The good news about the new
For a significant number of users, iOS 12.1.1 is killing their cellular data and the only way to go online is via WiFi. I alerted users to sporadic reporting of this in my iOS 12.1.1 Upgrade Guide (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9), but as more users upgrade the problem appears to be spreading.
Not only am I seeing more reports online, I’m also being contacted directly by users who have read my upgrade guide and wanted me to know the bug affects them too. Interestingly, the experience varies with reports in several countries and the impact can range from partial functionality with mobile data working in the browser but not in apps to total 4G data failure. For example:
“@GordonKelly Sad to report this but the broken 4G experience is all over my phone. 90% of websites on work on mobile 4G data. Apps like Twitter, Amazon and so many others aren't working but all Google related apps are running smoothly and so is WhatsApp! I'm clueless now.” - source
“@GordonKelly @AppleSupport Same problem for me! 4G on Jio is severely affected. Unable to use even an essential app like Uber.” - source
“@AppleSupport Hi, no 4G in any of my devices (iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone XS Max, iPad Pro 12.9 2017) since I updated to iOS 12.1.1 last night!” - source
“My recent ios 12.1.1 update has left my phone with mobile data problems. Basically I am not able to use mobile data on most of my applications. Kindly harken my complaint @Apple” - source
“Unable to use internet after updating my iPhone to latest iOS 12.1.1.” - source
“@AppleSupport After updating to iOS 12.1.1, my iPhone is not loading twitter messages via Mobile Data; I tried to reinstall Twitter. Still the problem persists. In fact I am Sending this tweet via Wi-Fi. Need your help.” - source
What is the scale of this? With over one billion iPhones in active use, it is impossible to tell but it is clearly having a sizeable impact on a number of users. Furthermore, while I’ve seen @AppleSupport repeatedly recommend affected users to update their carrier settings this isn’t bringing much relief:
"@AppleSupport Updating the carrier settings, hard reboot etc don’t solve the problem with use of mobile data after iOS 12.1.1 update!” - source
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect to this bug, however, is that iOS 12.1.1 beta testers had reported the problem already but clearly it still made it through to the official release.
Consequently, I would advise anyone who has yet to upgrade to iOS 12.1.1 to do so cautiously. With any minority problem, the odds are on your side that you will escape unharmed but those who are affected are hit with one of the worst problems a smartphone owner can have.
This is a shame as iOS 12.1.1 is otherwise one of the most stable updates from Apple in some time and it contains some significant new features. So it all depends if you want to roll the dice…
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