How Many Of These iOS 8.3 Problems Have You Faced?

Although iOS 8.3 is by far the best iteration of Apple’s iOS 8 platform to date, it has its fair share of bugs and performance issues. We will, in what follows, take stock of some commonly reported problems with iOS 8.3.In mid-April, the adoption rate of iOS 8 touched 78%. The release of the iOS 8.3 update, which is significantly more stable than its predecessors, on April 9, had a lot to do with that. iOS experts and app developers are expecting the public release of iOS 8.4 (which is expected to be the final upgrade before iOS 9) to take place in late-June, maybe a couple of weeks after WWDC 2015. Meanwhile, a series of bugs and issues on iOS 8.3 have been reported – indicating that the upgrade isn’t as foolproof as it was initially envisaged to be. We will here do a roundup of some of these snags that iOS device-users have faced after upgrading to iOS 8.3:

1. Inability to upgrade to iOS 8.3 – This is – let’s give where credit is due – not a widespread problem. However, there have been a not-so-insignificant number of cases where owners of iPhone 4S and fifth-generation iPod Touch have simply not been able to move on to the iOS 8.3 platform. They have been forced to stay with iOS 8.2 – which, as any mobile software or iPhone app developer would confirm, is, at best, a shaky update.
2. Issues with Bluetooth connectivity – It’s just strange how Bluetooth problems are one of the several issues that the biggest mobile platforms like iOS and Android tend to have. On iOS 8.3-powered devices, connection drops have been reported by users while using accessories, like headsets, earphones and car stereos (connected to the iPhone). Switching off Bluetooth and turning it on again is not of much help, and neither is the option of resetting the network settings (Settings → General → Reset → Reset Network Settings). iOS app development and troubleshooting experts recommend doing a hard reboot, before trying to establish the Bluetooth connection again. Making the problematic device ‘forget’ the previously connected devices (Settings → Bluetooth app → Forget This Device → Forget Device) also serves as a temporary solution. Let’s just hope iOS 8.4 comes with a patch for this irritating problem.
3. Problems in using keyboards – One of the best things about iOS 8 is, users can finally download and install third-party keyboard apps on their iDevices. However, not everyone’s experience with using keyboards have been pleasant, after upgrading to the iOS 8.3 platform. Word suggestions often get turned off on their own, and there have been reports of the popup key (at times, the entire screen) getting frozen – after a key is tapped/pressed. In certain cases, the keyboard bug has blocked off multiple keys of iOS keyboards from view. Turning off the Settings → Accessibility → Zoom is an option to avoid this problem – but once again, it’s not a permanent fix.
4. Photo storage bug – Along with the Touch ID problem (we will come to that in a bit), the problems in the camera roll are probably the most-documented among iOS 8.3 issues. Most users who do not store images on iCloud have found problems in accessing/using the photo albums on their handsets. Engineers from Apple Inc. are reportedly working for a reliable fix to this problem – which would be a part of the iOS 8.4 update. Till then though, all that people can do is create separate albums, and import pictures from the camera roll to them manually (as and when new pictures are taken). Not at all a convenient way of working.
5. Surprisingly high battery drain – Say hello to yet another common smartphone problem. After installing the iOS 8.3 upgrade, many people have found that the battery performance of their phones (which was nothing great to begin with) has become significantly worse. According to complaints posted in iOS app development forums online, users of iPhone 5S have been affected the most by this ‘battery bug’. Now, excessive battery drain can be caused by certain iPhone applications – but in this case, the problem lies with the OS itself. Interestingly, Mac OS 10.10.3 also has been reported to have battery performance issues.
6. iCloud Storage displaying wrong information – If you are surprised by the clearly erroneous storage space information on iCloud Storage on your brand new iPhone 6 – you won’t be the only one bitten by this problem. In fact, many general users as well as professional iOS app developers had detected, and reported about, the iCloud Storage incorrect data issue within a week or so after the release of iOS 8.3. There is, as yet, no quick fixes to remove this problem – unless, of course, you are willing to downgrade to iOS 8.2. Waiting for the next iteration of the iOS 8 platform would be a smarter option.
7. Problems in using tablet apps after upgrading – This is a problem has affected users of iPad Air in particular. Applications that were working fine on iOS 8.2 (and earlier versions of the OS) have started to randomly crash, freeze or become inexplicably slow – after the upgrade. Representatives from leading iPad app development companies have confirmed that this is not being caused due to app-specific malware, and is a glitch with the OS itself. It has been found that getting the affected iPads to ‘Recovery Mode’, and doing a full restore, solves the problem somewhat. Even so, a fix for this should feature in iOS 8.4.
8. Touch ID in App Store – Arguably the biggest performance bug in iOS 8.3 is the unresponsive (at least for most users) Touch ID in the App Store. Contrary to what was initially reported in online iOS forums and communities, the problem does not get rectified on its own. Neither is the glitch in the Touch ID limited to particular geographical areas or specific devices (apart from iPhone 6/6 Plus owners, users of iPhone 5S and even iPad Air 2 have reported this problem). Setting the ‘Touch ID & Passcode’ option to ‘off’ (under ‘Settings’), rebooting the device, and activating ‘Touch ID & Passcode’ again has solved the issue for some users (remember to toggle both App Store and iTunes to ‘On’ as well). However, until the fingerprint sensor on new iOS devices work uniformly efficiently, users will be apprehensive about using mobile payments apps in particular, and the overall security of their iDevices in general.
9. iMessages can start malfunctioning – To be fair, iMessages on iOS 8 was never perfect to start with. It’s rather surprising though that even in the third major upgrade, the developers have not been able to remove the problems. Right from non-functional Group Messages and inability to activate Facetime, to non-receipt of messages from particular sender(s)/device(s) and blurring out of the phone numbers – a wide range of iMessage issues are still reported by the adopters of the iOS 8.3 update. In certain cases, sending/receiving image files via iMessages is a problem as well. With Apple focusing on greater stability and enhanced performance in the upcoming iOS 9 platform, developers feel that the Messages app will finally become trouble-free. Till then though, users will have to live with its unreliability.
10. Frequent wifi connection drops – It’s not entirely surprising that an incremental update like iOS 8.3 has some problems with the wifi connectivity feature on devices. For a section of users though, the frequency of connection drops and breaks, and generally weak connectivity (even when the signal strength is strong enough) has been abnormally high. One way to tackle this problem (at least temporarily) is by doing a hard reboot of the affected iPhone. Some users have also reset the network settings, and found that the wifi connectivity has improved significantly on their handsets.
11. Random crashes of the mail app – This one is plain weird. On upgraded iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus, the built-in mail application has been found to crash rather frequently. There has also been reports of significant delays in the receipt of incoming mails. After moving on to iOS 8.3, some users have seen that the mail app on their iPhones force quitting on their own as well. iOS software and app developers feel that, in a major upgrade, presence of a problem like this is extremely surprising.
12. Password Settings getting lost – One of the most promising new features of iOS 8.3 has also turned out to be rather problematic. The upgrade is supposed to allow users to download any free iPhone application from the App Store, and not bother about using the Touch ID for that. However, there have been instances of the password settings getting reset automatically. As a result, people are being used to re-enter their passwords repeatedly, for each download. Deactivating the ‘Require Password’ option (in ‘Password Settings’ under the Apple ID) does not solve the problem. Once again, a patch for this expected from the next upgrade.

In addition to the above, complaints have come in about sudden crashes in the Photos app (particularly after deleting photo(s)), after upgrading to iOS 8.3. Some users have experienced problems with the rear camera of their iPhones. There have been scattered reports about AirPlay and CarPlay performance issues after doing the upgrade.

Although the list of iOS 8.3 problems seems pretty big, one thing has to be noted here. Barring the Touch ID bug, none of the other issues are universal – and there have been plenty of iPhone 6 users who are relatively satisfied with the upgrade (it’s a different story among iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S users though). Apple Inc. is aware of these issues, and would, hopefully, resolve most of them in the soon-to-release iOS 8.4 update.

How many of these problems have you faced?