlook one so far persists. Outlook works well on macOS but it’s broken on Windows for me. All other Office applications work though.

 

[WannaGoMac]

I just have a camera set to automatically record when everyone has left home… 😔 and it still fails.

The ONE automation I have left, turn everything off at a certain time doesnt even work now. So all automations are now deleted because they just dont work. wow, im just stunned apple homekit is THIS bad.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I'm hoping with the new product announcement today motivated Apple to also send an update for the software. It's been a while since we've gotten a bug fix update and the Holidays have pretty much past now.

 

[Carrotcruncher]

This is what happens when they don’t hire the best people for the job anymore and let them work at home for years

IOS work from home edition….. working as intended 😂😂😂

 

[tolsen718]

Long lived companies such as Apple generally release products with as many bugs as the market can bear. In other words, we have to demand fewer bugs with our wallet (or lack thereof). But instead we often focus on the snazzy new feature announced in a keynote. If many of us got fed up and start migrating to Android, Windows, Linux, etc. and Apple's market research accurately reflected why we were migrating (or even that we are considering it!), then Apple would focus more on QA real quick. You have to make it hurt the only way Apple really understands, and that's their own wallet.

 

[Morac]

not a SINGLE of the bugs I have reported since iOS 16b1 have been fixed. Same goes for MacOS bugs.

I haven’t had a single bug I’ve reported to Apple over the last 5 years been fixed. It’s like they don’t care anymore.

 

[dysamoria]

Seriously? There are HUNDREDS of bugs in the OS, many of which have been there for several major revisions. This is a HUGE issue with Apple software. They should be ashamed of themselves, but this is today's Wall Street pathology Apple. There is not a week that goes by that I don't find a bug I've not noticed previously. It is appalling. I cannot believe that Apple executives actually make use of their own company's products regularly, because they're broken in so many ways, regularly. That they're still not as bad as the competition is not a compliment to Apple; it is an indictment of the entire disastrous computer industry.

The majority of the world's response to this absurdity? [insert "This is fine" comic here]

 

[I7guy]

Seriously? There are HUNDREDS of bugs in the OS, many of which have been there for several major revisions. This is a HUGE issue with Apple software. They should be ashamed of themselves, but this is today's Wall Street pathology Apple. There is not a week that goes by that I don't find a bug I've not noticed previously. It is appalling. I cannot believe that Apple executives actually make use of their own company's products regularly, because they're broken in so many ways, regularly. That they're still not as bad as the competition is not a compliment to Apple; it is an indictment of the entire disastrous computer industry.

The majority of the world's response to this absurdity? [insert "This is fine" comic here]

There are bugs and there are BUGS. Finding a bug a week imo wouldn’t bother me. Finding a BUG a week would. The difference to me is a bug let’s you continue what you are doing; a BUG does not.

And while I understand there are those who classify anything out of the ordinary a bug, and while it’s their right, I don’t.

But I haven’t encountered any of what I’ve seen posted with my 14PM, so yeah “this is fine.”

 

[dysamoria]

There are bugs and there are BUGS. Finding a bug a week imo wouldn’t bother me. Finding a BUG a week would. The difference to me is a bug let’s you continue what you are doing; a BUG does not.

And while I understand there are those who classify anything out of the ordinary a bug, and while it’s their right, I don’t.

But I haven’t encountered any of what I’ve seen posted with my 14PM, so yeah “this is fine.”

It absolutely is NOT fine. The amount of time wasted on a continual basis by what you consider minor bugs adds up on a continuous basis, PLUS the anger they cause me to deal with them one after the next, every day, all day, is a constant assault on me as a thinking being.

I repeat: This industry is a FRELLING DISASTER.