(Image: Jason Parker/CNET)
It seems that no matter how many people participate in Apple’s beta program, the rollout of a new release seems to bring with it endless woes for some users.
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Last week saw Apple release iOS 11.0.1 in order to patch up a nasty email issue that was plaguing users who had made the leap to iOS 11, but things are far from smooth sailing.
While iOS 11.0.1 did indeed fix the email issue, it did nothing for the myriad of issues that users have been complaining about on Twitter, Apple’s official support forums, and Reddit. Widespread reports highlight problems ranging from poor battery life — surprise, surprise — to crashes, lock-ups, poor Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and frame drops.
But it seems that iOS 11.0.1 has added to these issues, with users complaining that this release is even more unstable, with some claiming that constant crashes and lockups have essentially made their devices unusable.
A Reddit user metricrules cataloged some of the problems encountered:
“iOS11 issues so far, it has almost bricked my phone: Spotify stops being shown on the lock screen, reboot fixes then occurs again after a few hours. Alarm is silent when phone is in silent mode, no fix yet. Volume control doesn’t work when locked or display, reboot sometimes fixes. Remove aux cable and no sound via phone until app is ended. Multiple apps don’t open properly, freeze on launch screen for 20 seconds or more, seems to work again after phone sorts itself out. I think that’s all the big ones, anyone else had these issues? Edit: iPhone 6s Edit 2: can’t use it as a phone. Stays on speaker phone no matter what and I can’t hear or talk to anyone… Edit 3: buttons on official apple headphones don’t work most of the time Edit 4: can’t use official headphones as a workaround to talk on the phone (have not tried facetime yet) Edit 5: phone is now freezing and rebooting itself after updating to 11.0.1 Edit 6: can now use the phone as a phone when it doesn’t freeze and reboot itself”
Another user complains of poor stability:
“anybodys phone start freezing 10+ times a day and then restarting? Since IOS 11 my phone has been freezing a lot and with IOS 11.0.1 it’s doing it even more… so frustrating”
Another repeating a common Wi-Fi issue:
“Anyone having problems with wifi connection? I am using an iPhone 6 and wifi would only connect if I am centimeters near the router… and working poorly. Tried in 2 different networks and the same thing. Erased iPhone twice and the problem remains.”
And the complaints go on and on and on.
But help is on the way. Apple has already pushed out a beta of iOS 11.1 to testers, and initial reports suggest that this update goes some way to fixing at least some of these issues.
My advice, as always, is that if you rely on your iPhone or iPad and don’t want to be inconvenienced by problems, hold off upgrading for a few weeks until Apple gets a few updates out and things calm down.