Surprisingly, it seems that for the first time in history, Apple has not only the most boring iPhone update, but also the most buggy one. Previously, there were usually some 1-2 glitches. Often these were manufacturing defects. You can remember the badly dried glue, the location of the antennas, when Steve Jobs advised just holding the smartphone differently, too thin case, when the iPhone bent easily, and the iPads were crooked out of the box, some smartphones had scratched screens right away, the iPhone 13 Pro was missing optimization in games, which led to an increased discharge, etc. All these cases are united by the fact that it was a problem of specific generations or even production batches.
In the same year, complaints about the new iPhones resemble the monsoon season in Southeast Asia, that is, they pour from morning to evening in a continuous stream. There is a separate topic on Twitter where people whine. Collected the most amusing or massive problems.
If we talk about the most massive problems, then there are two of them.
Firstly, these are permanent friezes of various calibers. Everything can freeze – from individual applications to desktops, keyboards and the lock screen. Reboots usually help here.
The second massive problem is battery life. With iOS 16, users of all iPhone generations began to complain about accelerated battery drain. And the iPhone 11, and 12, and 13, and 14 began to quickly discharge and actively warm up.
On Twitter, users complain that if before the battery was enough for the whole day, now they have to charge the smartphone in the middle of the day one, or even several times.
Others complain that the smartphone can be discharged from 100% to 30% overnight, although the night mode was turned on.
Another user attached a screenshot of how his smartphone was discharged to 70% overnight. It is interesting here that at the same time the iPhone was connected to charging, but was not charging, as it warmed up to such an extent that the system forcibly turned off charging.
Frankly, as a Samsung user, I do not understand complaints about this at all and I think that this is not a bug, but a way of working. I believe that Apple should follow the path of Samsung and publish a comment on the official website that a hot smartphone is normal, and the battery is a consumable item, so it should be discharged.
I found a couple of users who complained that the iPhone stopped charging after switching to iOS 16. You have to restart the smartphone several times in order for the charge to go.
This is probably an isolated case, but one user complained that he simply could not set up a new iPhone. The screen did not respond, reboots did not help, I had to go to the Apple Store to change it. It’s good that the Apple Store is close at hand, isn’t it? However, there is a more general problem. Users cannot transfer their data from an old smartphone. Apple acknowledged that there is such a flaw, and they promise to fix it. In the meantime, users spend 8-10 hours waiting for their data to be copied to a new smartphone.
Apparently, the transition to a new user interface, which includes the so-called Dynamic Island, is not an easy task. There are a lot of problems for users here. But, frankly, I can’t turn my tongue at Apple. Dynamic Island is literally translated as “dynamic island”. Dynamics is movement, so it is not even clear why users are outraged that the island jumps around the screen, changes size, does not close and does not open. In my opinion, one would have to be indignant if the “island” did nothing of the kind and was static.
But the island is stuck on the music player.
And one more example of island dynamics. Because a small island is boring!
For some, the island freezes after Face ID works. However, this is still normal. For others, Face ID simply stops working, and the smartphone does not allow you to enter a password to enter manually.
Some users have glitches with something as basic as a calling app. It freezes and does not allow you to dial a number. This, perhaps, is what can be called epic fail. Another bug: the iPhone randomly displays recent calls, even showing numbers and contacts that the user has not called. Also, some users complain that they began to miss calls. That is, the smartphone is silent, and then at some point reports that the user missed many calls at once.
Speaking about calls, we can add that FaceTime and iMessage stopped working for many. That is, calls do not go through, and messages are not delivered.
Quite often there is a problem of disappearing widgets. Found more than one complaint about this topic.
Another basic problem: the iPhone has forgotten how to flip pictures depending on the position in space.
More about the interface: layering elements. Regular reboot helps. If it happened 5 years ago, he would say: “Welcome to the world of Android!”
Another iPhone user regularly changes the font color on the home screen from white to black. Apparently the iPhone can’t decide which color reads best.
And here is another basic bug that is well known to Android users. The keyboard comes out on the wrong side and runs away from the user. There are also many bugs when the keyboard does not appear at all or does not want to switch the input language.
A very funny bug happened to one of the users in the maps. For some reason, the Apple Maps on his iPhone regularly plot routes where there is no road. Here Apple Maps somehow reminds me of Yandex maps. These, too, recently led me along such a route that I thought I would sit on my belly and have to call a tow truck.
However, this is nonsense. For another user, the iPhone is generally lost in space and on the maps indicates not the current location, but some point 200-300 kilometers away. The Apple Store did not help, so apparently they will replace this iPhone 14 Pro Max. Although, perhaps it’s not Apple’s fault, but the machinations of the Chinese.
Funny bug – or maybe it’s a feature? When switching to Reachability mode, the smartphone is simply blocked. I think it’s a feature. The smartphone understands that it is now inconvenient for the user to work with two hands, which means that it is not safe around. Perhaps the user is driving or in a crowd where it is easy to drop the smartphone. Therefore, it is blocked.
Affected the problems and Siri. The assistant stopped finding installed applications. Reboots help. Siri can also look for something in the settings for a very long time. This problem is also well known to Samsung users. If you have a Samsung, then try opening “Settings” and write some item. For example, brightness. The smartphone will take a few seconds to find it.
And here, for comparison, how it works on Xiaomi. I managed to enter only the first two letters, and the smartphone found everything.
With iOS 16, not all apps work correctly yet. So, for example, in Snapchat, users are faced with camera shake and crackling.
Another fairly common camera problem is that the iPhone can’t decide which lens to shoot with. People complain that the photos come out of disgusting quality.
A number of non-US users have complained that their iPhone with two physical SIM cards is buggy – the smartphone gets confused which SIM card to use, resets settings, ignores the user’s choice when making calls, randomly decides on its own which SIM card to call from.
Of course, these are only the most noticeable problems. Users along the way encounter various glitches in the shell: the iPhone does not work as a remote control for Apple TV, applications often freeze or reset.
I also came across massive complaints that Apple Pay stopped working for residents of a certain country and users are forced to put bank cards under the case.
Also, recently there has been a growing number of complaints that even through Beeline, the Apple account can no longer be replenished and iCloud remains unpaid. Because of this, it is also impossible to pay for applications and subscriptions.
Another complaint, also typical for Russia, is the absence of a number of banking applications and the VKontakte social network in the App Store. Weird glitch. From time to time, applications appear, but then quickly disappear from the store. But this is probably not a bug, but a feature, since Apple claims that it is doing everything right.
Finally, there is one more problem characteristic of Russia (but what is wrong with this country?!). On all iPhone 14, VoLTE and VoWiFi do not work for Beeline and MTS operators. As Beeline support answered, VoWiFi requires not only technology from the operator, but also support from the device manufacturer, and Apple closed access. On the 13th generation, it seems, while it works. Also, MTS users complain that FaceTime and iMessage do not work for them.
Conclusion
There are surprisingly many problems. They are chaotic and varied as never before. It seems that Apple messed up everything. In fairness, we must admit that the company is actively working. And it is already rolling out iOS 16.0.3, promising along the way that by 16.1 everything will be perfect.
In this situation, the most interesting thing is – what went wrong? Let’s be honest, the upgrade from iPhone 13 to iPhone 14 is a minor one overall. And in iOS 16, there is also nothing radically new. Here Apple follows the path of Android (or vice versa?) and offers various options for customizing the interface, in other words, it leads to a marathon.
That is, we have, in fact, old iPhones, no global innovations in the new version of iOS, and there are so many jambs that, in my opinion, even Windows 11 programmers could envy.
From the latest news, we can recall that in August, Apple fired about a hundred recruiters who were sitting idle and working with the company on a contract basis (that is, in fact, they did not fire, but simply did not renew their contracts). It can be assumed that such recruiters were responsible for hiring low-profile positions such as an army of testers. And these are the consequences of such a decision.
The only thing that pleases is that it seems that all the problems with the new iPhones lie exclusively in the software plane. So, sooner or later they will be cured. And you can be glad that there are no problems either in the hardware or in the production part: all the screens are well glued, the screens seem to be no longer scratched right out of the box, and the connection reception works confidently, no matter how you grab a smartphone.
And if the situation with the iPhone in the world improves, then for Russia the iPhone, apparently, is completely dead.
Judge for yourself: there is no Apple Pay, problems with account replenishment, the absence of a number of important applications (there are no many banking applications, and VK is the main social network in Russia, which everyone needs from time to time), VoWiFi and VoLTE do not work in new devices, and FaceTime and iMessage no longer work for some users on the new iPhones.
Unfortunately, the iPhone turns into a very expensive calculator and a good camera. So iPhone users can be advised to get themselves an Android smartphone as well.