Apple iOS 11.3.1 Release: It’s The Big One

This was not meant to happen. iOS 11.3 had the eyes of the world on it and Apple AAPL +0.73% seemed so confident the company immediately moved onto testing iOS 11.4, which is not due for release for several months. Instead, a litany of bugs (a significant number are serious) means the urgent release of iOS 11.3.1 is now unavoidable and essential…

Tech writer Bradley Chambers perhaps summed it up best when commenting on the iOS 11.3 bug which broke Apple’s MDM (Mobile Device Management) protocol leaving participating companies and institutions unable to remotely manage and update employees’ iPhones and iPads:

“This isn’t like ‘oh Apple Music doesn’t give as good recommendations at Spotify’ complaint about Apple’s services. This is a major major bug on a release that had been beta tested for months.”

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I have tried to track all the problems users are reporting online, in Apple’s official Support Communities forum and to me directly but there are simply too many. They range from significantly impacted battery life (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15), inconsistent battery health reporting, graphics glitches (1 2 3 4 5), problems with Apple Music (1 2 3 4), false notifications (1 2 3 4), a return to the Bluetooth connectivity problems seemingly overcome since iOS 9 (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10) and even a bizarre ‘disappearing keyboard’ on both iPhones and iPads.

But again this is just the tip of the iceberg.

PiunikaWeb has been continuously tracking problems within iOS 11.3 and it includes broken home buttons (even repair shops are warning not to update), home screen app editing starting randomly, missing special characters, third party apps unable to update, broken gestures, broken home screen layouts (1 2 3 4 5), DTS audio bugs, continually disconnecting AirPods (1 2 3 4 5), missing language dictionaries, audio lost from screen recordings and much more.

As such I’d be surprised if we don’t see Apple rush out a dedicated iOS 11.3.1 bug fix release by Monday – if not sooner.

All of which is a shame. Apple has some seriously exciting iPhone updates planned and it would be to everyone’s benefit if the focus could move onto this new hardware, rather than the seemingly endless problems of iOS 11.

Then again perhaps I’m setting the bar too high. At this point maybe we should simply hope iOS 11.3.1 doesn’t introduce more bugs than it fixes…