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Apple iOS 11.3 Has Skipping Audio Problems

This article is more than 5 years old.

Just when I thought Apple iOS 11.3 had scraped rock bottom, it goes lower. Despite being arguably the most important iOS release in years, it is filled with bugs (lots of them). And now another problem has been revealed… 

Apple

Picked up by the ever fastidious PiunikaWeb, larger numbers of iPhone and iPad owners are reporting that iOS 11.3 has started to distort and skip audio during music playback, podcasts, phone and FaceTime calls. Something I have been able to verify as well.

The complaints can be seen across social media (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 - there are hundreds to @AppleSupport) and have sparked angry discussions on Apple’s own Support Communities’ forum (1,2,3,4,5,6).

Read more - Why Apple iOS 11.3 Is So Important

Here is a good example of what users are experiencing:

“Ever since updating to 11.3, my iphone 7 has been having the same audio issues. after about 30 seconds, the audio cuts off, then comes back totally garbled. this has happened with music and podcasts, and it just happened while i was on the phone. 30 seconds into my call, the audio cut[s] off, then came back slow and stuttering, eventually resolving itself. never had an issue before this update.” - source

Needless to say, others are less calm in their responses:

“@AppleSupport wtf is up with your lasted #ios update? My music is useless to me with all the skipping! #nomoreimprovementsplease #getitfixed” - source

“yes - i just updated to ios 11.3 and now can hardly play any music without skipping, pausing, jittering, etc. what has happened??? never had these problems before the os update!! this is a disaster, because music is one of the primary reasons i use the iphone” - source

“i am having the exact same issue. it’s happening on a lot of my music, has never happened before, and started only minutes after the upgrade. Help!!!!” - source

“@AppleSupport what the hell is going on with this update? My music keeps skipping like is a damn record?!” - source

“@AppleSupport why is music playback skipping, chattering, pausing on my iPhone 7+ since updating to 11.3 this morning????” - source

“Updated my iPhone last night and now all my songs in iTunes and my podcasts are skipping. Thanks @AppleSupport” - source

“@AppleSupport really cool that the new iOS update brings back the random cd skipping I grew up with!” - source

“.@AppleSupport can you please explain WHY my music keeps continually stopping & starting, speeding up & skipping songs, and why Siri will randomly come on. HOW do I stop this it’s absolutely ridiculous?! I have the iPhone 7 - all software up to date and is less than a year old!...It’s also started randomly hanging up during calls. Completely unacceptable. I’m paying nearly £60 a month for this phone!...Seriously my phone is utterly unusable at the moment. Siri constantly coming on and music constantly stopping starting and skipping. It’s an absolute joke. Your new iOS software is completely f***ing up. HOW DO I STOP THIS?!” - source

Interestingly, amongst all the fury it a pattern.

This fault is hitting iPhone 6, iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 models (along with their Plus counterparts), but it is not impacting the latest generation iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. I couldn’t find a single example.

Needless to say, with all the accusations of Apple’s ‘planned obsolescence’ circling at present, this is not good timing for a serious problem which only impacts older iPhones. Especially with another iOS 11.3 ‘accident’ breaking iPhones whose screens were repaired by third parties.

I argued this last week and I will argue it again: it is crucial Apple releases a dedicated iOS 11.3.1 bug fix ASAP. The long wait for iOS 11.4 (only now entering beta testing) will not wait.

Afterall, Apple expects users to pay extra for its upcoming new iPhones, it needs to prove it cares about them once they are no longer the latest model...

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